Holden to leave Austrailia...

[lakeviewlad]

No more "Football,meat pies,kangaroos and Holden cars..." Sad to hear that Holden is to quit production after so many years. I have a friend who lived in Oz from 1965 to 1990 and he always reminises about his Holden Ute and tubes of VB... Ah,the rose tinted memories...

[RickUK]

What's happening to the poor old 'roos?? Are they being deported?

[skyetoyman]

What's happening to the poor old 'roos?? Are they being deported?

Only in the meat pies

[chris]

I was talking to my brother who runs a car restoring business from home, He wishes he had the same deal as the car industries that don't have to return a profit but rely on government handouts from taxpayers money to survive, he doesn't get any subsidy and has to run his business successfully to survive. I feel for the people losing their jobs as I would say they worked as efficientlyand as hard as possible, I wonder what could have been done to keep the industry viable.

[Stelios_Rjk]

Kill the bankers.

[Grumpy]

I've been around a long time.
Had Velox's, a Hillman. Fords galore, Triumphs including a PI model with independant rear suspension an innovation way ahead of its time, a Toyota. numerous Nissans, Nissan truck and a van.but never ever had a Holden.
Never.
Was tempted once a long long time ago but chose a Skoda instead.
Perhaps one of the better decisions I made, somehow I must have intuitively known that Holdens were on a tightrope
Just knew they would never catch on.

[Grumpy]

And of course I've had 2 of the finest vehicles ever created.
A 1971 2a landrover, and a 1980 3.5 v8, both military issue.
Gifts from heaven albeit via the UK.
I reckon that if I had possessed seagulls at the same time I could have traversed continents and oceans, perhaps even have discovered new lands and become famous.
Perhaps

[1650bullet]

People always tell me about landrovers (Range Rover) being heaps of junk and they always leak oil and there old fashioned as such. But why are they still going, why are they shipping all over the world Perhaps holden should of stuck with the same principles, and maybe they could still be going. The only thing that was keeping the Australian car industry going was government hand outs. Our new Government and the CEO of GM has come to a conclusion that it was money down the drain. The only car manufacturer left in Australia is The Toyota Camry, Government funded.Its just not good business to build cars in Oz anymore. Slowly all the china made cars are coming in now

[JERSEYMAN]

Well, 24 years in the business, mainly repairing Landrovers and Yup, they are rubbish, anything that can fail will fail, if it rains, there is more water inside the vehicle than out, if you cannot see the water inside that's because it's under the carpet flooding the electrics and lets not talk about the oil leaks. The firm I worked for had 16 vehicle franchises but half the cars that arrived on the breakdown wagon were Landrovers, saying that, I do like them for what they are but would I own one. They sell because Landrover marketing is very clever and that they are fashionable to own, a bit like G-Strings, looks great in the right place but would you wear one!!

Now I'd better look out for those Landy folks, they just love them

[Charles uk]

You've just stumbled into a Minefield Rene!

I bet there are more landy owners on this site than any other brand of vehicle,
I will let you know if they put a contract out on you, buy some kevlar underwear!

[Stelios_Rjk]

Such decisions, to stop funding an industry, seems prearranged to me in order to be created an economic depression. It's not only Holden, there are also many suppliers whose making parts for Holden. There are 2900 persons working in Holden and there is a threat about loosing also their jog another 50000 working in suppliers.

[lakeviewlad]

I'm surprised by the reaction of some... As for Land Rover? Hmm,I have driven Series landies from teenage years AND I owned 2 myself. They are what they are..."The British Empire in 4WD" simple as that. They leak oil,water,fuel and brake fluid(Brakes?),they stick in gear,they stick in fwd,they have no lights worth a damn,the diesel version would not pull you out of bed,they guzzle ANY fuel ye care to put in them and they are a nightmare in a carpark....BUT,don't get me wrong,I spent over 10 years in the company of Series Land Rovers and have a soft spot for them...of course that's just what they love,a SOFT SPOT! They love mud,streams,hills,valleys,sand,(Salisbury Plain... ) diesel,petrol,oil,water and we love them! All Hail the LAND ROVER!!!

[1650bullet]

A lot of the parts that make holdens in Australia have already been coming from china Stelios. Holdens problems have been Diff whines because of crap china steel and manufacturing. Croweater (John who done the murray river) works for ROH Wheels who done the wheels for holden cars lost work because they were importing them from china. John would have to get all the stuffed wheels and fix them up because that many are out of balance. The late model holdens used to have bad fuel tank leaks because of china. At the end of the day it came down to poor management. Looks like holden is going to be replaced by the brand name Chevy I heard.

[Stelios_Rjk]

So it's a combination of problems that leads to this situation.

[lakeviewlad]

Look what I've started! We could start a political party here and sort the world out...