The culling of cars from GM’s lineup has reached its antipodean outpost. One of Holden’s longest-running nameplates, the Barina, has been quietly discontinued after 33 years, leaving Holden without a product in a segment historically popular with young car buyers.
While Holden hasn’t been immune to GM’s habit of burning through names, Barina has consistently been applied to their B-segment offering since 1985. Contrast this with Chevrolet who, in the same time, went from Chevrolet Sprint to Geo Metro, Chevrolet Metro, Chevrolet Aveo and Chevrolet Sonic. Though the Barina name has endured, however, it’s been applied to a multitude of different products from different parts of the GM Empire.
The inaugural Barina – Holden’s first B-segment model and part of the brand’s 1980s expansion into new segments – was a rebadged Suzuki Swift. The following generation, too, was a Swift with detail changes. Advertising for both generations often used the phrase “beep-beep Barina”, a term that entered the Australian lexicon. Holden then switched to the pert and perky Opel Corsa for the third-generation model, Aussie-market models sourced from Opel’s Spanish factory. The critically-acclaimed fourth-generation Barina was also based on the corresponding Opel Corsa.
Holden chose to tap their fledgling Korean operations (formerly known as Daewoo) for a raft of new products in the mid-2000s. This meant the Barina, by now a well-established and respected nameplate in Australia, was applied to the Chevrolet Aveo (née Daewoo Kalos). That allowed Holden to slash prices; the European-sourced Barina, though well-priced, had little room to move down due to the exchange rate.
Unfortunately for Holden, the Korean-sourced Holdens were criticized by the motoring press. Though the Opel-sourced models had some reliability and build quality issues of their own, they felt more premium than these former Daewoos. The new Barina’s lousy two-star ANCAP safety rating also didn’t endear it to critics. Despite this publicity and slow initial sales, the Barina eventually soared. In 2006, for example, it sold just over 13,000 units, more than double what the superior Opel-based one had been achieving at the end and the Barina’s best numbers in over a decade. That put it just behind the Toyota Yaris but right in the thick of the competition.
The sixth-generation Barina was a huge improvement over its predecessor, much as all the second generation of GM Korea products had advanced. The only engine at first was a 1.6 four-cylinder from GM’s Ecotec family, producing 114 hp and 114 ft-lbs and mated to either a five-speed manual or a six-speed auto. In 2014, a “warm hatch” RS model arrived with a turbocharged 1.4 producing 138 hp and 148 ft-lbs, though it lasted only a couple of years.
By this point, the Barina’s sales were off. In 2016, for example, Holden sold fewer than 5,000 Barinas as the segment had come to be dominated by cars like the Hyundai Accent and dated Toyota Yaris. In recent years, the Barina was also outsold by the more expensive Trax and Astra. The sixth-generation model may have been a huge improvement over its predecessor but GM left it to fend for itself in a cutthroat segment, the Barina afforded only a minor facelift in 2016. In 2018, Holden quietly dropped it from the price lists.
It’s natural to assume that, given the rise of crossovers, buyers might just gravitate to Holden’s smallest crossover, the Trax (the A-segment Spark was also axed in 2018 though it remains a hot seller in New Zealand). There’s a hefty hike to the Trax in price, however – the cheapest Barina cost $AUD14,990 while the cheapest Trax is $9k more. The Opel-sourced Astra sits between in price but, given Opel’s sale to PSA, its fate (like that of the Commodore) is up in the air. The GM Korea-sourced Astra Sedan is already gone so it’s possible Holden will become an SUV/pickup-only brand like Nissan has in Australia or like Ford soon will be in the US.
The future of entry-level motoring?
Holden’s not alone in leaving the B-segment. Ford will no longer import the Fiesta here, forcing buyers to spend more on the uninspiring EcoSport or the all-new Focus, itself pushed upmarket. Hyundai’s new Accent won’t reach Australian shores, a new sub-Kona crossover called the Venue arriving next year. Hyundai has said they’ll keep the Venue under the psychological $20k barrier – we’ve grown accustomed to small cars advertised at “$19,990 driveaway, no more to pay” – but that’s still around $5k more than the base Accent.
Chinese and Latin American small Chevys.
Clockwise from top left: Cobalt, Beat, Cavalier, Sail, Prisma, Aveo, Onix, Monza
Meanwhile, in markets such as China and Latin America, there’s a multitude of small non-crossover vehicles offered by GM. Evidently, there’s still a market for them there. But while even the best-selling B-segment models are down from ten years ago in Australia, the Barina seems to have experienced an especially precipitous decline. Was it buyers’ bad memories of inferior Korean Barinas of old? Was it the lack of updates? Or did Holden’s image problems of late taint the little hatch? Considering the near-identical Chevrolet Sonic has seen a similar decline in the US and Canadian markets, the lack of updates may be the key culprit.
