Holden no more: 600 jobs go, 10 yr support.

[VFSV6FORME]

Personally GM in Detroit has RAPED Holden for the $200 billion of taxpayer funded support over decades and as soon as Abbott stop paying this GM Detriot said "Well the cash cow has stopped giving us Money so lets get rid of Holden"
Damm you GM and Boycott any GM rubbish that comes in Australia

 

[Captain Courteous]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-29/holdens-enduring-appeal-in-indonesia/12008218

Interesting read - I had no idea our northern neighbours had a Holden club!

 

[Holden17]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-29/holdens-enduring-appeal-in-indonesia/12008218

Interesting read - I had no idea our northern neighbours had a Holden club!

Yes, I stumbled across this earlier this morning...seems very much pre-Commodore Holdens and nothing wrong with that...great to see them doing their best to keep the Kingswood Country classics going but undoubtedly it will only get harder for them to import parts they are after.

Did you happen to see ‘Holden:End of the Road’ on the ABC last night?...I think it was quite a fair assessment of events over the years and great to see an emotional impact of Holden on immigrant car enthusiasts also. Felt that Skaifey presented quite well...nothing revolutionary with respect to what we on here already understand but well presented all the same. The only one who showed no real passion towards the brand (but still made sense with what she said) was the Economist..but then she openly admitted to seeing vehicles as a commodity that you buy at lowest price possible with the sole objective of getting from A to B.

 

[Skylarking]

Did you happen to see ‘Holden:End of the Road’ on the ABC last night?... The only one who showed no real passion towards the brand (but still made sense with what she said) was the Economist..but then she openly admitted to seeing vehicles as a commodity that you buy at lowest price possible with the sole objective of getting from A to B.

Missed the show

Could it be that this economist doesn’t have any dealings with Porsche or any other performance or supercar brand for that matter, which some may say are poor A to B cars but excel by other measures

In fact, her A to B mindset would commoditise a product and have inhibited Porsche itself from improving the manufacturing efficiency and bringing the world the Boxster., without which Porsche would almost certainly have gone down the gurgler. Luckily some new blood was brought in which from Toyota and with the Boxster help they’ve been going from strength to strength. Could it have been just a small mindset realignment that saved them?

It’s anyone’s guess what could have happened to Holden had GM had a small mindset realignment and decided Holden would be the RHD performance capital of the world... and the Commodore could have lived on... or not...

 

[Holden17]

The economist was talking purely from a pragmatic point of view...GMH not reading or refusing to acknowledge the changing attitude in the Aussie car buyers market (and I don’t think anyone would argue with that..Skaifey and others also acknowledged this issue)...from memory she said something about neither her nor her two grown sons had ever owned a Holden product ...she didn’t mention other brands but she made it clear that she knew her remarks were very much from a non-enthusiast car owners point of view...so I think to her a Porsche is simply another vehicle with 4 wheels that will take you from A to B...if you get what I mean (not trying to put her down here)

 

[Holden17]

If you google ‘ABC Holden: the end of the road’ it will show up in iview (29min program)...not sure I can post a link from iview?...and I can’t find it anywhere else as yet. It is worth a watch...
Edit: this should work...https://iview.abc.net.au/show/holden-the-end-of-the-road...if you have ABC iview app...

 

[Captain Courteous]

Did you happen to see ‘Holden:End of the Road’ on the ABC last night?

Yes I did watch it, I agree with the analysis was pretty bang on. I've always felt that the Holden brand should have been retired or renamed to Chev/GMC back in 2017 in line with the end of local manufacturing.

 

[Skylarking]

I watched it on ABC iView which was a little disappointing as it was more a nostalgia fluff piece that a piecing investigative expose'. The view that the last cars were best of breed but people had moved on to SUV's as being the cause was so single dimensional that it was meaningless.

Sadly Holden's demise was a lot more complex than the simplistic product view pushed. A delving look into why Holden failed and whether GM held them back from achieving their true export potential (even into the USA) was not even a thought within the program. Whether government support of the industry should have continued rather than been withdrawn was also not delved into. I don't think it was even mentioned that all vehicle manufacturers around the globe are heavily subsidized (possibly from a national security perspective as well as for employment and capability cross pollination into other industries perspective).

Basically it was a nostalgic fluff piece with Mark Skaife on board along with a non Holden driving A-B car type Economist and a old enthusiast who restores Holden's for a living. Hardly an expose'

 

[Holden17]

Yes I did watch it, I agree with the analysis was pretty bang on. I've always felt that the Holden brand should have been retired or renamed to Chev/GMC back in 2017 in line with the end of local manufacturing.

Yes, I guess an actual announcement to retire the Holden brand made any earlier than say first quarter 2018 could have jeopardised the final sales of the VF Commodore...ie would bring on the ‘fire sale’ that we are having now but with thousands of locally made product still in the show rooms...but of course the alternative has proven to be just false hope (so often better to rip the bandaid off quickly).

Either way, a far better, or for that matter ANY sort of longer term strategic plan from GM (which GM seems incapable of achieving in recent decades) would have provided far greater certainty for all involved.

 

[VS 5.0]

I watched it on ABC iView which was a little disappointing as it was more a nostalgia fluff piece that a piecing investigative expose'. The view that the last cars were best of breed but people had moved on to SUV's as being the cause was so single dimensional that it was meaningless.

Sadly Holden's demise was a lot more complex than the simplistic product view pushed. A delving look into why Holden failed and whether GM held them back from achieving their true export potential (even into the USA) was not even a thought within the program. Whether government support of the industry should have continued rather than been withdrawn was also not delved into. I don't think it was even mentioned that all vehicle manufacturers around the globe are heavily subsidized (possibly from a national security perspective as well as for employment and capability cross pollination into other industries perspective).

Basically it was a nostalgic fluff piece with Mark Skaife on board along with a non Holden driving A-B car type Economist and a old enthusiast who restores Holden's for a living. Hardly an expose'

So you're expecting MSM journalists to do some investigative work ?

Most of then wouldn't know what that was if it bit them on the arse.

IIRC, old mate from whichcar mentioned the subsidisation of all m/v manufacturing industries in other countries but no one else picked up that ball and ran with it....I expected the economist to at least comment there but nope.