Goodbye... Holden :(

[vc commodore]

Email I received from Holden,

Dear Trevor,

By now, you may have heard the news that General Motors will be retiring the Holden brand in Australia and New Zealand. This announcement will be felt deeply by the entire Holden family, our customers and our fans.

While we understand the impact that this decision may have on you, we want to provide assurance that Holden will continue to support customers in the following ways:

· Honour all existing warranties and guarantees

· Honour all free scheduled servicing offers

· Ongoing call centre support

· Provide servicing and spare parts for at least 10 years, through national aftersales networks in Australia and New Zealand

· Recalls or safety-related issues if they arise

We have a long transition in front of us and we are focused on supporting our customers and our Dealers through this change. The doors do not close tomorrow. In fact, your local Dealership remains in operation and any existing bookings and agreements remain in place.

We are commencing work with our Dealer partners on timing to cease sales of new vehicles, as well as transitioning dealerships to authorised service outlets. Any future changes to our Dealer network that have a direct impact on you, will be communicated at that time.

This decision has not been taken lightly, especially considering the iconic status of the Holden brand. Holden will always have a special place in the development of our countries. As Australia and New Zealand grew, Holden was a part of the engine room fuelling that development.

This announcement will be felt deeply by the many people who love Holden, drive a Holden and feel connected to our company which has been with us for 160 years.

Kristian Aquilina

Interim Chairman and Managing Director
GM Holden

Good attempt at propping yourself up Trevor....This is the exact ad placed in the Advertiser today, minus the Dear Trevor part.

 

[losh1971]

The cars that were made here in Australia only ever had the 1584cc engine fitted. In Japan they made an 1800 but that never made it to Australia as a new production option. They only came in as a component via companies like Rising Sun Imports when they were breaking down vehicles in Japan with their tight registration timelines that they had and sent container loads to Australia. These came here as Low Km engines to be fitted as replacements here.

I had one of those 1800's which I fitted into a TD and really it wasn't all that more powerful and no where near as good as a 2 Litre Rally Pack Escort that just ran rings around a Gemmi.

It must have been an Isuzu imported engine. It was also twin cam IIRC. It would have been a fair bit better than the stocker. But yeah would be no comparison to the 2L Ford engine. I had one of those in a Capri with extractors and 45mm Webber. That went like a bastard. The Capri went better than the old 308s that were getting around at the time. Let the clutch out, nail it and watch the tyres light up. It was rough as guts though and local copper defected me, with a list that long it was never going to pass Regency.

 

[vc commodore]

Personally, I'm losing patience with all the comments blaming wages, sales and cost of development. Yes those are factors, but they could have easily not been with some better business decisions by GM.

Wages for the factory workers were not excessive and would not have been an issue anyway if GM had followed through on a legitimate export strategy for the zeta platform instead of sabotaging Holden's every effort. Why did they even spend 1b developing a sedan at that point anyway when it was clear that the market was shifting to SUVs? In hindsight it would have been wiser to continue with the modified-opel-sedan way of doing things.

With the end of the VF, of course sales sucked big time as GM didn't have any competitive (new) RHD models and hadn't seriously developed anything since the GFC. The left-right hand drive cost argument is also exaggerated. If the car is designed properly then LHD or RHD build at the factory is a non issue. Even Holden was able to do that with our VEs and VFs. I honestly thought GM would wake up to themselves and ensure the next gen Camaro and Corvettes could leave the factory in either L or R configuration. Doing post factory conversions is too costly and made no sense what so ever. Extremely sceptical that 'GMSV' will ever happen in a meaningful way.

GM stabbed Holden and Australia in the back. Scum. I'll never forgive them for these last 10 years.

So your claiming wages are part and parcel to operating a business and would have had nothing to do with the closure.....Well, I'll put this to you....Back in 1996/7, standing with a spot welder inhand, doing 6 or 7 spot welds per car, over 250 cars and earning $900 back then is acceptable, you're dreaming....

I was going to sleep after 2 days doing that job....That's how boring it was and a waste of company money

 

[vc commodore]

To the lazy ones yes, but not everyone, but if you cut them off then crime will rise yours and my stuff we be targeted for quick cash and if they are caught and charged then serve 1 year in jail then its costing the tax payer not 13k a year but 105k plus a year, so no logic in taken their welfare benefits. I for one don't want to be tripping over homeless people on the street or been threaten by a thug for money.
Every worker will say go and get a job, but until your in the vote then your not seeing the big picture on average for every one job comes available they get 150+ applications and how they handle it is by taken the first 10 and the rest goes in the bin.

Getting a job isn't hard, so don't go on with that line....At least once a month, I have a place offering me a job....The secret is, building up the network of people that know you and your work ethic.

Cut off the benefits, increasing crime.....Debatable....Some areass have a larger crime rate than others....Those areas seem to be the high unemployment areas.....Where they are receiving benefits

 

[vc commodore]

The Australian Government taking a US Giant to court and winning ?...................I'd like to see that.

Yeah, the Australian gov't would win.....The money isn't coming out of their pockets

 

[vs-lover]

Yeah, the Australian gov't would win.....The money isn't coming out of their pockets

I'm sure GM would be able to have far better lawyers shooting barbs from over the other side of the pond. And honestly what would GM have to lose......getting kicked out of Australia ? Hey they're already leaving anyway so who really cares.

Big corporations seem to have their strange way with Governments, especially toothless ones like ours when it comes to chasing money. Ask Google, Facebook and Apple etc.

Good attempt at propping yourself up Trevor....This is the exact ad placed in the Advertiser today, minus the Dear Trevor part.

And there it is...................................................................again ! ...... Dr. Google hard at work.

 

[losh1971]

I'm sure GM would be able to have far better lawyers shooting barbs from over the other side of the pond. And honestly what would GM have to lose......getting kicked out of Australia ? Hey they're already leaving anyway so who really cares.

Exactly if the Gov did drag GM through the courts and won, it would still cost the tax payer millions with no return. GM would just say "meh, come chase for the millions"..... Oh that's right they can't all the money is offshore...

 

[villn808]

It really pisses me off the Govt Minister for Industry knows so little. Even a 5 minute fact check before the press conference would’ve served her well. Very similar to the other thread about the woman trying to sell one.

Skip to 8:50 to see what I’m on about.

 

[vc commodore]

And there it is...................................................................again ! ...... Dr. Google hard at work.

True....Probably didn't expect someone to actually read a newspaper anymore and take notice of little things like this

 

[VS 5.0]

In the paper today, GM is going to discuss options with current Holden dealerships

My understanding is that those "options" involve them becoming a service outlet for warranty and, you guessed it, service work.

Good attempt at propping yourself up Trevor....This is the exact ad placed in the Advertiser today, minus the Dear Trevor part.

And there it is...................................................................again ! ...... Dr. Google hard at work.

You guys need to check your facts before belittling people.

I got the same email as, I expect, have millions of other people. In fact, I got two of them. One from Holden Aus ([email protected]) and one from Holden NZ ([email protected]). Exactly the same content in both although while the email from Holden Aus included Dear (insert my name here), the NZ email showed no such courtesy / personalisation.

Holden have spammed everyone in their address book AND placed an ad in newspapers. The header on the email from Holden Aus even said "Potential Spam" lol.

Would be nice to see you both apologise to @Trevor loves holden.