RIP Holden

[atiger]

Much of the woes of Holden and manufacturing in Australia in general is directly related to the strength of the Australian dollar, which is being driven by the resource boom. What's good for the miners is hurting manufactures. Swings and roundabouts. Another problem is Holden only builds the commodore, which has had a falling market share for years, reality is it's not a car people want to buy. Blaming the workers for the companies demise is a shallow analysis of the situation. German car workers have strong unions and are well payed, the difference is they produce a product people desire highly and are prepared to pay a premium for.

Mike Devereux (Holden chief executive) has stated that Holden will remain committed to v8 supercars. HSV also plans to continue operating. The only part of a commodore in a v8 supercars is the engine, GM have many v8's they can choose from. The chassis in the v8 supercars is a control chassis, all the different cars use the same chassis, who knows what the car will end up looking like, but they'll be racing something, so the demise of commodore does not kill v8 supercar.

Holden will also be keeping their design studios in Melbourne operating, they have very highly skilled team of industrial designers working there.

 

[stucar17]

The aussie dollar being high is certainly a driving factor, not the only one though.

Agree with holden staying in Supercars, they will race whatever they can, and will do it well.

Glad to hear the design studio is staying, they have come up with some great stuff in the last decade.

 

[bourkey]

Plastic **** any way m8, no torana's or hq's nothing but plastic ****,Got the track but no brocky gt6 sux ass

Does Holden becoming defunct mean it will no longer appear in future Gran Turismo games due to legal issues?

 

[slackboy72]

Plastic **** any way m8, no torana's or hq's nothing but plastic ****,Got the track but no brocky gt6 sux ass

Can we get that again in english?

 

[atiger]

Plastic **** any way m8, no torana's or hq's nothing but plastic ****,Got the track but no brocky gt6 sux ass

Can we get that again in english?

Sounds like bourkey had a liquid lunch.

 

[CarreraGT]

Exactly I was going to mention this since it was discussed in the V8SC thread, and I believe the mustang but in a more fusion looking form or something is suppose to go to Aussie.

The mustang will be sold in Australia from 2015 onwards. The new car has been engineered to accommodate RHD for the first time so it will be imported exactly as it is in the states.

What ford aus decide to do with regards to replacing the falcon is unknown at this stage, but it's likely that they will import the fusion or some other global model to fill the hole

 

[Mr_X]

Plastic **** any way m8, no torana's or hq's nothing but plastic ****,Got the track but no brocky gt6 sux ass

Huh

 

[Cobra_GT500]

Ford are going in 2016 and Holdens are going in 2017. It's a sad day since I like holden. How will the v8 supercars work now? Guess it will be Nissan and Mercedes?

 

[Nikked]

Ford are going in 2016 and Holdens are going in 2017. It's a sad day since I like holden. How will the v8 supercars work now? Guess it will be Nissan and Mercedes?

Same as it does now, Falcon's and commodores replaced by the fusion/mondeo and Impala/Malibu respectively.

 

[CarreraGT]

Ford are going in 2016 and Holdens are going in 2017. It's a sad day since I like holden. How will the v8 supercars work now? Guess it will be Nissan and Mercedes?

And volvo

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Ford are going in 2016 and Holdens are going in 2017. It's a sad day since I like holden. How will the v8 supercars work now? Guess it will be Nissan and Mercedes?

Well the series is trying to be more international in nature, I dont think that the two main cars that started it all will just fade away forever though. Also you have rumors of Chrysler and Hyundai looking to join V8 and the confirmed Volvo for next year.

 

[Craze63AMG]

Taken from a comment on Autoblog:

I don't understand why GM doesn't completely merge Buick, Opel, Vauxhaul and Holden.

All these are establish, well-known brands in one country or another. They all have (to a certain degree) loyal buyers and if I am not mistaken, most of them have (or at least try to have) a slightly upscale image......Let these 4 brands merge into one division. Still use the individual names in different countries, but have them all share a common styling, cars, and overall look. It really wouldn't be "rebadging" like the days of old because these brands wouldn't overlap in any territory...

Interesting idea from this guy.

 

[CarreraGT]

HSV have announced that they will continue to produce cars after Holden ceased local production in 2017, so that's a bit of good news. And someone mentioned that they will keep the Holden design team alive which is also good news, they did design the Camaro after all and tendered on the C7 corvette

 

[stucar17]

The governments finances are not a basket case at all.
Go and look at relative measures of public debt. We're sitting very pretty.
Just because Abbott and Hockey say something doesn't make it true.

I think the state of the books reveals a picture worse than we had been led to believe from Labor. Dig a hole big enough and eventually you fall in !