advertisement


Holden out no longer...

Arkless Electronics said:
In TV world good guys in Fiat Pandas or Transit vans can easily catch (or escape from) bad guys in Ferrari's!
Click to expand...
Or bad-guys in Mini Coopers can outrun police driving much faster Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600s.


As for Holden, its fate was sealed when Opel was sold to PSA Peugeot-Citroën. The Holden brand wasn't included in that sale, but Holden relied on products shared with Opel, which PSA immediately moved onto its own designs, leaving Holden without a way to share costs on model development. For PSA, this was win-win: it operates in Australia, so hobbling a competitor there was a nice bonus to add to the economies of scale it gained in Europe as part of the deal.
 
A linked closure is the Chevrolet branded RHD cars made in Thailand. I believe this used to be Daewoo.
This factory has been sold to Great Wall
 
KrisW said:
Or bad-guys in Mini Coopers can outrun police driving much faster Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600s.


As for Holden, its fate was sealed when Opel was sold to PSA Peugeot-Citroën. The Holden brand wasn't included in that sale, but Holden relied on products shared with Opel, which PSA immediately moved onto its own designs, leaving Holden without a way to share costs on model development. For PSA, this was win-win: it operates in Australia, so hobbling a competitor there was a nice bonus to add to the economies of scale it gained in Europe as part of the deal.
Click to expand...

Do PSA even sell 5,000 cars a year in Oz ?
 
...and if the market for right-hookers is 25% of the total, why pull out for that reason?

BTW I really hate that 'British Brand' marketing that Vauxhall are using. But I guess they only make cars for Leavers.
 
tones said:
My brother-in-law's pride and joy is one of these:

https://www.shannons.com.au/library...8-holden-hk-monaro-gts-327-bathurst-coupe.jpg

an HK Monaro GTS, one of the first Monaros, and in this silver colour. I had the job of driving his bride to the wedding in it. He had modified it a bit, and it was truly awful - uncomfortable, noisy and gear changes were almost two-handed jobs. It was so truck-like in its behaviour that I used to refer to it as the Bedford (Vauxhall's then commercial vehicles division, also present Downunder).
Click to expand...

I always thought the big Holdens looked a bit odd - almost like the product of a wrong side of the blanket liaison between something like a dainty little HA Vauxhall Viva and a 'proper' big hairy-chested Merkin muscle car. Maybe that Bedford link helps explain why :)
 
KrisW said:
Or bad-guys in Mini Coopers can outrun police driving much faster Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600s.


As for Holden, its fate was sealed when Opel was sold to PSA Peugeot-Citroën. The Holden brand wasn't included in that sale, but Holden relied on products shared with Opel, which PSA immediately moved onto its own designs, leaving Holden without a way to share costs on model development. For PSA, this was win-win: it operates in Australia, so hobbling a competitor there was a nice bonus to add to the economies of scale it gained in Europe as part of the deal.
Click to expand...

Anyone else been taken aback by all the Vauxhall ads on TV generally making something of their "Britishness"? Actually now part of PSA and not British at all!
 
wacko said:
Do PSA even sell 5,000 cars a year in Oz ?
Click to expand...
Probably not these days, but there was a time Downunder when Peugeots were THE car to have for Outback motoring. For the Outback, you generally don't need 4WD, but you do need considerable ground clearance (this explains why just about every other vehicle north of Cairns in Queensland is a Toyota Land Cruiser). Probably relying on experience in the French African colonies, the old Peugeots has enormous (for those days) 16" wheels and worm drive differentials, i.e. no great ball of crown wheel and pinion casing hanging down). Those old cars (203, 403, 404) still have a considerable following Downunder.
 
What on Earth are Aussies going to talk about in the pub now?!

The Ford/Holden battle was always a lovely conversation starter!

My father in law has a 1976 Holden ute with a dirty great v8 in it. Truly awful, but sooooooo Australian it hurts.
 
Vauxhall = French car assembled in Britain so a little British perhaps , so not something to make a song and dance over
 
peter bj said:
Vauxhall = French car assembled in Britain so a little British perhaps , so not something to make a song and dance over
Click to expand...
Funny that... when those same Astras are sold in Ireland as Opels, they call them "German cars". (There was even an old ad for the Mokka where Jürgen Klopp tried to suggest to us that cars built in Zaragoza by an American company - as it was then - are "German")
 
Haha that tells you everything. Presumably they thought of saying they were British, with Nigel Farage heading up the advertising, but maybe they thought 'German' would come across better :)
 
Arkless Electronics said:
Anyone else been taken aback by all the Vauxhall ads on TV generally making something of their "Britishness"? Actually now part of PSA and not British at all!
Click to expand...

KrisW said:
Funny that... when those same Astras are sold in Ireland as Opels, they call them "German cars". (There was even an old ad for the Mokka where Jürgen Klopp tried to suggest to us that cars built in Zaragoza by an American company - as it was then - are "German")
Click to expand...

They haven't been British designed since the 1970s. The Mk1 Cavalier and the Chevette, though some were assembled in the UK, were Opel designs, and every Vauxhall since has been, barring badging and minor styling differences - e.g. the Mk1 Cavalier was a Mk2 Opel Ascona with the frontal styling of the Manta grafted on, all three were basically the same car. Vauxhall and Opel were merged into one company (still under GM ownership) in, I think, the 1970s. Opel was used on the sporty cars (Manta and Monza) until the late 1980s when the Opel name was dropped altogether in the UK.
 
KrisW said:
Funny that... when those same Astras are sold in Ireland as Opels, they call them "German cars". (There was even an old ad for the Mokka where Jürgen Klopp tried to suggest to us that cars built in Zaragoza by an American company - as it was then - are "German")
Click to expand...
And many BMW and Mercedes SUVs are produced in the southern US states.
 
It`s a bit of a mixed blessing having a British built vehicle - if Morris Marinas had been built in Germany would they have been rugged and reliable?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top