Holden to cease production in 2017

  • Thread starter Mike Rotch
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Just cause i'm left wing doesn't make me communist

If we all had right wing veiws we would have no public healthcare or education. (I know its a bit off topic)
 
The simple facts are: we don't have the population, our labours too expensive and there's too much competition. The continued high $A hasn't helped either. Don't get me wrong mate, the last thing I wanted was for Holden to go under, but there's no point in continuing their production if they have to be given bailouts every 5 years. The global market has changed, and Holden has failed to keep up. GM have better things to worry about at the moment.

One thing I'm not certain of is the full ramifications in terms of those Australian businesses that supplied Holden with parts. Whether or not those parts will be interchangable under a global platform (like Fords Evo's concept, if that's the road GM decides to take) we have yet to find out.
 
Well parts busnesses used to have 5 suppliers and after 2017 they will be cut back to one which will result in most of them going broke. Toyota will be left with no parts and will eventually leave. Thats my view on it, lets just hope thats a while away because Australia can't afford that anytime soon
 
magpie1997
For 15 years before 2011 the commodore was the leading car in Australia. Just 2 years out of that position and all of a sudden they don't know how to make a car that Australians would buy? Give them time and they would of sorted themselves out.
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15 years ago petrol wasn't $1.70 a liter.

These days people want small econmic cars.

My Civic hatch can have 3 baby seats in it(has 3 ISO points) and has a large boot/truck space.
So a normal family can fit nicely into it
It gets 7L/100KM or 42MPG
The newer model gets even better fuel economy.

It is very hard to get that with a V6.
If holden made the commodore smaller and used a Inline 4 maybe more people would buy them which would make holden more profitable.

But it has been kinda like a Porsche 911 keep the same kind of engine and shape.
 
True however Holden now provide lpg which is cheaper to run than your civic even with gas currently at 90¢
 
Grayfox
If holden made the commodore smaller and used a Inline 4 maybe more people would buy them which would make holden more profitable.
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Wait long enough, and I think it will happen. Although, it'll be a bit different. I'm not entirely sure if the Holden brand as a whole is going to disappear, but, my understanding has been that production of the mid and large rear wheel drive vehicles for GM will mostly move to the US in the not-too-distant future. If that is the case, there stands to be a good chance that either the Zeta successor (Omega), or a variant of the Alpha chassis will underpin a new premium rear drive car for the Australian market. Fuel prices and car buying habits of the nation will probably determine that going forward.

The loss of the Holden development arm is what disappoints me. Australia is perfect for fine tuning a chassis, and without that kind of R&D, I'm not sure what GM's new rear-drive lineup will look like.

All of that being said, losing the jobs is terrible. It's what we went through here in Michigan in the late '90s and the '00s here in Michigan. It wasn't until recently that things began to normalize, but it has been at the cost of a lot of jobs elsewhere. It's much more affordable for GM to produce their cars here in the US because the stuff is here, we have the highly skilled workers, and our wages have leveled out as UAW contracts have been weakened or outright eliminated.

As bad as all that is, at the very least, getting international products from Chevrolet, Cadillac and others shouldn't be too bad. This is the best GM's cars have been in more than two decades, so that isn't too bad. On the upside, maybe we'll restyle the ATS Coupe and sell it as a Barina down under?
 
Wiiiiiiith the next question being:

What's gonna happen with the V8 supercars now?

US made Ford and US made GM model. Perhaps? But the current series is for 4 door V8s which the market is moving away from. Why we're having this chat right?

Do we move to 2 liter supertourers? Back to them. We'll see.
 
Mic_Col
Wiiiiiiith the next question being:

What's gonna happen with the V8 supercars now?

US made Ford and US made GM model. Perhaps? But the current series is for 4 door V8s which the market is moving away from. Why we're having this chat right?

