Holden On For Australia
It’s history now that Holden, Ford and Toyota have declared they’re closing up shop manufacturing wise from now until 2017. Today Holden unveiled some of its plans for the future, including keeping possession of its iconic handling and proving ground, Lang Lang, south east of Melbourne. Originally, talk was of Holden looking for buyers, yet the value was only of a few million allegedly so it makes more long term sense for Holden to keep it and use it to tweak the cars it will import to suit Australian roads.
The announcement also covered that Opel will return to Australia and once again will wear a Holden badge. Reading between the lines, however, it seems somewhat “co-incidental” that Opel closed its operations with Holden then announcing it would cease local manufacturing. There’s three cars; the Insignia, Astra (GTC and VXR) hatches and Cascada convertible. There’s still some Holden in the Insignia, however, with a turbocharged 2.8L V6 under the shapely bonnet.
The announcement was done at Holden’s Melbourne office, complete with high power attendees in the form of Stefan Jacoby, General Motors Executive Vice President and President, GM International Operations and Holden Chairman Gerry Dorizas. It’s a reaffirmation of the committment that the name, at least, will stay in Australia, at the expense, some will say, of the history and the livelihoods of the engine plant and assembly workers.
There is more to come, so stay tuned…
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