Holden Colorado takes on Thai jungle

Regardless of any sales pecking order, the Colorado made pretty light work of our off-road expedition to the summit of Pha Tad Hill, and while Thailand is known for its jungles and tropical climate, way up in the clouds in this part of the world, there's another Thailand to discover.

From Loei Airport (about 125km from the Laos capital of Vientiane) the main roads taking us south are quite heavily trafficked and there doesn't seem to be a consensus speed. Some cars travel a lot slower than others, so you need to be on your toes. The bigger towns can be crowded and bustling, too, and there are plenty of tourists getting lost and in each other's way.

The main roads taking us south are quite heavily trafficked and there doesn’t seem to be a consensus speed.

The Phetchabun mountain range dominates much of this region, so the air is vastly cleaner than in Bangkok and the temperature and humidity are also much lower. In fact, it can be quite chilly up in this area, but that doesn't stop the more intrepid tourists enjoying a spot of camping; tents and sleeping gear can be hired for not much money.

The terrain we climbed to Pha Tad Hill was pretty steep and would be virtually impassable in wet weather (let alone the violent rain storms the area receives), thanks to the red, volcanic clay that forms this part of the planet. Even in the dry, the tracks are often deeply rutted and wash-aways are not uncommon. But while there were small sections of heavily treed jungle, the rest of the landscape was amazingly similar to parts of Australia, including the odd Eucalypt.

Regardless of any sales pecking order, the Colorado made pretty light work of our off-road expedition.

The organisers' decision to drive to the top of Pha Tad Hill in daylight and then drink coffee until it was dark for the drive out was a bit disconcerting. As an Aussie off-roader who travels off-road at night only when there's absolutely no other option, this was a bit confronting. The steepness of the terrain, meanwhile, also made the Colorado's standard headlights a bit of let-down, if only because they spent a huge proportion of the trip down the hill pointing into the clay, only about a metre in front of the vehicle.

This part of Thailand is largely populated by the Hmong people. Many of the villages dotted along the main road and hidden in little valleys are, indeed, homes to the Hmong; a race that was driven out of southern China in the 18th and 19th centuries in the face of a Chinese-settler-led attempt to commit genocide against them. Many Hmong clans fled to Laos, Vietnam and Thailand and remain there to this day. Yet they remain a race without a homeland and the Hmong have been listed on the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation since 2007.

The terrain we climbed to Pha Tad Hill was pretty steep and would be virtually impassable in wet weather.

These days the Hmong are mostly farming families, but they're also known to have been recruited by the CIA during the Vietnam War last century where as many as 60 per cent of Hmong men joined up to fight (or at least resist) the communist Viet Cong. Many a downed US airman was rescued by the Hmong people and lived to fight another day. And if the name sounds familiar, the family portrayed in Clint Eastwood's film Grand Torino, was Hmong.

While Holden's fall from grace among Aussie car buyers is now a matter of record, the same fate has not befallen Holden's other market, New Zealand.

That may change now, of course, with the demise of the Commodore and Astra badges, but New Zealand has weathered the storm much more successfully to this point.

According to a Holden New Zealand spokesperson, while it still trails Toyota and Ford with about 20 per cent and 10 per cent of the NZ car market respectively) Holden is holding on to its traditional third or fourth place (along with Mitsubishi) with around eight per cent of the total passenger and light-commercial market in that country.

While there were small sections of heavily treed jungle, the rest of the landscape was amazingly similar to parts of Australia, including the odd Eucalypt.

To put that into perspective, the New Zealand car market is about 150,000 cars per year and, like here, total sales are falling annually, although only by about five per cent compared with 10 per cent in Australia.

By contrast, Holden's Australian fortunes are far less rosy: From the country's best-selling brand for most of the 19050, 60, 70s and part of the 80s, Holden has now slipped out of the top-10 car brands and in September this year held just 3.2 per cent of the market, behind Honda and Subaru.

Even against a total Australian market that is about 10 per cent down on 2018, this plunge is astonishing.

If GM was to take the 2.5-litre unit and make it Euro 6-compliant, it probably wouldn’t attract many complaints.

Since the product lines in Holden's two markets are very similar and the New Zealand market has also swung around to SUVs and dual-cab utes as the main course, there's only really one explanation: The Kiwis simply aren't experiencing the cultural cringe that has put the brakes on Holden sales in Australia.

Apart from periods of local assembly by various brands, the New Zealand scene has always been a fully-Imported one, so there's simply not the resentment among buyers over the withdrawal of Holden as a local car-maker. Because, simply, it wasn't local to New Zealand anyway.

While Holden’s fall from grace among Aussie car buyers is now a matter of record, the same fate has not befallen Holden’s other market, New Zealand.

Kiwis have grown up with imported Holdens, so there's no angst over, say, the new Commodore being made in Germany. That said, Holdens such as the Colorado, Astra, and all of Holden's past SUVs (the unloved Adventra aside) have been imported to Australia anyway, so it's a bit tricky to see how this local demarcation-line of resentment is calculated.

Nevertheless, it shows what we always suspected; Australians are a parochial bunch and never is that more evident than in the cars we hold dear. The big question now is what Holden's new boss does to arrest this sales slide and save the brand now that the Commodore has gone the way of the selfie-stick.