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"Why Holden turned its back on bogans"

myls362

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I don't envy those working at Holden at the moment. Mary Barra, the CEO of GM, has said for the company to survive it must get a return on investment of 9%+. She has sold Opel, shut down Chevrolet in India, and pulled out of South Africa. There is a huge Holden car park put there with little loyalty beyond us V8 driving fanatics. The entire Holden range has to sell otherwise we could be getting our cars serviced at an Isuzu dealer like they are in South Africa.

Holden is in the crapper beyond the Commodore because they brought in junk from Korea thanks to the masters in Detroit. I blame the old GM and Tony Abbott for Holden's problems. They have an unenviable task of turning this around. I'll keep the VF forever but I would like to buy a Bolt and a next gen Colorado.
 

zero_tolerance

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How this reads:

"I bought a Holden cause it used to be a mans car, specially with them building them V8's and stuff so people knew i was a real man when they heard me pull away from a set of lights. Now with them not selling V8's and wanting that equality and trying to market cars to shielas, im not sure if driving one of their cars is enough to prove to people that im a true aussie bloke."

Actually it's more like this:

GM Holden has a long proud history of producing large, powerful rwd sedans which were highly desirable to many generations of Australians. Their imported products have never been much chop in Australia but the local product has always sold well and was at the top of the sales charts for many decades.
Then around 2005, some bright spark within GM decided that it would be a good idea to rebadge Daewoo vehicles from Korea and sell them as Holdens. These vehicles were cheap, nasty, inferior and were always rated at the bottom of their segment in reviews. They were poor quality and extremely unreliable, which resulted in many customers abandoning the Holden brand, never to return. These vehicles severely damaged Holden's image and reputation and negated all the good work it was doing with the local product.
Fast forward to 2017 and with the imminent closure of it's local factory and end of the Commodore as we know it, Holden suddenly realises that it's loyal customers who have repeat purchased Commodores and spent large sums of money with them over the years, will not settle for the imported garbage Holden is dishing out.
Knowing that they have nothing decent to replace their local product with, they decide to give their loyal customers the middle finger and insult those who have been so loyal to them for many years.
Instead, they hire a bunch of nut jobs in their marketing department to promote a new gay, trendy, feminist image in an effort to attract new customers. The problem with this is:
a) This image flies in the face of everything the Holden brand has stood for in the past.
b) No amount of marketing is going to help if the product is poor. While Holden was busy dishing out Daewoo garbage, other brands like Mazda, Hyundai and Kia have re-invented themselves with quality products that people want to buy. As a result, people are turning to these other brands first when looking for a new car and Holden doesn't even make the shortlist. Surprise surprise.
c) Holden is a car company. It has no place to be pushing views on equality, gay rights etc etc. I don't see any other car company using it's brand to push these views on the public??? Holden should ditch the social engineering and concentrate on delivering a quality product that people actually want to buy if it wants to have any chance of survival.
 
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lowandslow

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What if i told you GM doesn't want Holden at all?
 

Noeleter

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That's an interesting point but GM don't even seem to be maximising it's value for a sell off. Find it hard to believe that they would be happy just to let it fade away.
 

Reaper

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I don't envy those working at Holden at the moment. Mary Barra, the CEO of GM, has said for the company to survive it must get a return on investment of 9%+. She has sold Opel, shut down Chevrolet in India, and pulled out of South Africa. There is a huge Holden car park put there with little loyalty beyond us V8 driving fanatics. The entire Holden range has to sell otherwise we could be getting our cars serviced at an Isuzu dealer like they are in South Africa.

Holden is in the crapper beyond the Commodore because they brought in junk from Korea thanks to the masters in Detroit. I blame the old GM and Tony Abbott for Holden's problems. They have an unenviable task of turning this around. I'll keep the VF forever but I would like to buy a Bolt and a next gen Colorado.

You won't be buying a Bolt in Australia, possibly a Colorado but that has no guarantees and if you think Holden shut up shop because of a PM who was in office for less than 10 weeks, you have just painted yourself for the fool you probably are.

Bottom line - GM says they are not done pruning and I firmly believe Holden is well and truly in the firing line. Their supply of product was sold off with no agreement beyond current platform cycles going forward.

GM have made it crystal clear they have zero interest in anything RHD so prospects for Holden are slim at best. IMO they are gone and I'm thinking it will be in the next 5 years.
 
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Sabbath'

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Coming to a Holden dealership near you.
 

Immortality

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Agreed. GM is only interested in all things American for American's. Holden is definitely on the chopping block....
 
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