Cars & Motorbikes ZB Holden Commodore having a tough time.

Holden will be completlely gone in a few years completely, with the resulting job losses not insignificant.. shame as probably had a few chances to turn itself around over the last 10 years... A series of bad decisions (some outside of their control/GM caused) have really killed the brand unfortunately.

Best chance for a turn around would have been to really build a local small to medium suv instead of the Cruze, and not continuing with the Commodore so long.. only really kept alive with its V8 models the last few years of production. Failing to do proper market research on the ZB had them ******* further money away.

Selling cheap Korean junk labelled as Holden didn't really help their reputation either. Korea make some decent cars, but Holden imported the dregs to maximise profit. Just have to see a few still running around a few years later and see the faded paint and peeling plastics to see how corners were cut.

 

If Nissan decide to release a 2 door 4WD turbo, as a retro model (sort of like Toyota are about to do with their forthcoming Land Cruiser Heritage), and maybe call it a 180B SSS, with a fastback option, then I'm in.

But only if it's available in, if I recall, Abattoir Red.

 

Nissan are taking a long time to release a replacement for the 370z. Would love to see a car like the 240z.

 

An interesting swap would be a Turbo Honda engine in the fwd commodore. That would get a few people talking

 

I finally (sadly) got something right....

 

So they have announced that GM are getting out of making right hand drive vehicles completely, so that’s all over red rover.
I was wondering how this will affect the purchase of used Commodores and getting parts for them and secondly the resale value of Holden cars. What about the classics, will people still want them?

 

So what car will bogans drive and hot up now?

 

The writing was on the wall when GM sold Vauxhall in 2017, what right hand drive market did they have left to bother with?

What will happen with the Camaro now? Haven't Chevvy just launched that through HSV here? If they are pulling the pin on RHD then that will include the Camaro.

 

The one side of manufacturing that we do well in the MV industry in Oz is small production runs and customisations eg. LH/RH drive conversions. Unfortunately, there won't be sufficient cars in this market to satisfy the Australian Design Rules. Probably time to dump those too and move on to the Euro rules so we may also pick up some more fuel efficient cars in the process.

 

Ones they can hot wire and weren't theirs - originally.

 

Asian-built 4WD utes and wagons fitted with oversized tyres, stainless steel snorkels, loud exhausts, etc - bogans have been making an orderly transition to these vehicles for some years now.

 

Hopefully Dick Smith will have a lot to say, and it would be good to hear it, as Holden might have a future in a joint venture with another manufacturer as a diffusion brand, with a Corolla sized turbo 4wd hot hatch, a small RWD sports convertible, and an electric dual cab ute, and variations of the aforementioned, assuming they take the opportunity to cherry pick the market.

Maybe a Holden dealer co-op could inject some funds, for self-interest, business, and genuine goodwill reasons, with a bit of coin from the feds, for R&D and stuff.

Is this right hand drive market really toast? It's difficult to say, but Detroit GM obviously DGAF, so they can keep their Craptivas, and econobox taxis with a Holden badge on them, and let someone else have a go.

I wonder if it would be the case that all the dealers can return their stock for credit to the manufacturer, and also, just like the manufacturer, move forward with heavy hearts, after an exhaustive analysis of the investment required, determined such an investment could not meet the dealer's investment thresholds, including delivering an appropriate return?

Or some other PR ********, such as "See ya's!"

 

The "market" itself is still solid but not for GM being that the US are LHD, once they sold the European arm of GM it just didn't make sense for them to keep working on converting their designs to RHD for a small market in AU.

They don't have a presence in the Asian market which is why it makes no sense, the market is still decent but we get supplied mostly by the Asian market then the Euro market. Importing altered US cars to a small market that they had a dwindling share of (big hit to Holden sales when we stopped making the Commodore here) is pretty pointless.

 

Holden discounts cars by up to $17,500, some models are half price | CarAdvice

for you bargain hunters

i dont know how much new holdens cost since I hate them, but if I could get them at below 50%, id buy a small one

 

Wow, as if the resale of a Holden wasn't already bad enough. Can you imagine if you bought a Colorado 3 months ago and suddenly they are worth half what you paid?

 

some people would say you have rocks in your head in the first place!

 

It would hurt that's for sure.

On the flipside a colorado right now wouldn't be a bad move at all as it's clone the dmax will be around (and supported) for many years to come.

 

The final runout death of the Craptiva opens up a market for Chery to come back.

 

Fair point, and overall, I'd agree, but GM decided to dump the Japanese, UK, South African and now Oz RHD markets, somewhat akin to shooting themselves in the foot, creating the small market that's now "pointless".

Shrinking to profitability is always a risky endeavour, a hard lesson learned by many companies over time.

Perhaps they should have considered manufacturing products that their customers wanted to buy instead.

 

Wow, well that answers that then: Secret plan: Chevrolet Camaro could replace Holden Commodore in V8 Supercars | CarAdvice

GM kill Holden then replace them themselves with a select lineup of cars GMSV (General Motors Speciality Vehicles) including a factory built RHD Corvette.

Why on earth wouldn't they have retooled one of the Holden Factories and produced them here to cut down on shipping costs?