City Holden is on track to relocate its flagship showroom to Mile End next year

It’s the Holden dealer that sells more cars than any other in the country — and it’s on the move to a new state-of-the-art Adelaide showroom.

City Holden chairman Chris Newton and dealer principal Julian Newton at the company’s CBD dealership. AAP Image/Dean Martin

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City Holden has been named the highest volume dealership in the country for the second consecutive year ahead of its relocation to a new state-of-the-art showroom next year.

Led by the Newton family, the company sold 1198 new Holdens across its network of Adelaide showrooms last year, backed by strong demand for SUV and crew cab models.

Next year, the company will relocate its flagship showroom from the city’s east end to a newly developed “glass box” at the former Ingham’s feed mill site at Mile End.

The move forms part of a restructure of City Holden’s network, including a consolidation of its sales division into two showroom sites at Mile End and Hillcrest, and conversion of its Nailsworth and Rose Park sites into service only operations.

Following the relocation of its main service centre to Mile End in October, construction of the company’s new $6.5 million showroom and head office on Railway Tce is expected to commence in July, ahead of an opening by May next year.

“We think the western side of the city, particularly that area, is expanding quite nicely into “car alley” - you’ve got Zooper down there now selling used cars, you’ve got Solitaire over the road from Ingham’s,” dealer principal Julian Newton said.

“The main reason we were hell-bent on buying that site was its location right next to the homemaker centre and Bunnings.

“There is a trend for dealerships to be moving to where the public spends their time - to take their product to the public rather than just set up in stand-alone premises.”

City Holden’s restructure follows last year’s $35.6 million sale to the Di Fava family of close to a hectare of land in Adelaide’s east end, where the company has operated for 40 years.

Mr Newton said the new Mile End “experience centre” represented an industry trend away from “behemoth showrooms” towards boutique facilities focused on technology.

“There’ll be screens and interactivity, iPads, screens - essentially having a representative range on the floor but being able to showcase the whole lot through technology - Holden call it “dealership of the future”,” he said.

“I’m really excited by what we’re doing down there - it’s such a great move into the future and it’s the next stage of City Holden and the Newton family.”

Mr Newton said City Holden continued to generate close to $100 million in annual sales despite the end of local manufacturing in 2017.

“We deal with the State Government, a lot of ex-GM employees - they’re still very local to the brand and loyal to City Holden,” he said.

“The passenger segment has certainly been decreasing but SUV has taken off and crew cabs is the trend at the moment - our Colorado is now our biggest selling vehicle in the range and that’s between fleet, government and retail.

“We’ve got new Chevy vehicles, which is the new Camaro and the new Silverado - we’re starting to see quite a trend emerging there as well - it's kind of going opposite to the electric scene but Aussies still like their big cars, they still like their trucks and V8s.”

Mr Newton said GM was making significant investments in electric and autonomous vehicles in the US, and expects the company's technology to arrive in Australia in the coming years.

City Holden’s annual four-day sale continues this weekend.