While it may seem shrewd for automakers to forego B-segment offerings and chase more lucrative crossover sales, it does close the door on a group of more price-conscious and often first-time car buyers who may eventually graduate to a more expensive replacement car. Brand loyalty often starts on the ground floor. And though Holden’s B-segment model was varyingly a Suzuki, an Opel, a Daewoo and a Chevrolet, the Barina name is one familiar to Australians and many of its buyers may have been repeat customers. Now it’s gone. Bye-bye, beep-beep Barina.
Related Reading:
CC Global: Chevrolet Onix and Prisma – Unique To South America
COAL: 2017 Chevrolet Cruze Premier – Lost in a Sea of SUVs
COAL: 2006 Pontiac Wave (Chevy Aveo/Daewoo Kalos) – The Worst New Car Of A Lifetime
Australia, like Canada and the USA, is a developed country with high incomes. It does appear as the population ages, there is less room for a cheap car. Here in Canada, we have a few cheapie specials, the Nissan Micra and Chevrolet Spark come to mind. The list at $9999 CDN plust freight and PDI. I have seen like one of each example.
I am not sure about Australia, but another factor is generation. It seems the generation that grew up with easy, low interest credit is more apt to take an expensive vehicle and finance over a very long term. This must be having a large effect on low end products like the Barina.
There is still plenty of room for a cheap car in Australia, this class of car is still the 6th biggest category. Cost of living is rising faster than wages so ‘better’ B-segment cars can often take over from bigger, more expensive C-segment cars.
The Barina however has firmly dropped off the pace, it is in 9th place for the segment, selling 1/4 of the leading Hyundai Accent. It is ready for replacement and costs roughly $3k more than the price leaders Hyundai/Suzuki/Kia. More expensive Mazda/Honda/Toyota sell double to three times as many. Holden is doing poorly across the board, in about 10th place as a brand.
“Ford will no longer import the Fiesta here, forcing buyers to spend more on the uninspiring EcoBoost”
EcoSport?
Whups! Typo. Yes, I meant EcoSport. Always thought that name was dumb, also because Ford sometimes refers to it as the “echo sport”
Right. It is stupid. Officially, the crossover’s name is pronounced ECHO-sport, while the engine family is pronounced EEKO-sport.
I think Ford really just wanted another name that started with an E, but they could have done better.
At least the current EcoSport is a stopgap product. There’ve been spy shots of the next-generation model, and it looks a lot better.
“while the engine family is pronounced EEKO-sport.”
EEKO-boost?
And when no one was looking, once potential buyers learned a foreign language. Toyota. Oops!
Ford also offers the Fiesta Active, called “Our completely new crossover” on their Dutch website, picture below.
Just yesterday I saw a brand new EcoSport. It looks like Ford’s interpretation of a 45 km/h car (Aixam and the like).
Ford are only importing the Fiesta ST, although the launch has been delayed by about 6 months. The Focus Active has been delayed too. I wonder this is due to demand in Europe for the new generation cars, or something else?
The Barina that is sold here as the Chevy Sonic, an it is actually a US made product at the nearby (to me) General Motors Orion assembly plant. This is not a bad car and far better than the Sonic it replaced, but there have only been minor incremental tweaks to this car since this iteration came out in 2012. The “warm” hatch version of this is called the Sonic RS in these parts and I saw one new one up close at the car wash a few weeks back. I don’t think it has much in the way of performance upgrades except maybe a suspension alteration but I thought it was pretty cool looking.
I am sure it’s days are numbered here in the US as well as sales dwindle. The Orion assembly plant escaped closure recently . It’s going to be getting some electric vehicle production but it stands to reason the Sonic is going to go away when that happens. It does seem like it is unwise to abandon an entry-level vehicle to the brand. They’re handing over that market to the Koreans and Japanese, but the old story on these cars from people like GM and Ford is they cannot make money on them.
The Sonic has already disappeared from the GM Canada website.
Perhaps GM should keep a couple of entry-level vehicles and market them under their own brand. How about, say, GEO?
Meanwhile, in markets such as China and Latin America, there’s a multitude of small non-crossover vehicles offered by GM. Evidently, there’s still a market for them there.
