http://www.msn.com/en-au...n/ar-BBEP4vo?li=AAgfYrD

Opel, which designed and builds the Astra and Commodore for Holden, has been sketching out its future this week. It was sold by GM in March, and now wants to run away from the GM legacy as fast as it can.

So, following the closure of Holden's local manufacturing, it looks like more upheaval is on its way in Australia. Let's back up and summarise the two big events leading to all this shenanigans.

The first is well-known: GM closed holden's local plant because it lost money, deciding instead to bring in and rebadge a motley collection of cars from its offshoots in South Korea and Europe, as well as the US.

The second reason then struck. GM decided earlier this year to sell off that European division, again because it couldn't be relied on to make money. In fact, it has been a bad loser.

Just one day before the Insignia/Commodore was first shown to the public, France's Peugeot-Citroen group purchased the Vauxhall and Opel brands, factories and centres of design and vehicle development. Vauxhall and Opel, by the way, once built separate ranges of cars from each other but are now identical bar the badge. Vauxhall sells in RHD Britain and Opel across the rest of Europe.

This week the bosses at the former GM European division have set out a plan to turn the ship around. It hinges on integrating deeply within Peugeot as quickly as possible, and cutting its GM ties. The mainstays of the GM-based cars will be killed off by 2021 and replaced by cars based on Peugeot platforms.

This should improve the bottom line by reducing four outgoings: development cost, factory tooling investment, purchasing prices and licensing fees to Detroit.

So here's the thing. The new Holden Commodore is a version of the European front-drive Opel Insignia, and is built in Germany. Before it's even gone on sale, GM globally walked away from it. That puts Holden in a weak position.

What follows is no surprise. Opel said this week it isn't really interested in building the new Insignia for long. We hear the car will die in about 2021. It'll be replaced by a saloon of similar size, but built on Peugeot's platform and using Peugeot's engines. It'll be a bigger version of the platform under the Peugeot 308 – a car we really rate.

So then, the new Commodore. On sale for less than four years. Orphan or collector's item? We'd say the former.

Holden will likely replace it with a version of Detroit's Chevrolet Malibu. Meanwhile the Astra will doubtless be swapped out for a hatch version of the current Oz Astra saloon, which is known as the Chevy Cruze in America.

This does not bode well. Check our tests of the Holden Astra saloon (a rebadged Chevy Cruze) and the Holden Astra hatch (a rebadged Opel Astra). The hatch is better-driving than the saloon, and better finished inside, and has more safety kit. It feels more expensive. More premium.

By the same token, the new Commodore might have attracted some criticism for being FWD. But it's actually a refined well-made car with loads of tech and safety features. The Malibu has been criticised (even by the soft American press) as dull to drive and lacking safety kit. The new Commodore has an AWD and V6 option. The Malibu stops at four cylinders and FWD. It doesn't even have HID headlamps, never mind the LED adaptive jobs you can get on the Insignia/Commodore. Nor head-up display or TFT instruments. You get the picture.

So it looks like Holden will lose the opportunity to sell Euro-developed cars, and rely instead on cheaper-feeling Korean and American ones.

Meanwhile, what of the future here for the new European combine? Well, Peugeot and Citroen have a distribution network here, so it wouldn't be that hard to re-launch the next generation Opel-Vauxhalls. They'd share lots of parts with the French-branded cars, which would make repair simpler. It's like the Skoda-Volkswagen-Audi setup.

This week's announcement said Opel would enter 20 new markets by 2022. Because Vauxhall has a deeper history than Opel in Oz, that might well be the brand they choose to use here. The Holden plant built Vauxhalls here until the late 1960s. The Opel badge could be too tainted by the disaster of its 2012-2013 foray into this country.

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Do you think they will refund the money for people who brought dealerships? haha

Mauser

Edited by user Tuesday, 14 November 2017 6:40:59 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Actually, why on earth do GM even want or need the brand Holden or even sell cars here? The market is minuscule and on the other side of the world. I doubt they can sell a brand that makes nothing to anyone either.

The 2-prong approach has worked well for Toyota/Lexus, and Nissan/Infiniti. Hyundai is modelling Genesis the same way.
I think you're onto something there with just Chev/Cadillac.

Australia’s Edsel

This is only the start of the many problems that will grow as time moves on.

Firstly the car companies have to accept that pricing increases by a new supplier or tooling must be accepted, as why would you make anything at a loss. They can then determine what they need to sell it at and if that will resolve complaints by the customer and avoid any ACCC pressure. If you were making normal production quantities then it might be viable but the chances are the requirement would now be for a very small quantity and you must consider set up and labour in the equation.Often the mark up by the car companies has to allow for storage, distribution, transport, profit and the various pricing levels they operate with. In the end it is the consumer that has to either accept or reject the pricing.

