The end of Holden

I really do miss my '05 GTO. A great grand tourer with some of the comfiest seats I've ever had and power on tap.

Thing was heavy and thanks to regulations, trunk was nearly nonexistent due to the gas tank being moved up but still looked great. Like a jelly bean with nostrils. Monaro-swaps truly make it look better.

I would've loved it if GM brought over the Commodore wagon at some point, but knowing GM, it would've been overpriced and barely advertised; see 'Chevy SS'

The rumors of GTOs being totaled due to the smallest of accidents were true last I remember. 

volvoclearinghouse said:

The real sign that automotive gentrification is reaching its climax will be when the Aussies and the UK switch to left hand drive.  You know it's coming.  

I could possibly see that happen in Australia or NZ as they seem a bit more pragmatic, but the UK or Japan?  Nah...  Too proud.

I don't think the term is gentrification. I think you're looking for homogenization. 

"World car" concepts come and go as automakers realize that different markets reward different cars, then they realize that this is expensive so they try to use a single platform, then they realize that different markets reward different cars, etc.

Switching a highly mobilized country from RHD to LHD is a real challenge. Sweden did it in 1967, but 90% of the cars were already LHD.

The Tesla Model S should've been a Holden, but for lack of foresight on GM's part.

Holden Engineering knew large sedans far better than anyone else at GM, they already had contact with Panasonic for a lot of electronics, and GM had more investment and knowledge on electric vehicles than anyone else. 

If they weren't going to create an innovative product that could meet standards anywhere in the world, what was the use of having that talent? So it went away, and now it can't come back.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Automotive gentrification would be like, say, if automakers made cheap, basic utility vehicles that they sold cheap because they were meant for working.  Then people started using them as daily drivers, and the automakers started catering to them for daily driver use rather than cheap work vehicles, and 30 years later we have new pickups that cost as much as an average house and the beds are so high they are useless unless you have a stepladder and a forklift.

Last of the big V8's, mate.  
 

Knurled. said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Automotive gentrification would be like, say, if automakers made cheap, basic utility vehicles that they sold cheap because they were meant for working.  Then people started using them as daily drivers, and the automakers started catering to them for daily driver use rather than cheap work vehicles, and 30 years later we have new pickups that cost as much as an average house and the beds are so high they are useless unless you have a stepladder and a forklift.

You're hitting the nail right on the head. I've been trying to help my dad buy a new truck lately. There's nothing wrong with his 06 Avalanche with 230K miles on it; but, the coil spring rear isn't the best for towing the Chumpcar around. He's not looking to spend $60k on a truck but he's annoyed that you get absolutely nothing from GM for $35k in a V8 truck even with all the discounts. After driving my Sequoia and seeing how stout it is, he might be jumping ship to a Tundra after being a die hard GM guy for his whole life. 

There are still cheap trucks, you just need to go looking for them. MSRP on a V8 Silverado starts at $35,890 before discounts. Just for fun, I jumped on the website of my local GM dealership and they have a $35k V8 truck in stock. Rubber mats and all.

And in the good 'ol days of 20 years ago, that's equivalent of an MSRP of $23,484.16. As best as I can decipher from Autotrader.com, the V8 trucks started at right about that same place in 2000.

As for bed height, my father in law has a 1996 F350. Bed access is about the same as it is on my 2010 Ram.

Dr. Hess said:

I still recall walking one of those supercharged GTO's on the interstate.  Good times.

If it was factory supercharged, it wasn't a GTO. Maybe you're thinking of a Bonneville, or Grand Prix.

dculberson said:

Dr. Hess said:

I still recall walking one of those supercharged GTO's on the interstate.  Good times.

If it was factory supercharged, it wasn't a GTO. Maybe you're thinking of a Bonneville, or Grand Prix.

The Grand Prix and the GTO did look a lot alike, it was one of the reasons cited for poor sales of the GTO. 

Grand Prix

GTO

Lots of people couldn't tell the difference.  I think GM added the hood scoops in 2005 to help, but too little too late. 

I always hated the criticism of "The GTO looked boring". The original GTO was just a '64 Tempest with some hoodscoops, as far as appearances went. And while a '64 Tempest nowadays looks pretty cool, in 1964 they were considered pretty sedate and boring. So really, the modern GTO was just staying true to its roots. It wasn't until '68 and '69, when they got the Endura front bumper, hideaway headlights, hood tach, rear spoiler and Judge packaging that they got visually exciting.

Id like to know where I can get one of these $30,000 new houses that costs as much as a new pickup.

No surprise about Holden, especially after the death of Pontiac.

The Australian manufacturing industry suffers from the same thing the American manufacturing industry does: The workers actually get paid. It's expensive to have Australians build things. 

Almost every day recently I've been driving what i consider a testament to Australian auto manufacturing industry: My dad's old Diamante. The Mitsubishi Diamante (Magna over there) was built in Australia.  

