Bye Bye Holden

Had no choice ,they were bankrupt in the US

Yes MOrris, Not knocking the European cars, I like them but thought they were priced higher than the local cars, must have a look. Fortunatley I am not in the market for a replacment yet but as that time gets closer I will research it all

Zuffen wrote: I think it's easy to think of how good it was when we had Tariffs to keep the Japanese vehicles priced higher than local vehicles.

The only problem was the person paying the Tariff was YOU not Toyota/Nissan etc. They were still making good money and the Govt was raking in heaps of cash to squander.

It is amazing how ignorant some people are of the tariff system and the reason we had it and the reason we got rid of it

No wonder this country is in such a mess

Paul

Mrsmackpaul wrote. "It is amazing how ignorant some people are......................... ". I would have left it at that!

MrsMackPaul
Your on the money with the tariffs and unions always wanting better conditions 3 cars in the Garage 3 colour tv,s 4 weeks annual leave 17.5% not to go to work Public holiday for a bloody footy match
Anyway that's my threepence

SloonCar Browny
Gudday m8

RE: Anyway that's my threepence

Can eye have change please

LOL
cya

I had come through an EK wagon, an HK wagon and a VH wagon.
When it was time to replace that, there was only one wagon on the market which would fit in my driveway, and have all-wheel drive for trailing a boat: Subaru Liberty Outback.
Holden would no longer fit my drive, and Falcon couldn't.

A lot was lost when family sixes could no longer carry three abreast on the front seat: people had to change to minibuses / people movers.

Roderick

Sorry about the cut n paste, but I thought this article was spot on.
A bloody shame all round.



"Australia lacks the will to have a manufacturing industry, by Greg Sheridan.

The death of the Holden brand … was a catastrophic loss of capacity, complexity and competence across our economy, a dumbing down of our society, a needless limitation on our potential and a serious dent in our national security.

We are now the least complex economy at anything like our level of affluence. … Recently the Harvard Kennedy School of Government… found that while Australia was the eighth richest nation, we ranked 93rd for complexity. …

Australia’s top 10 exports are: coal, iron ore, gas, education, tourism, gold, aluminium ores, beef, crude oil, copper. The only hi-tech export there is education but all this means is that we have first-world universities that teach in English, and like everyone else we market these to Asian students. …

How can Australia be failing, when we are so rich? In the 1980s, Nauru was technically the richest country in the world because of phosphate exports. When the phosphate ran out it became poor. There have been moments when Middle East oil sheikhdoms were per capita very rich, but they are one-trick ponies.

When a single export, single market economy, like us with minerals to China, is going through its rich phase it can fund all sorts of goodies — from hospitals to the ABC — which make it seem diverse and sophisticated. But the underlying reality is: lack of complexity, lack of productivity, lack of innovation and lack of future – as well as grave limits on national security and independence. …

The auto industry gave Australia not only technical trades-type skills, but high-end computer design expertise, and experience and competence at large-scale manufacturing. To offer the familiar Australian excuse — that we are too small to have a manufacturing industry — is pathetic, untrue, self-deluding. It is a first cousin of the equally false and crippling mythology that we are too small to defend ourselves. We are a nation of 26 million of the richest people on Earth, with the 12th or 13th largest economy in the world. From a manufacturing point of view, our market is augmented by five million rich New Zealanders, closer to us than to anyone else. Thus with a wealthy domestic market of 31 million, and next door to the fastest growing economies in the world in Asia, if we decide not to have a manufacturing industry that is not because of external circumstances, but a conscious choice born of lack of ambition and lack of will."

Excellent article prodrive.

Good Article Prodrive

I agree it is a disaster we have lost our technical ability. It is no good raging about it as every form of business has as its sole purpose making a profit. This ranges from a one family dairy farm to BHP, the world's biggest mining company.

It is a case of "they" should do something about it. Who are "they".

GM leaving Australia is entirely due to the fact that we ("they") saw no reason to factor into our car buying the financial well-being, security or technical base of our nation and chose cars from foreign manufacturers for whatever other reasons. We see no reason to follow the concept of "Buy Australian" that saw us through the 40 years post-WW2.

Thousands of small businesses are going under as we gaily press the Buy Now button on E bay for a product 20% cheaper from China. Not only do we lose the businesses but the money goes overseas instead of recirculating here increasing our massive foreign debt. Here we are carrying on like pork chops over GM's departure.

It is all BS, nobody gave a stuff about Ford, Chrysler or GM. The writing was on the wall years or even decades before their demise. What did we do? Buy more of their cars? No we screamed at the government to give them hundreds of millions of our taxpayers dollars and instead of buying a new Holden/Ford/Chrysler to bring them back to profitability we bought a new Hyundai.

I saw a photo of the employees car park at GMH taken about 10 years ago. Less than one in five cars were Holdens owned by the union members who drove the failed subsidies and are now shouting the loudest.

Most of those legends and assorted wankers crying crocodile tears in the newspapers have not personally bought a Holden for 20 years.

GM are not a charity organisation, Australia bought about 3 of their cars last year and we told them loud and clear we do not want them.

Lang