United Australian Automobile Industries (UAAI) was a firm founded in Australia in 1989 as the result of an agreement between Holden (the Australian subsidiary of General Motors) and Toyota. For Holden, it replaced the earlier Holden-Nissan joint venture that had existed since 1983.
UAAI produced three vehicles: the Holden Apollo, Holden Nova and Toyota Lexcen. Both companies held back certain marketing advantages to produce a greater level of model differentiation. Irrespective of this, many buyers could tell that the cars were merely badge-engineered versions of other cars available on the market, and sales figures generated by the disguised versions reinforced this. That is, the version of the car produced by the original manufacturer far surpassed the sales figures for the rebadged version.
By the end of 1993, the UAAI venture cars realised sales of 21 percent at best when compared to the models retailed by their original manufactures. Poor sales led to dissolution of UAAI, the break-up of which occurred in 1996. However, a large enough stockpile remained for some vehicles to remain in showrooms until 1997.
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