GM is shopping it’s South American operations.as, in spite of decent sales, they can’t turn a profit.
Ford is closing the plant in Brazil that built the Fiesta as well as heavy trucks, and the Focus has been dropped from the plant in Argentina that also builds the Ranger. Ford was actively shopping it’s South American operation to both FCA and VW last year.
GM Korea closed the plant that built the Cruze last year. Apparently, about half of the Opel Mokkas sold in Europe come from Korea as well as the Opel Karl. Both of the GMK sourced Opels will be dropped by 2020, from what I’ve read.
There has been some discussion in the US about the lack of affordable new cars, in spite of the increasingly common 6 year financing. The attitude of the big three seems to be “let them buy used”.
I think they are making a serious mistake by abandoning the low end of the market. It seems like 2008 is a million years ago. The entire crash was caused by too much bad debt (among many other rotten reasons) and quite a bit of that was leases on cars with absurd residuals, to move metal out the door.
I see what is happening. Young people are lured by low interest financing into a more expensive vehicle than they can afford. The upshot is when all the bad debt gets washed out of the system, consumers will be looking for something cheap.
We are seeing very high fuel prices on the west coast at the moment. That is an other reason that staying in the game is so important.
Agree with your fuel price assessment; in February we were at $1.95 here in MN. Today it was $2.89 coming home from work. That’s not an insignificant % increase. People are insanely blind.
I think they are making a serious mistake by abandoning the low end of the market. It seems like 2008 is a million years ago
1958 was even longer ago. The big three models got progressively bigger and more garish, and Rambler ate their lunch.
On this go around, my sense is the big three are entirely committed to delivering what Wall St wants: ever higher transaction prices and gross margins. The easiest way to inflate average transaction prices and gross margins is to drop the cheap models. I read a couple recent articles about the Wagoneer that FCA has been teasing about for several years. Two comments quoted from Mike Manley about why he wanted to chase a $80-$100,000 price point “there isn’t much competition” (to which I grumbled “because there isn’t much demand at that price point”) and it’s a great “margin opportunity”.
I did a quick and dirty price comparison of US spec CUVs vs the compacts they were based on. The CUVs averaged about an $8,000 price premium, for what was essentially the same car, with a higher seating position. Pretty close to the $9,000 premium William noted for a Trax over the Barina, even though they are on the same Gamma platform. With the economy going full blast, people are, by my light, simply stupid with money to pay a 4 figure price premium to sit 4″ higher.
1958, 1974, 1980, 2008 – every one of these downturns was very real. But each was also a short-term blip that saw people making panic-purchases that were not repeated next time. If we get a serious recession in a year or three there will be some significant short-term hurt for any manufacturer who has little to offer at the low end. But the opposite is also true. If, for example, Chrysler had not hit a home run with minivan, would it have survived the 80s with no larger 6 and 8 cylinder vehicles which the public was lapping up in huge numbers?
…every one of these downturns was very real. But each was also a short-term blip that saw people making panic-purchases that were not repeated next time.
I looked into that meme that “no-one wanted little cars in the 80s” over the winter. Yes, Renault Alliance/Encore sales cratered and Westmoreland Rabbit sales went soft.
On the other hand, the best years for the Escort, where sales topped 400K were 85-88. Best years for the Omnirizon were 85 and 86. As soon as the Japanese import quotas came off in 85, Civic sales rose every year through the rest of the 80s.
People are still buying small cars in large numbers. They are just jacked up and called CUVs now. Buick’s best seller is the Encore. The best selling non-pickup Chevy this year is the Equinox, a jacked up wagon on the Cruze’s Delta platform. Best selling non-pickup Ford is the Escape, a jacked up Focus. The next gen Escape looks even more like a jacked up Focus.
All good data, but . . .
Small cars sold in the 80s not because they were small but because they were cheap. Escorts were giveaways for Ford in the 80s for CAFE compliance. Civics sold because everyone wanted Hondas and the Civic was the lowest cost way to do this. The used car market was a better indicator of what people wanted and what they didn’t. About 1991 my 83 Plymouth Colt got wrecked. Which I bought, btw, because it was in great condition and the price was really low. I had to thoroughly research values in fighting with the insurer. As an 8 year old non-Toyota/Honda subcompact it was worth practically zilch. I had to go to small claims court to get the insurer over $1k, which was less than I had in it. And this was a straight clean car with air, new tires and under 75k miles. In contrast I replaced it with a terribly unpopular larger car (86 Fox Marquis wagon) with over 100k on it and it cost me about $2700 (and even then I drove a bargain that was worthy of the insurance company I had been fighting.)
