General Motors has announced the closure of Holden as a business from 2021. Effectively, Holden was terminal when local production ceased in 2017. All GM have done is announce they will be switching off life support.
The blame game has well and truly started - the left blaming the right, the right blaming unions and so on. Fact is - there’s a whole raft of reasons Holden will cease to exist. Blame General Motors - a company run by finance men who simply don’t know much about cars, and don’t care. They have no strategy to arrest declining sales because they’re not visionaries and aren’t interested. Sell, move offshore, foreclose - that’s all these ivy league business grads seem to know how to do.
Blame successive federal Australian governments who have allowed the Aussie car market to be the most competitive in the world in order to get trade deals beneficial to other industries. Nowhere else on earth will you have more choice than Australia when it comes to buying a new car - pretty hard for Holden to compete with that. Blame Prime Minister Abbott & his sidekick Hockey in 2013, specifically Treasurer Hockey’s arrogant, stupid ultimatum in parliament:“Make up your mind Holden, are you going, or are you staying?” Next day - General Motors announced they would cease local car production.
Last of the Commodores - a 2017 SS V8 station wagon
Blame Aussie car buyers, who simply stopped buying Holdens. Blame poor decision making by Holden management over a long period of time - one example being the half-arsed attempt to turn a Commodore wagon into an SUV in the mid-noughties (called the Adventra). If they’d gone all out to do a proper SUV - they might still be in business. Blame incompetent Federal government trade and industry ministers. Blame a changing world...blame the passing of time...blame...whatever.
In the end, it makes little difference now. What’s done is done. Shame on General Motors. All we have left to look forward to...is the past. Back to the time when Holden was king of local cars. A time when Holden could seemingly do no wrong. When Peter Brock was king of the mountain, the mighty Holden 308 V-8 was all-conquering across Australian race circuits and kids grew up in the back seat of a Holden.
King of the Mountain - Peter Brock in the HDT O5 A9X Torana
Holden made some truly impressive, beautiful cars. Great cars. Monaro, SS, GTS, GTR XU-1, SLR5000, HDT, SL/E, A9X, Sandman, Statesman, Caprice, Torana, Commodore, Gemini, Premier, Special, Kingswood.
Sedans, wagons, panel vans, coupes, hatchbacks, utes and one-tonners. What a time it was. Australia once had its own car. Have a look back through the Holden galleries here and remember with a smile…a time when Holden ruled Australian roads, race tracks and perhaps most importantly - hearts.
Read the Tunnel Ram article on 50 years of the Aussie wagon here
Raph Tripp is a passionate classic car enthusiast and writer, and founder of TunnelRam.net. If you wish to publish this article in part or in whole, please credit Raph Tripp and tunnelram.net . This is an original Tunnel Ram production ©2020 Tunnel Ram. All images remain the property of the original copyright holders.