It's got 278k miles on it and I have never once replaced or rebuilt anything truly major. It has almost entirely original suspension and steering under it and still rides pretty well. Comparing it to any other Mitsu from the same time period is some pretty stark relief. Most Toyotas and Hondas from that year are not holding up as well. The level of problems it has right now are what i would consider 'acceptable' at 10 years old and 150k, not ~20 years and ~300k. 

Holden was the last company manufacturing cars in Australia. As mention ford stopped a few years ago. Obviously now a way too small of a market to build cars there or for that matter spending the money to have right side driving.

from a racing point of view this could be the death of the v8 super car series. Not sure that series or formula can survive without holden unless ofcourse in the future holden teams just run say on hsv camaro body. The series did have some factory effort from Nissan and Mercedes but they quickly left the series.

I enjoyed my 2005 GTO for the year or so I had it. Fast, super-comfy, pretty good ride for what it was. And I think it looked pretty good when I had it all cleaned up:

As much as this one hurts, and it really hurts, it was inevitable. Pour one out indeed.

A friend picked up a G8 GXP with a 6MT last year. As awesome as it is, and as Australian-nuts as it is, it's still a GM car. The interior, even though it's light years ahead of the other stuff being hawked by The General at the time, feels cheap, rattly, and creaky. Fit and finish isn't great, either. But man, for a big sedan, the thing will dance! It flat out GOES when you ask it to. Yes, I want one, even with all its faults, and so do you.

I still don't understand how GM built another generation of these (the SS here in the States) and couldn't find buyers for them. I chalk it up to two things: dealers artificially inflating the price because it's "special", and zero advertising. Dodge sells the similar Charger R/T, and people buy them, year after year with no signs of slowing. They advertise them on TV and everything; I literally just saw an ad on TV just now as a tie-in for F&F9 with a Charger AND a Challenger in the ad. And dealers actually will sell you one with incentives and everything. How come GM couldn't do that?

Ugh.

Tony Sestito said:

I still don't understand how GM built another generation of these (the SS here in the States) and couldn't find buyers for them. I chalk it up to two things: dealers artificially inflating the price because it's "special", and zero advertising. Dodge sells the similar Charger R/T, and people buy them, year after year with no signs of slowing. They advertise them on TV and everything; I literally just saw an ad on TV just now as a tie-in for F&F9 with a Charger AND a Challenger in the ad. And dealers actually will sell you one with incentives and everything. How come GM couldn't do that?

It wasn't the dealers, it was the MSRP on the SS that was sky-high. As mentioned earlier, they only sold it here to fulfill a contractual obligation to the union. It is/was a great car, but GM followed the "how not to sell a car" playbook to a T with it:

1. Price it too high
2. Don't ever advertise it even a litttle
3. Give it a stupid name
4. Make it look like a Malibu
5. Profit?

V8 Supercars may continue with a different look. Ford sells the Mustang in Australia, and GM maybe sells Camaros and there is some speculation GM may send lhd cars to Aus where they will be converted to red. May we see a new pony car war?

I sent a note to a customer in Australia and asked his thoughts.  

1. Prime Minister not happy after dumping $2b into helping Holden in the past.  

2.  Most people want a more practical car and are not as brand specific.

In reply to Tom_Spangler :

When I had an Accord I saw my first SS on the highway and was wondering if a new Malibu SS had been released cause it looked good.  But it wasn't a Malibu......

Rons said:

V8 Supercars may continue with a different look. Ford sells the Mustang in Australia, and GM maybe sells Camaros and there is some speculation GM may send lhd cars to Aus where they will be converted to red. May we see a new pony car war?

Hsv is already doing that

https://www.hsv.com.au/see/camaro/

Also doing it with the HD trucks and supposed to be doing with the 1500 trucks aswell.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

In reply to Knurled :

I try to chose my words carefully; both "gentrification" and "homogenization" could describe what's going on, depending on which cars/ companies/ etc.  But "gentrification" seemed a bit more...edgy?...and Knurled was able to convey succinctly a thought that was sort of bouncing around in my brains when I typed it.  

I understand his point - I don't completely agree with it, but it's a common refrain - but I think it's different than yours. You described the merging of cultures, that's not gentrification.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Dodge at this point could probably mint V8 chargers and sell them for half what the MSRP on an SS was, and still profit on each one.  Same with Chally's.  And dangit, they _look_ the part.  

When whatever government regulation essentially legislates those two cars out of existence, I might just have to pony up for one of the last ones.  It irks me to no end that they'll sell you a 6MT Chally but not the Charger, and that there isn't some sort of utilitarian version (ute?  wagon?) version of either.  But I guess that's the world.  

Keith Tanner said:

I understand his point - I don't completely agree with it, but it's a common refrain - but I think it's different than yours. You described the merging of cultures, that's not gentrification.

Not...exactly.  When a strip mall full of chain restaurants opens up in a small southern town and the mom and pop joints shu down, that's more along the lines of gentrification.  Or the orange and blue stores take out Drucker's General Hardware.  Or the world becomes obsessed with pod-shaped high-riders in place of a wider pallette of car types.  It's not merging cultures- it's one culture wiping out the others.