The Death Of An Australian Icon: Holden Is Lion Down.
For a bloke raised with the great triumvirate of car makers of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors-Holden, in the late ’60s and early ’70s, the news on a day that numerologists were salivating about (11/12/13) came as expected but still deeply unwelcome to me. The once great company, known as Holden, will be ceasing manufacturing in 2017. Just a few months after its also once great rival, Ford Australia, announced the same news, the unwanted confirmation was announced mid afternoon.
Sadly, it appears to be a combination of factors but a situation that will keep conspiracy theorists happy for a while. What is known: GM honcho Dan Akerman, a self confessed “non car guy”, advised Aussie boss Mike Devereux by phone just hours after Devereux said there still was no decision. In the statement to the press by Devereux is this: “The unfortunate fact is that as I stand here today, GM already has all the information it needs to know that our Next Gen business case is not viable.” And: ” We have looked at every possible option to build the Next Gen products here in Australia. But no matter which way we applied the numbers, the long-term business case is simply not viable.” Within the statement is no mention of lack of support financially from the Federal Government, however it’s this potentially vital point that will be debated for the next few years.
State of Play: Holden in Australia.
At the time of writing there’s still no firm answer on what will happen with Holden as a manufacturer in Australia. What is painfully and abundantly clear is this: if Holden ceases to build cars then so will Toyota. What follows from there is a huge increase in unemployment; not just the line workers in the factories but the suppliers, the companies that provide the raw materials in the form of electronics or metal or LEDs or bulbs or courier services and so on.
There’s been conflicting reports as to who/what/why from the Federal Government in regards to funding; the Labor Party says $150 million per year can be offered to keep Holden building whilst Opposition Senator Kim Carr says their is no committed funding for the automotive industry past 2020. The current acting Prime Minister, Warren Truss, says though that there are funds available now, in the order of over a billion dollars, thanks to unspent funds from other areas. The Government has written to Holden asking that they declare their intentions.
Queen: Great Driving Anthems
Legends of Music
Don’t Stop Me Now… because I Want It All… and I want to ride my Bicycle… while I’m rushing Headlong out of control. It’s a Hard Life…because I am the Invisible Man… but The Show Must Go On. It is a Kind of Magic… and Friends Will Be Friends… and most importantly I Am In Love With My Car.
Tokyo Motor Show – The Highlights
It must be a hard job, organising a motor show. There’s so many of them these days and it must be tricky to stop the shows becoming a bit same old-same old. At any given motor show, you can guarantee that there will be three things: (1) several new cars that are actually going to hit the roads will be unveiled; (2) someone will put out a great idea for a concept car that may or may not make its way into regular production but is a blinking good idea; (3) there will be some concept cars that look tacky, trashy, weird, ugly or the lot combined. In the bad old days of the 1960s and 1970s, when free love was in with neither the feminists nor AIDS to stop such things, they had nude female models attracting attention to the new cars. Thankfully, that sort of cheap shot has stopped and the show organisers have realised that – gosh golly gee whiz – women buy and drive cars, too. The Tokyo Motor Show tends to be well known for having more than its fair share of bizarre and out-there concepts, and I suspect that it is this feature that keeps the enthusiasts coming. And why not?
With the three standard features in mind, I checked out the goodies at the recent Tokyo Motor Show to find representatives from all three categories:
Level 2, 9 Help Street