12 replies to this topic

[S pack]

Oh what a feeling

 

https://www.news.com...1aad6cf407c0142

[Indy Orange]

Maybe Holden still has a heart beat.

[lx308]

Will take more than a suit from Toyota to help Holden. Doesn't matter how you dress a pig, it's still a pig

[cameron]

Lots of movement in key Holden management over the past 10yrs. With sales in freefall (now sitting in 6th) its not hard to see that they are fighting for survival. They just don't have the right vehicles to appeal in our SUV eccentric buyers market.

 

Cameron

[hanra]

I read this the other day and thought, this is the underlying problem. The captains of the ship feel they understand what the Australian buying public wants. It couldn’t be further from the truth...... I’d imagine the people on the coal face can see the ship is sinking. But the lot at the top think everyone loves their product.....

“GM’s most senior leadership (in Detroit) strongly believe that we have a rare jewel in Holden, an iconic Australian brand that understands the needs of Australian and New Zealand drivers,” said Mr Engle.

Edited by hanra, 21 July 2018 - 08:34 PM.

[cameron]

“GM’s most senior leadership (in Detroit) strongly believe that we have a rare jewel in Holden, an iconic Australian brand that understands the needs of Australian and New Zealand drivers,” said Mr Engle.

 

When Holden was protected by nearly 60% import tarriffs most Australians had no option but to buy a Holden,Ford. Had it not been so heavily protected Australians would have a vastly different uptake on imports and I doubt Holden would have made it past the late 70's or at best the very early 80's. Detroit are full of sh#t they can read the oz sale numbers and they certainly know Holden's bottom line. Holden will either be sold by GM or they will be forced to close. (if they can't stand alone and be profitable)

 

If you look at GM especially since it nearly went bankrupt they have switched everything back to the USA and sold or closed just about all of its RHD assets from dealers to manufacturing plants. Some 99.3% of its platforms are LHD only. The only other market they are investing in is China which again is LHD. The sales numbers they generate in LHD just make our tiny RHD market look like a total waste of time and effort. IMO Holden is looking like its on borrowed time as aussies are not interested in what they are selling. Very sad to watch.

 

Cameron

Edited by cameron, 21 July 2018 - 10:58 PM.

[Rainman]

Do you think one day Australians will have to change to left hand drive cars ? Drive on the opposite side of the road ?

[Indy Orange]

Probably won't be driving at all,driverless cars!

[Rainman]

Male or Female driverless cars ? Could you be fined ect for being a drunk passenger ? Can it change its own tyre ?  Take the kids to school ? Tell me more about these driverless cars Paul . Will my kids need to get a license. Will your car be worth more than $1500.00 lol  

[Ice]

Do you think one day Australians will have to change to left hand drive cars ? Drive on the opposite side of the road ?

Forget it we cant even have a cash less society let alone driver less cars pipe dream

[Bigfella237]

Do you think one day Australians will have to change to left hand drive cars ? Drive on the opposite side of the road ?

 

I saw that on Top Gear when they went to (I think it was) Bolivia, all the older cars were RHD but they'd switched to driving on the other side of the road so they could change to LHD, the whole thing was a bloody shambles of course (someone should blow Bolivia up)!

 

So long as Japan continues to use RHD we will never be without RHD cars to buy, and they are hardly likely to stop making cars for themselves.

 

As for us I blame the bloody poms, I'm guessing RHD carried over from passing other horse & carts on the left side of the road?

 

Although if we were LHD from the start there would probably be a LOT less Aussie-made vehicles here now and a shitload more imports? Maybe the Torana would never have existed!

[Indy Orange]

Male or Female driverless cars ? Could you be fined ect for being a drunk passenger ? Can it change its own tyre ?  Take the kids to school ? Tell me more about these driverless cars Paul . Will my kids need to get a license. Will your car be worth more than $1500.00 lol  

No one can see into the future Rainman,maybe the Mars Space Expedition will find another planet for us to inhabit.

[axistr]

I saw that on Top Gear when they went to (I think it was) Bolivia, all the older cars were RHD but they'd switched to driving on the other side of the road so they could change to LHD, the whole thing was a bloody shambles of course (someone should blow Bolivia up)!

 

So long as Japan continues to use RHD we will never be without RHD cars to buy, and they are hardly likely to stop making cars for themselves.

 

As for us I blame the bloody poms, I'm guessing RHD carried over from passing other horse & carts on the left side of the road?

 

Although if we were LHD from the start there would probably be a LOT less Aussie-made vehicles here now and a shitload more imports? Maybe the Torana would never have existed!

 

You can actually blame Henry Ford for the LHD cars and not the poms. America was originally a RHD country, bloody Henry must have had the shits with the poms and decided to start making his cars LHD. Due to the numbers he was producing at the time other local manufactures followed  suit. 

 

Holden is nothing more than a shop front these days and I don't think many aussies are going to support them any longer. They had so many opportunities but the yanks weren't very interested in our local stuff.  I'm sure the local aussie management had their hands tied behind their backs when it was time to make smart decisions, and. governments have a lot to answer to also. Why the bloody hell wouldn't they use local manufactured Holden and Fords for all government/public service vehicles, And our top pollies ordered top spec BMWs rather than a Holden statesman. They could have also used a percentage of cheap labour, rather than  letting some of these crims out on the streets with a slap on the wrist they could have workshops at the local jails assembling components for nothing rather than letting them watch TV and pump weights or each other, eat, drink and take drugs either in or out of jail.. make the buggers work. We the tax payers are already paying these crims and dole bludgers good money in return get them to do something for local manufacturing and maybe we can produce stuff cheap like China does.     

 

I remember the time when they made the Holden overlanders and couldn't supply enough of them. At the time they were a good thing and with a little bit more development and refinement they could  have been the leaders in SUV 4x4  once again they let this market slip by and Toyota  took it up and made a motza with all their 4 wheel drives vehicles. And why didn't the yanks make our Holden utes go global, just about every yank that I have talked to that knows about our utes reckon they would have preferred the ute over the sedans and monaros we sent there and they haven't had anything like it since the El Comino. GM just didn't want the competition against their commercial vehicles, again makes no sense they are the ones that profit from bulk sales.