Holden axed in Aussie.

This has been inevitable from the start, once protection and subsidies disappeared. This was shown when Hartnett, the long term head of Holden, who had pushed for local manufacture for years, and had planned and implemented the first Holden car, was replaced (because he was too Australian*) by a man from head office before the first car was produced in 1948.

There might have been a case for continued support if there had ever been a viable Australian manufacturer.


*Hartnett was English, but had a stellar career with GM in Singapore, UK and Scandinavia before being sent to Adelaide in the early thirties to either save or shut down the Holden body works, part owned by GM. As well as running Holden from then, he was a major player in setting up the manufacture of munitions and war equipment in Australia during the war. After he quit GM rather than accept a transfer to Detroit, he tried to build his own car, a Gregoire design, far more modern then the Holden being built at Fisherman's Bend, but was effectively blocked by the Federal Government and a broken contract by PMC who had contracted to press body panels.

Holden died the day they stopped making the SS !

John Cadogan predicted this not long back.

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Originally Posted by travelrover

This will make the Supercars interesting!

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What have Supercars got to do with it?? They've been a silhouette class for decades. Nothing on them that has any connection with the 'real' cars.

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Originally Posted by martnH

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We should never allow foreign ownership of Aussie companies such as Holden

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Since when was Holden ever owned by Australia ??

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Originally Posted by justinc

There hasn't been a real holden here since the 80s...

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around 78 IMHO

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

This has been inevitable from the start, once protection and subsidies disappeared. This was shown when Hartnett, the long term head of Holden, who had pushed for local manufacture for years, and had planned and implemented the first Holden car, was replaced (because he was too Australian*) by a man from head office before the first car was produced in 1948.

There might have been a case for continued support if there had ever been a viable Australian manufacturer.


*Hartnett was English, but had a stellar career with GM in Singapore, UK and Scandinavia before being sent to Adelaide in the early thirties to either save or shut down the Holden body works, part owned by GM. As well as running Holden from then, he was a major player in setting up the manufacture of munitions and war equipment in Australia during the war. After he quit GM rather than accept a transfer to Detroit, he tried to build his own car, a Gregoire design, far more modern then the Holden being built at Fisherman's Bend, but was effectively blocked by the Federal Government and a broken contract by PMC who had contracted to press body panels.

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Hartnett in his book said he was offered the VW factory after the war to start an all Australian car but knocked it back , he did not Australians would buy a rear engine air cooled car . Said it was the biggest mistake he ever made. [bighmmm]

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Originally Posted by pop058

around 78 IMHO

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I think my 5.0 WB holden ute would've just scraped through in 1983... but yes, we've been without a decent local vehicle since forever....😣

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Originally Posted by martnH

These American people
Took our tax money and just left.

We should never allow foreign ownership of Aussie companies such as Holden

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Holden ( the car company ) was always foreign owned. In fact Holdens became a subsidiary of GM in 1931, long before they started to build cars of their own. All Holdens, from the 48/215 up to the Torana ( based on the British Vauxhall Viva ) and the VB Commodore ( Opel Rekord from Germany ) were based on US cars, with the very notable exception of the Monaro, but that was merely a styling exercise.

People are so blinkered on this topic. Holden cars would NEVER had existed without GM. This stuff is in the public domain. Why don't people learn it? Holden didn't even produce the first cars here. Joe Lyons wanted an Aussie car, but WWII got in the way, but nobody remembers the Ford Coupé utility of 1934. Australian cars go back to 1896.

Holdens was a coachbuilder. GM bought them, as i stated above, in 1931. GM then imported running chassis and Holdens built bodies for them . This was standard practice in those days. Coachbuilding companies were all over, and Holdens was merely one of them. The 48/215 was a political thing, released in post WWII austerity, a sort of political jingoism.

Holden was no more Australian than Chrysler ( remember the Valiant? ), Ford ( longest continuous badge here by miles in the Falcon ), Mitsubishi ( Magna and 380 {OK, they came out of Chrysler }), Toyota ( plant in Altona made mostly Camrys ), Lightburn ( heard of them... more Aussie than any of the above ), Hartnett ( Ditto ). And there are more. Don't hear anyone crying for them, and yet we get people sooking about the least Aussie of all of them. GM did nothing for Australia when they knew they were folding. they just pulled up stumps. Some Aussie. Ford at least has kept ALL Asia Pacific development HERE, at Broadmeadows. Sure, the cars aren't built here, but there are nearly 2000 jobs still here. Ford knew the value of the engineering they had here, maybe because the always sent folk here to learn. So, the Focus for all of the AP region, the Ranger, the Everest, the Trend.... etc, have Aussie DNA. They know that building cars here doesn't work ( so too do GM and Toyota as it happens ) but they know we have some of the best engineering talent going around and they don't want to lose it.

Reading all that, I can see that people might think I'm a Ford fanboy. Well, i like the Fords i have owned, but I'd prefer a Ferrari. But I am not a fanboy of anything, unless it's LR. Fighting over Mac vs PC, iPhone vs Android, VHS vs Beta is utterly pointless. Oh, there was a point to the VHS thing though.

Anyway, Holden has gone. Why was anyone surprised? GM chose to dump the market entirely. They are seriously struggling at home. Folk should research GM's unfunded healthcare liabilities. GM has very little time left to live. Obama gave GM $US 11.2 BILLION to stave off bankruptcy, and it probably hasn't worked. Trump won't make the same mistake.

For GM, Holden is, and always was, a drop in the bucket. There is no future in building cars in his country, and they all know it. GM and Toyota just dumped us, and yet people still buy Toyotas. Go figure.

Back on point. GENERAL MOTORS HOLDEN was NEVER AUSTRALIAN. The marketing that makes people think they were equals that of MacDonalds convincing people they sell food.

In the run up to the Commodore ending production there was a lot of speculation in the trade press both in Europe and the USA about the future of the Holden name. Most thought it would be retired as without the local car it did not make sense might even have negative connections with buyers. Most thought the name would be replace with Chev as this was a brand GM was pushing globally.

Opel and Vauxhall’s were Europeanised versions of the cars designed in Korea. This added a layer of cost to the cars which they could not recoup. So sold the business with an agreement for supply of products for GM outside Europe for a limited time.

Peugeot has been moving the legacy GM products to their own platforms as quickly as they can. Once changed over no more for GM. Peugeot has made the business profitable by removing the design step and associated employees.

If GM had not taken the bung from the German government and closed Opel Vauxhall to concentrate on the Chev product in Europe it might be different today. Chev and Opel Vauxhall had equal market share at the time and GM was going to just keep the Chev brand and close Opel Vauxhall. This would have been a blow for German engineering and jobs hence the offer which changed the decision.

I do see so many similarities here between what GM is doing today and Chrysler in the eighties when they closed all non US operation to concentrate on the core home market as this was where the profit was. Let’s hope this one goes better than we saw with Chrysler