Holden - End of the Road

[Franco Cozzo]

Good afternoon ladies, gentlemen, spaceships, unicorns and ASIO.

There is a 30 minute clip from the ABC about Holden winding up in Australia and at the end some commentary by the following 'experts':

- Some old bloke from ZZTop

- A motoring 'journalist'

- Some woman from Deloitte Access Economics who later admits she's never owned a Holden, knows nothing about cars other than you should buy the cheapest one because it loses its value the moment you drive it from the dealership then try use it as little as possible

- Some flog with a big nose who may have raced Holdens

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/holden...nd-of-the-road

Worth a watch, worth taking with a grain of salt.

Whats your opinion on why Holden failed in Australia?

[chevypower]

It won’t let me watch it, but I’ll still comment. Ford and GM’s old strategy of making different products for different global regions just doesn’t make sense anymore. Ford had the advantage of already having a global brand. GM had to find a way of shrinking about 14 brands, and it may never get there. There’s also too much product and segment diversity, so it doesn’t make sense to invest $1 Billion for one model of car for one country. If you don’t invest that kind of money into a car, you might as well not even play. If I were GM, I would make Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Hummer all global brands. Then they have to figure out what those brands represent. Reinventing Hummer as an EV off-road brand is smart. But doing all of that is much easier said than done. It cost GM about $1 Billion to close Oldsmobile, and I would expect it to cost a lot to close Holden. But rebranding Holden dealers as Chevy, Cadillac, and Hummer should have been on the table in my opinion.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by chevypower

It won’t let me watch it, but I’ll still comment. Ford and GM’s old strategy of making different products for different global regions just doesn’t make sense anymore. Ford had the advantage of already having a global brand. GM had to find a way of shrinking about 14 brands, and it may never get there. There’s also too much product and segment diversity, so it doesn’t make sense to invest $1 Billion for one model of car for one country. If you don’t invest that kind of money into a car, you might as well not even play. If I were GM, I would make Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Hummer all global brands. Then they have to figure out what those brands represent. Reinventing Hummer as an EV off-road brand is smart. But doing all of that is much easier said than done. It cost GM about $1 Billion to close Oldsmobile, and I would expect it to cost a lot to close Holden. But rebranding Holden dealers as Chevy, Cadillac, and Hummer should have been on the table in my opinion.

Keep in mind that GM just abandoned all RHD markets.

Including India - a market with 1.4B people.

[chevypower]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Keep in mind that GM just abandoned all RHD markets.

Including India - a market with 1.4B people.

Yeah I don’t really get it. Either they are blaming their mistakes on the markets, or they don’t believe they have the capital to invest on a global scale, and they have no choice but to reduce their footprint.

[lra]

That was from a couple of months ago. I watched it then because I thought I might see and hear something interesting.
About as watchable as a Greta in a bikini, and as informative.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Good afternoon ladies, gentlemen, spaceships, unicorns and ASIO.

There is a 30 minute clip from the ABC about Holden winding up in Australia and at the end some commentary by the following 'experts':

- Some old bloke from ZZTop

- A motoring 'journalist'

- Some woman from Deloitte Access Economics who later admits she's never owned a Holden, knows nothing about cars other than you should buy the cheapest one because it loses its value the moment you drive it from the dealership then try use it as little as possible

- Some flog with a big nose who may have raced Holdens

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/holden...nd-of-the-road

Worth a watch, worth taking with a grain of salt.

Whats your opinion on why Holden failed in Australia?

Interesting to watch . Some good points made , even by Skaife if that's possible . The bloke with the beard I was most interested in because they're the ones that would take the end of Holden the hardest . I used to think about betrayal by Holden and Ford to the rank and file once but as I've been educated on AFF I look at it a bit different now .
I think we were a bit of a special case by both brands that allowed us for numerous decades to have huge input into cars for Australia and that were only really found here . It tickles me nowadays though that people overseas comment on videos about our cars and how they wish they had them there .
In the U.S. the Commodore via Pontiac and Chevy have a bit of a cult via limited export over three runs . They have a loyal following and many of the owners often pay plenty of bucks to rebadge the cars with Holden ones. A little bit the same with the U.K fans via Vauxhall . Thanks for posting .

[hayseed]

Originally Posted by chevypower

they don’t believe they have the capital to invest on a global scale, and they have no choice but to reduce their footprint.

^^^This ^^^
I reckon GM are circling the Drain (Again)& will be just a minnow in the Automotive World in a Few Years Time..

[Wretched]

rubbish in rubbish out

[EBSXR6]

More crap from supposedly the most trusted news source in Australia, in 1983 Holden lost the crown.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Keep in mind that GM just abandoned all RHD markets.

Including India - a market with 1.4B people.

GM pulled out of India quite a while ago. More than 12 months ago from what I can recall. That decision was not made at the same time as Holden. But that decision, along with South Africa around the same time as India, and Europe, which was another 2 or 3 years before that, resulted in the decision to kill Holden off, due to such low RHD volume. Holdens sales being in the toilet just sped the decision up. Remember GM built RHD Acadia's and Equinox's pretty much solely for NZ and Australia, and they considered the potential sales figures to be enough to justify making them in RHD. But both those cars flopped, so GM knew they would never be able to justify making anymore cars in RHD. I have no freaking idea how they think the RHD Corvette was viable. I'd be really surprised if it isn't canned now.

[danzvtil]

I was watching cadogans report on GM vs the dealers, it seems GM wants to kick the can down the road by extending out its separation payments to dealers...... what Mary Barra isn’t saying is, I reckon they’re gonna go broke again.

[lra]

[QUOTE=danzvtil;6429582 ...... what Mary Barra isn’t saying is, I reckon they’re gonna go broke again.[/QUOTE]

I hope they do, won't be any loss to Australia now that Holden are as useful as a dead parrot.
Virgin are now the 'new GMH', another foreign owned company looking for a taxpayer bail-out before the inevitable.

[eb2fairmont]

Originally Posted by danzvtil

I was watching cadogans report on GM vs the dealers, it seems GM wants to kick the can down the road by extending out its separation payments to dealers...... what Mary Barra isn’t saying is, I reckon they’re gonna go broke again.

Yup. You'd have to be crazy to agree to those terms. GM will just walk away and their 10 year obligation on parts and service.