The 2020 Holden Acadia that Australia never got

• MY20 Holden Acadia updates leaked
• Holden March sales strong
• Dealer group engages lawyers to negotiate with Holden

Details have emerged around a facelift for the Holden Acadia that never made it to market, as the Holden brand surges up the monthly sales charts for what will likely be the final time.

The MY20 Holden Acadia updates were minor in nature and were spread across the line-up. Released somewhat ironically on April 1, data supplied to WhichCar reveals that the Acadia – born of the US-made GMC Acadia in a bold attempt to re-establish Holden’s place in the Australian market – was set to score revised badging, a new rear fascia and stainless steel exhaust tips on the LT and LTZ.

A colour change was on the cards for the seven-seat Holden Acadia, too, with the Blue Steel grey deleted in favour of Satin Steel grey. The top two models, LTZ and LTZ-V, were also set to receive logo projection lamps on the powered tailgate, while the LTZ-V was set to score GMC’s novel rear-view camera mirror.

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The rear-view mirror system (below) sources a video feed from a rear-mounted camera mounted at the rear of the vehicle and projects it onto the mirror surface, eliminating headrest obstruction, rear-seat passengers and grubby windows from the field of view, as well as giving the driver a perspective that’s four times wider than a mirror can provide.

All of these extras would have come at no extra cost. WhichCar has contacted Holden to see if any MY20 Acadias made it to Australia.

Holden Acadia review

April 1 also marked the date when Holden’s sales data figures revealed a 30 per cent lift month-on-month, with the marque posting 4992 sales for the month, mainly off the back of strong performances from the Trax, with 815 sales marking 130 per cent jump for the unloved small SUV, and the Colorado 4x4 with 2186 sales marking a 40 per cent jump.

The 2019 Holden Acadia price helped it to find 352 homes in March, a lift of 161 over the previous month, while the seven-seat Trailblazer sold 304.

Commodore sales fell to just 92 cars against the previous month’s score of 423, while the Equinox only managed 39 extra sales in March over February's 400 tally. This is a strong indicator that current stocks of both cars are depleting fast.

The Astra – discontinued in the months leading up to Holden’s closure – managed 596 sales, which tells us there were some strong dealer pricing offers for both it (below) and the Trax across the Holden network. But with forward orders for April set to be non-existent in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, expect Holden’s sales to plummet once again.

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Holden dealers, meanwhile, have engaged a legal firm to speak with Holden regarding the contentious settlement packages allegedly on the table.

“Their offers have the potential to send many Holden businesses into financial ruin and do not meet on any level, a test of fair and reasonable,” reads a letter signed by Dave Reynolds, the chairman of the Australian Holden Dealer’s Council (AHDC)

The AHDC also accuses Holden of misleading the federal parliament, after Holden sent a letter to parliament to lay out its side of the negotiation process.

“Some dealers have indicated they wish to receive additional compensation and have enlisted the support of third parties such as accountants, lawyers and journalists to advance their case,” read the Holden letter in part.

“However, significant time and effort has been put into the compensation formula and we have used actual financial information provided by dealers to produce our offer. We remain of the view that it is a fair and reasonable offer.”

“We regard such assertions as a total mischaracterisation. We believe the letter was designed to convince Australia’s leaders that all appears headed to a reasonable settlement on mutually agreeable terms,” read a statement issued by the AHDC in response.

“This is regrettably not the case, and we are quite certain you can tell that this is full of falsehoods and is clearly self-serving and typical of how GM treats both the government and public.”