Commodore had to go

Comment

Self-help books say admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery.

Holden axing Commodore is proof that the executives in charge of the brand admit they have a problem.

The car they foisted the Commodore badge upon was doomed from the start. Not that it was a bad car – it’s far from that.

It simply wasn’t a Commodore and the weight of that badge meant that it was both unlikely to satisfy the faithful, and at the same time not attract new buyers to the fold. It should have had a different name.

But that now is a moot point.

Holden has made many more mistakes since it closed local manufacturing. It believed, arrogantly, that it could bulldoze its long-term buyers into the furrows it chose to plough. It believed that it could control the messaging with heavy-handed, and at the same time remote, relations with the auto media.

But worst of all of its mistakes, it meekly accepted average and disparate product and then tried to sell it off as vehicles with Holden DNA and all the benefits that conferred.

By taking the decision to align Holden with two strong and related market segments, the optimist in me says there is at last the potential for light at the end of the tunnel. Australia loves SUVs and utes and the rest of the world has at, the very least, a healthy crush.

That global demand potentially allows GM to create a cohesive portfolio of SUVs and LCVs under one of its brands and therein lies the opportunity for Holden.

Cherry picking models from three or four GM brands and attempting to reconstitute them under one brand (Holden) was always going to be difficult, if not impossible. Building a brand people want to be part of requires a little more than banging a badge on a grille and dusting off your hands.

But GM is an auto powerhouse that has the ability to bring great products to market.

If, and it’s still a big if, Holden can genuinely embed itself into the development of a future range of SUVs and LCVs and deliver on its ‘made for Australia’ promise, there are healthier times ahead.

The absentia from passenger cars also clears the way for GMs dedicated car brands to have a place in the Australian marketplace.

There will now be no Commodore or other Holden badged cars (from GM or third parties) to cramp Cadillac’s style, should GM decide to build the brand in right-hand drive and establish a luxury beachhead Down Under.

The showrooms are also now clear for Corvette to play a role in the (re)normalization of American nameplates Down Under.

Nobody, least of all me, believes it’s going to be easy for Holden to arrest its slide into irrelevance. But, perhaps the decision made public this week at least gives Holden a hand-hold.

What happens next – in many areas of the company’s business practices and relationships – will be telling.