Holden market share in free fall.

[Zeke Topanaga]

Holden started subsidising those exported cars. If you check the price the Poms or the Yanks were paying for rebadged Aussie built cars, they were giving them away. You couldn't take your Monaro to the UK for the money they buy them. Cheap means our Government handouts and part of every $ that Aussies pay for their Holdens was helping the overseas sales.

So what if they did, that business, you win here and lose their but the point is they were hoping to look towards exports in the future to grow Holden.
Holden gave it a go, Ford did not, Toyota Australia did well.

I was looking at dirt bikes some years ago and they were made in japan, sold in the USA for $8000 say and in Australia the same thing was like $12000.

 

[VT13]

Holden set up their fate when they heavily invested into the VE platform. It was clear to anyone with a brain back then that large sedans were finished as popular sales choice, consider the total sales of VT/VX versus VE/VF, if only they had pumped that billion or so dollars into a mid-size platform with sedan/hatch and SUV bodies, might have been a different story. By electing to pursue the big sedan they had no hope from the get go.

Anyway mark this down......Holden is finished, rest assured GM will abandon the entire Australian market within a few years and Holden will be wound up forever. Feel sorry for the dealers as that's who's livelihood the GMH betrayal is really affecting. If I was a Holden dealer today my main focus would be trying to hook up a franchise with Hyundai or Kia, at least I would have a shot at getting decent sales back.

 

[zoenryan]

Just like the meat pies in Holden’s jingle. Pies can vary in quality, even if they look the same.
The original Opel was a doughy underbaked cold pie.
The VB was warm pie filled with gravy.
After the VN, they started putting mince in the gravy.
The VT had chunks of meat in a hot pie.
The VE was the gourmet, very hot pie.
Sorry, boys, the bakery is closed.

On this basis the wife's VE V6 LPG is a hot vegetarian pie, whereas my SSV G8 is curry Steak with extra chilli sauce in an American wrapper!

 

[figjam]

Holden set up their fate when they heavily invested into the VE platform.

The benefit of hindsight magnifies ‘bad’ decisions. The plans and lead-in times to production are based on what is happening at present.
The VT was a success, so in 2000, why shouldn’t the VE be the same.
Who could predict the 2018 fascination of FWD SUVs back then, which are not much more than a slightly raised hatchback of 15 years ago.
GM management of the day gave Holden a brief to develop a RWD that could be adapted to a variety of vehicles. Holden did not plan the GFC, the reaction of the American Auto Union members, or the changed attitudes of a different GM management 10 years later.
Holden didn’t can the ‘new’ Torana, VE Monaro or SUV, it was done for them by the Detroit string pullers, not Joe Hockey.
SAAB, Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer …. gorn, now Opel/Vauxhall, and winding back Korean manufacturing. GM can only see to the borders of North America. And China while all is still happy.
They won’t close Holden, it will just fade away like a footballer who has played one too many seasons, yesterday’s hero.
Anyhow, we are discussing stuff that has been turned over many times before.
I'm going out to the garage to play with my future Oz built classics.

 

[VT&VX]

Yep. They are called Barina, Trax, and some Astras.

Overseas manufacturing of a Holden badged car, or rebadged (hopefully with some engineering changes to make the original car better) ends up being a similar result, the people and robots are quality controlled and maintained by non Australians so the product is not Australian.

Yes... the guy who thinks that Holden should have moved its manufacturing offshore to save money and save the company, doesn't seem to understand that the Holden brand and Australian Commodore are no different to any other imported car if it has to come through customs via ship.

 

[Reaper]

A few manufacturers were "jumping into bed" with each other, to try and open up their options....eg Nissan/Ford....Ford/Mazda as well as Holden/Toyota....And I think Ford/Nissan were the first...So honestly can people say this was part of the demise of Holden?

Ford/Mazda with the 323/Laser and 626/Telstar partnership of the early 80's and Econovan/Whatever the Mazda was called + Courier/Mazda B2200 et-al, Pintara/Corsair. Holden partnered with Nissan to do the Pular/Astra after the demise of the Camira followed by the Toyota/Holden Commodore/Lexan, Camry/Apollo, Carolla/Nova.

Ford were with Nissan by the early/mid 90's for the Patrol/Mavrick of the late 80's and the Falcon/Nissan Ute thing. Of course more recently Soob & Toyota bumped uglies to produce the BRZ/86.

 

[Calaber]

I can't remember seeing a Daewoo car on the road in ages. Are they still sold in Aus?

No. Daewoo is now GM Korea. Daewoo as a brand in Australia died with the Lacetti.

 

[figjam]

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" is a popular reference to William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet seems to argue that it does not matter that Romeo is from her family's rival house of Montague.

Update that to "A Daewoo by any other name would still be a shitbox"

 

[greenacc]

Had a long drive today and followed a Malibu on the freeway for a while. Looks good from a distance until we got close enough to see the ridiculous gigantic tail lights on the thing. Instantly reminded me of the idiot lights on the Torana sunbird of 40 years ago. Surely the guy who was working for Holden 40 years ago has retired/ been sacked/ made redundant by now?

 

[afstruct]

Had a long drive today and followed a Malibu on the freeway for a while. Looks good from a distance until we got close enough to see the ridiculous gigantic tail lights on the thing. Instantly reminded me of the idiot lights on the Torana sunbird of 40 years ago. Surely the guy who was working for Holden 40 years ago has retired/ been sacked/ made redundant by now?[TE]
Maybe it's their son or daughter who's working there now!!!
Keep that styling in the family ha ha ha ha ha