End of an Australian icon

[Tackleberry]

Well if you don't support a market it go's ...... simple as that ......

[ducky]

everything comes to an end. The cars weren’t good enough to last the distance. They all carked it around 250 thou. Couple that with a market that moved to SUV’s as the family cars there sfa you can do.

Sedans would have to be the least user friendly car ever. Big cars you can fit bugger all into.

I grew up a holden boy through and through. But owning a couple of them made me swear off them for life.

[piscateur]

It got too expensive to build here, plain and simple. As part of a International conglomerate, they're not going to build cars in a location that cost more. Its sad that we lost Holden but the writing was on the wall a very long time ago.

[Seniorfisho]

Well they can't play the old song "Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars"

[happyfriggincamper]

Is a shame and sad for all those affected, it's not just on the government but overarching company's strategy and approach on build. IMO the lack of quality and longevity of their core cars would have been a slow and steady leak in their profit margins, not so much cost (or location) of build. The amount of early 2000's (and prior) subarus, toyotas, mitsubishis, etc you still see on the roads in comparison to holden (and fords) of the same era indicates that their cars just dont last, nor hold decent resale value to validate buying new (or 2nd hand).

[4liters]

My housemate when I lived in Adelaide was a mechanic at a holden dealership. He told me to never ever buy a holden.

At one point he quit the Holden dealership and went to work at a Mazda dealer, but he quit after a few months because it was too boring. The Mazda’s he worked on were mostly older, dirty and there was only ever a few things that went wrong with them so the work wasn’t very stimulating. He said that by comparison the Holdens had any number of things that could go wrong which made it fun to try and diagnose. The Holdens were also newer cars so there was less grime and they were nicer to work on. His favourite was a SUV that had 3000km on the clock that no one could work out the issue with, eventually they found a big crack in the engine block.

[frozenpod]

It was only a question of when not if.

[Boonanza]

For anyone interested in buying a new Holden they will be clearing out all stock with big discounts.

Bargain hunters are expected to stampede Holden dealers across Australia as a dealer bulletin obtained by CarAdvice outlines discounts across the entire range of between $7500 and $17,500.

The biggest discounts are on the Holden Colorado ute, ranging from $13,000 to $17,500, slashing the drive-away cost by up to one-third on some models.

The Holden Trax city SUV is almost half price, with discounts ranging from $10,000 to $11,000, bringing this $23,990 model to the bargain price of about $13,000 – cheaper than a Hyundai hatchback cost 20 years ago.
The Holden Acadia seven-seat family SUV is between $11,500 and $17,000 off, between a quarter and one-third off the price of the car.

The cheapest discount is on the Holden Commodore – $7500 off – while the Astra hatch and sedan that were also discontinued last year have a flat rate of $8500 off to about $12,000 drive-away for the base models.

The mid-size Holden Equinox is also a flat rate $10,750 off, or about a third off the price of the base model, bringing it from a bit over $30,000 drive-away to close to $20,000 drive-away.

The confidential dealer bulletin said the discount pricing was not final and subject to change, but has been designed to help showrooms clear stock as quickly as possible.
The bulletin also said the discounts are not due to come into effect until March, approximately two weeks from now.

The notice also said it expected most dealers to be clear of stock within the next six months, well before the end of 2020.

Some dealers have told CarAdvice they expect to shut up shop by the end of this financial year, June 30.

[Tim399]

I no longer own a holden, so this won’t affect me, but what would this closure mean for genuine parts, in particular the models they are going to run out at a big discount? Would they be in short supply and soon hard to come by? If so, would this be part of the reason behind the big discount?

[4liters]

I no longer own a holden, so this won’t affect me, but what would this closure mean for genuine parts, in particular the models they are going to run out at a big discount? Would they be in short supply and soon hard to come by? If so, would this be part of the reason behind the big discount?

Consumer law requires replacement parts be available for a reasonable number of years I believe.

Chances are there’s enough of them at scrap yards to supply second hand parts for some time, and I’m sure there’s aftermarket parts available. It’s also likely that a number of the parts will just be generic and common to a number of different brands and models.