The masses don’t want small cars, they want low priced cars. And you mostly can’t get one without getting the other.
Small cars sold in the 80s not because they were small but because they were cheap. Escorts were giveaways for Ford in the 80s for CAFE compliance
How CAFE is calculated was changed a dozen years ago. Automakers no longer need small cars to offset the fuel consumption of the large models.
In spite of automakers no longer needing to sell small cars for compliance, people still buy them. In the “premium” Buick line, the best seller is the smallest model, the Encore. Small CUVs are priced thousands of dollars higher than their passenger car platform mates, yet people willingly pay those thousands extra to sit higher.
CUVs are so expensive their prices match sedans of the next larger size class.
The Malibu is a foot longer than an Equinox. Transaction price for a front drive Equinox LT is $400 higher than the Malibu LT. Last quarter the Equinox outsold the Malibu 88K to 34K
The Fusion is a foot longer than an Escape. Transaction price for a Fusion SEL is only $50 higher than a FWD Escape SEL. Last quarter, the Escape outsold the Fusion 60K to 41K.
I don’t understand why people pay so much for a CUV when they could buy a larger passenger car for the same money, or buy a same size passenger car for less than the CUV, but those are the numbers.
It may be a lack of affordable new cars from the Big Three but there are plenty of affordable new cars.
I got my 2018 Hyundai Elantra SE (with the 7in touch screen/bluetooth and XM package) for $16,581 out the door and with a long warranty.
Like the reviews have stated, the Elantra is well made car and is pretty popular. There is no point in buying a GM or Ford compact car when I can get this. It is also made in Alabama.
I really like the redesigned last Barina over the original. The front end is way more elegant than the ugly bugeyes and the taillights, I love them!
The opel version wasnt a bad little car, I had some wheel time in a friends one it could do the southern outlet from Hobart in top gear solo, though with more than one aboard it needed the occasional downshift, that car never gave its owner any problems and got great fuel economy, the Daewoo rebadge model that followed got rid of customers.
The Suzuki ones were not ever able to be killed by anything, but the less-long-lived Opel ones were much better structurally and in ride/handling. They actually felt quite Euro-classy in their day, even if the base models had – no kidding – 33kw (44hp) on tap. And they weren’t too far off Japanese reliability, at least up to about 200K, by when they were mostly cooked.
But they were cursed by a bloody awful gearbag, only mildly improved later on. It was a major demerit, as I mention below.
The Corsa C was praised for its handling vs comfort balance at the time and even today drives much better than the looks might give away. Still the quality isn’t the best and the gear change is very uhmmm Opel of the era. Saying this having just spent an entire day behind the wheel of mine. Good drive, just annoying to shift – and noisy.
The Daewoo ones were seriously crap, and word spread. But the final killer is time. “Holden” had become synonymous with “bogan”, manky Commodores doing donuts (or cashed-up new versions driven aggressively by the fathers of the former). The brand was selling to a fast-oldening crowd, and as the memory diminished as to the reason why a newbie buyer would get the cheapest Holden instead of the invariably superior competitor, so did demand.
As it happens, I suspect that any memory as to why anyone under about 30 would buy the (still) inferior cars now offered, the whole brand will be gone within five years. Given GM’s treatment of taxpayer dollars and the deceits involved leading up to their local closure, I won’t be weeping. The best parts of their story are very much history.
I very nearly bought a GSi model of the roundy Corsa-based one in about 2001. Took it home for a weekend, and drove it like a stolen one. A 1.6 Lotus twin cam in that tiny car was huge fun, but alas, the gearchange was so crook I realized I’d never be able to live with it in the daily grind.
Now, Holden’s prominent slogan is “This Is How WE SUV.” Economically, the right move, as, for the coup de grace to the Barina, why the hell bother trying to graft weeny profits from a cutthroat class when more can be made in classes where folk now want to spend their dough?
RIP, Barina. Sic transit adequate.
I thought the Brazilian Corsa C sedan have been sold as Holden in Australia due to the deal between GMA – GMB, with the Calais been available here as Chevrolet Omega and both Corsa C sedan and Pick-up been sold in Asia, it seems all of them had gone to Saudi Arabia and India. The Sonic was a total fail in Brazil, to keep the same “Opel feeling” of riding and quality of the former Corsa, GM do Brazil developed the hatch Onix and sedan Prisma with a better interior and without the Daewooish style. It worked, it’s the third year that the couple Onix/Prisma are the top seller.