Over the years the car companies have decimated suppliers and their profits with cut down rates on supply. This is where they calculate a lower cost each year as they say you should be getting better at producing a part. Then you are threatened with competition from overseas cheaper sources which they end up using anyway. GMH once had a team of design people to do drawings etc. then reduced their staff and put the responsibility on the supplier. In a lot of cases, such as some headlights, they then sent the supplier drawings to competitors in Korea to produce at a lower cost.

As a supplier, in the past the tendency was to bend to pressure by the car companies or risk losing ongoing work. When GMH announced their closure at a supplier meeting many suppliers stated that the role has now been reversed and the pressure was now on the car companies to supply and accept increases. If you are a supplier only meeting local supply then obviously you may not get any more work from the car companies so what favour do you now owe them. The reason that many companies closed was they worked out it was not profitable just to be a supplier to the car companies.

Luckily some of our manufacturers were able to diversify earlier by either supplying both the car companies and the aftermarket. Others, such as Marand were able to move from car parts to aircraft parts for the USA. MTM is a company that is still doing good business in supplying door checkers to the USA. Ryco/GUD have a healthier business in the replacement parts sector than the car companies. Unfortunately many suppliers left it too late or missed opportunities to change.

One of the failings with some suppliers is that they never checked their actual costs as materials and labour increased. They still supplied at the original pricing when they were doing production quantity. Then there was the reluctance to approach the car companies and negotiate any increases due to the attitude of the car company buyers.So they then went into producing and supply at low cost or even at a loss.

It is interesting to note that many of those buyers are no longer employed due to the closures, retirement and redundancy. Many sought work in the aftermarket but had burnt their bridges or their reputation preceded them. Their days of long lunches and Christmas gifts only added to the cost to suppliers. On the other hand the new generation of graduates that were employed in the last remaining years had lost the ability to negotiate and understand the industry. They had little background in Automotive and the tier structure of the supplier system. For most it was the adding of companies to their CV for future applications in some other industry.

Like many it is sad to see the industry disintegrate and disappear from our shores but the memory will continue with the restoration and display of the cars that built our heritage.

I would say that the new Commodore will reflect the future of a big car for Australia, 4 cyl will be the main go.

Australia's future is RS, Fuel could be $2 a Litre not to far off, easy as because Australia has given up on refining our fuel as well so that's out of our hands to do anything about and a recipe for disaster and Tax on rego etc will go through the roof, the Government debt still will not be addressed, so you have another recipe for disaster, not to mention the USA is bankrupt and the fact that only Donald Trump is the only man who could deal with that, not to mention the only one who could be bothered with addressing the issue, as the rest of them are just like 5 year olds who reject to comprehend the facts of reality, but then again they have been working as hard as they can to destroy the USA totally with their Marxist agendas.
So it don't look good and as Russia says they don't want to deal in USA dollars, because it's worthless, China and other Nations are saying it, so you have another recipe for disaster if Trump can not get on with his way.
High inflation is on the cards as well, so how many could by a V8 down the track.

I am all for RWD V8's but we have been sh-tting in our own nest for far to long and the Political Correct Marxist sh-t for brains Nazis are in control of everything, just working to enslave all of us with all their total BS, not to mention their is no need for their crap at all.

Chevrolet has been a brand in Australia for a long time Nick. Not a lot since the 70’s though, however a portion of the population must rate it as they think their LS powered Holdens are Chevrolets.

The next Camaro will be factory built RHD. The GFC was the reason the prior Camaro wasn’t and why we didn’t get it here. Holden always planned to have the Camaro.

Nick, my point was there is no need to soften Australia for the Chevrolet brand. It has a long history here.

Holden is already dead in Australia in many people's eyes, the GFC killed off any chance of a future for a locally built Holden car or Ford for that matter. Unless Holden somehow import and sell a brilliant dual cab ute and an SUV they have no future in the current market, and then who cares if they are branded Holden or Chevrolet anyway? Personally i'd rather have a Chverolet branded car than something with a Holden badge whacked on.

The Camaro is done by HSV which is no longer Holden based, same with the Silverado trucks. I feel Holden's interest in HSV having the Camaro is for the time being people still associate the two, and it gives them an arm's length figurehead until the Corvette can be sold here RHD. When you think of the three most iconic touring cars in our history there is a Camaro, a Monaro and a Mustang. Ford have their Mustang (albeit a shadow of its performance past in most available power plants) and now Holden can point to their Camaro. Whether or not GM allow Holden to have large volumes of the next Camaro in factory RHD we'll see. Hopefully we see it in Supercars in the future.