Holden is offering your money back if you don't like its new Epica

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Holden is offering your money back if you don't like its new Epica mid-sized car, the cheapest six-cylinder car on the market. By TOBY HAGON.



Holden is offering a radical money-back guarantee - believed to be an Australian first - on its new mid-sized car, the Epica.

During 2007, private buyers who purchase the Korean-made replacement for the Vectra will be able to hand it back within 30 days and fewer than 1500 kilometres on the odomoter if they are dissatisfied with the vehicle.

There are, of course, various terms and conditions, including ensuring the car is undamaged. Plus, you have to provide proof you have purchased (or will purchase) a new vehicle of equal or greater value than the Epica you're handing back.

But, for the most part, the money-back offer is a way of potentially "sealing the deal" against more established competitors, the most obvious of which is the Epica's prime target, the popular and well trusted Toyota Camry.

"We haven't really been in this segment for some time," says Holden executive director of sales, marketing and aftersales, Alan Batey, referring to the recent decision to discontinue the European-sourced Vectra.

"We don't believe the (mid-sized) market is going to grow, so we have to conquest buyers [from other brands].

"This offer is a unique and differentiated marketing tool to launch the new nameplate in this highly competitive mid-size segment."

Batey says other General Motors brands around the world have used a money-back offer as part of their marketing pitch.

He is expecting only a handful to be returned.

"If we use the GM experience, very few - fewer than 1 per cent - will be returned."

The Epica arrives as the most affordable six-cylinder car on the market.

Underneath, however, the Daewoo-made mid-sized car shares some basic componentry with Daewoos up to 10 years old.

That said, its starting price of $25,990 only gets you a 2.0-litre, in-line six-cylinder engine, which needs lots of encouragement to move the 1.5-tonne Epica body.

Holden is quick to point out that the engine was designed by Porsche.

Despite the apparent pedigree, using more expensive premium unleaded petrol, the underwhelming engine musters just 105kW of power.

To put that in perspective, the recently updated Holden Astra gets a new 1.8-litre engine with 103kW of power, just 2kW less than the bigger-engined, six-cylinder Epica.

But the Epica uses a miserly 8.2 litres of fuel per 100km, which will form a large part of the car's tough sales pitch.


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