Do we move to 2 liter supertourers? Back to them. We'll see.
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I can't see it effecting V8 Supercars, not in the immediate future. The Falcons and Commadores used right now are only loosely based on the equivalent road going models, they're not far removed from the NGTC regs we have in the BTCC in regard to using stock common/control parts for all cars to reduce costs and introduce a level of parity. It's no longer just about Ford vs Holden either with Merc and Nissan now and soon Volvo joining. As long as the Aussie public still want to buy large 4-door saloons, whether they retain V8's or smaller engines as the norm, they'll still be a V8 Supercars.
 
Mic_Col
Wiiiiiiith the next question being:

What's gonna happen with the V8 supercars now?

US made Ford and US made GM model. Perhaps? But the current series is for 4 door V8s which the market is moving away from. Why we're having this chat right?

Do we move to 2 liter supertourers? Back to them. We'll see.
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The V8s will have to change like F1 did.

What is wrong with making the cars smaller and lighter and using Inline 4 turbos.

Look at the BTCC, it is quite exciting to watch.

I stopped watching the V8 stupid cars along time ago as it was the same thing for what?
50 years?
Ford vs Holden
Holden vs Ford.

The addition of Nissan and Benz has not made it any better for me, sad to say.
 
I'm pretty sure I heard V8 Supercars mention the probability of changing the rules to allow the Mustang to race. Can't remember where, might have been just a rumour.
Also, now that the Commodore is gone, could we see GM bring the Camaro here right hand drive to compete with the Mustang?
 
Depends on whether Ford and GM plan to push sales of the Mustang and Camaro in that part of the world. I'd read about a potential move to 2-door coupes too, can't remember where though. Could Nissan use the GT-R as a basis for their version and Merc/Erebus a CL?

The Italian-based V8 Superstars series, which was beginning to look a lot like a Euro version of V8 Supercars, had more and more coupes alongside the regular 4-doors.
 
I have a dollar Holden becomes, in essence, Chevy Australia. If so, the SS/Commodore should be available, so that would be the V8 ordeal done.

Looking at Wikipedia, the small, or smaller cars, are there. The Spark, Sonic/Barina, Cruze, Malibu, the Trax(Buick Encore), the Captiva/Captiva 5(which is sold in place of the HHR in the US for fleet now), and some Isuzu thing, so that argument isn't valid.

OK, curiosity has me. Here in the states, popular opinion(because I can't prove it as fact or tradition) is that once someone can afford to buy a car new, they buy it, keep it for three to four years, then trade it in for a new one, making the car a white-good, no more valued than a microwave or a refrigerator. What is the Aussie way?
 
I don't know of too many people that do that, trading isn't as popular in Australia as in America. Of course, some people still do. My Mum had a Land Rover Discovery 3 for 3 or 4 years and traded that in. Apart from that I can't think of anyone else.
 
the-young-hooly
For the government to get Holden out of their situation would be like trying to fix the Titanic with sticky tape. Why should my taxes be wasted on a sinking ship? The global market has simply become too competitive, and I can think of better things this government can spend money on, such as improving our frankly laughable education system, or widening that damn M5 motorway.
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Both Labor and liberal have become a joke; Labor had some good ideas but lacked proper leadership and control, whilst Liberal is the exact opposite.
However, in regards to this inevitable 'demise' of the car industry, did they ever think of you know, protecting our car industry (a long time ago)? :dunce:
 
the-young-hooly
I'm pretty sure I heard V8 Supercars mention the probability of changing the rules to allow the Mustang to race. Can't remember where, might have been just a rumour.
Also, now that the Commodore is gone, could we see GM bring the Camaro here right hand drive to compete with the Mustang?
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Unless things have radically changed, there were plans in place for production of the large, rear-drive sedans to move to Canada if production was to end in Australia. The Caprice is currently sold as police vehicle in the US, it has been pretty popular, and I can't imagine GM wanting to dump that off when they just started selling them this year. Just the same, the Chevrolet SS is just starting to show up, with largely popular reviews, and chances are they'll shift through all 3,000 slotted for production pretty easily.

Wait and see what the new Camaro ends up being, let alone if we get another version of the SS sedan, and that may determine what'll happen to the V8 Supercars series.
 
We don't have Holdens over here, but I understand the impact this will have on the Aussie petrol heads. They always made really cool cars.
 

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