Holden: Win on Sunday, gone on Monday

Three years after Holden stopped making cars, its factory racing team may have gone out with a bang by winning its last Bathurst 1000 on the weekend, but it won’t be a case of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ for Australia’s one-time favourite automotive brand.

In fact, while privateer Holden teams will continue to race the imported ZB Commodore in the 2021 Supercars championship, GM Specialty Vehicles dealers are unlikely to sell a road-going version of the Chevrolet Camaro racer that will replace it under new Gen3 regulations from 2022.

And as General Motors takes the next steps to dismantle the Holden brand it axed in February, less than 200 new Holden vehicles remain in Holden showrooms around Australia, where the once-loved Holden lion logo will be little more than a memory beyond this year.

As of today, just 180 new Holden vehicles remain listed at carsales.com.au – Australia’s biggest online automotive marketplace – along with 52 near-new or demo models.

Prices start at $21,490 drive-away for an MY20 Astra R auto, $24,990 drive-away for an MY20 Trax LS auto, $26,888 drive-away for an MY20 Equinox LT auto, $31,888 drive-away for an MY20 Commodore LT and $34,980 drive-away for an MY19 Acadia LT.

However, buyers can expect much bigger discounts as dealers are being forced to quit all Holden stock by the end of this year.

All new models have disappeared from Holden’s public website and all Holden signage has now been removed from the Salmon Street, Port Melbourne, head office of General Motors Australia and New Zealand (GMANZ), the new entity that now handles GMSV, Isuzu NZ and the Holden aftersales businesses in Australia and NZ.

According to a confidential GM Holden dealer bulletin issued in July and obtained by carsales, Holden dealers were given until September 30 to agree to remove all ‘New Car’ signage on their showrooms if they accepted GM’s offer to pay for its dismantling (excluding any remediation or make good work).

Although it is not listed in GM’s Transition Support Package, carsales understands that if a dealer accepts Holden’s offer to pay for signage removal it must be completed by the end of 2020.

The removal of Holden signage has been taking place at showrooms around Australia for the past few months, one of the most high-profile recent examples of which was Von Bibra’s Robina Holden on the Gold Coast earlier this month.

Dealer sources say Holden signage at more than half of the brand’s 203 showrooms around the country has already been removed. Some dealers are keeping their Holden signage in place until they can replace it with a new brand. According to our sources the deadline for removal of all dealer signage is the end of 2022.

The signage removal order applies to showrooms with either original ‘Gen 1 Burgundy’ colour scheme or the new ‘Gen 2 Dealership of the Future (DOTF)’ corporate identity introduced from November 2017.

At the time, GM said Holden and its dealer network would co-invest more than $150 million to install the new signage over three years following 12 months of research, design and testing.

In both cases, all dealers must remove all internal and external Holden signage including lettering, logos, fascia panels, dealer names, used cars lettering, miscellaneous/retro signage and genuine accessory showcase wall lettering.

The only exceptions are on-site welcome/directional signs, which may be retained, and dealers have been given the option to retain their signage for sentimentality’s sake.

In terms of Holden service outlets, dealers who are continuing as an official Holden Service Operation (HSO) must meet GM’s HSO CI Minimum Certified Service Requirements, including at least one Certified Service sign in “a prominent position viewable from the customer entry” on their HSO building fascia and within its reception area.

Existing Gen 2 DOTF Service & Parts signage can remain for ongoing HSOs until the expiry of the HSO agreement, but all Gen 1 Burgundy Service & Parts signage must be removed.

Finally, ‘Holden Certified Service’ lettering will be supplied by GM for service outlets that continue with their Holden pylon, flag and projector signage, be it Gen 1 Burgundy or Gen 2 DOTF.

GM Australia and NZ has committed to aftersales support – including servicing, parts, recall and warranty work – for current Holden owners for “at least 10 years”, but is offering HSO contracts to dealers for only five years.

Separately, GMANZ will soon appoint its network of GMSV dealers – many of which will also be Holden service outlets – to sell the Chevrolet Silverado pick-up and, from late 2021, the Chevrolet Corvette.

Earlier this month GM urged Australians who placed deposits with Holden dealers for the new C8 to ask for their money back.

The first mid-engined – and the first global – Corvette will be imported direct from the US in factory right-hand drive form for the first time, while the Silverado will continue to be converted to RHD by the Walkinshaw Automotive Group, but this time on a contract basis with sales via GMSV not HSV.

“In Australia and New Zealand, we will work very closely with our key partners – the soon-to-be-appointed GMSV dealers, Holden service outlets, Walkinshaw Automotive Group and Isuzu – to grow our businesses and theirs,” said Holden New Zealand managing director Marc Ebolo in a statement earlier this month, when he was named as GMANZ’s first managing director, effective November 1.

“I look forward to working with our partners and to bringing to Australia and New Zealand exciting new vehicles from GM’s global portfolio, to compete in niche segments.”

As we’ve reported, GM sold (but retains access to) its Lang proving ground to Vietnamese start-up car-maker VinFast in September following a bitter compensation battle with its dealer network.

GM’s axing of Holden and the relationship between car-makers and their dealers was the subject of a Senate inquiry in August and a second one to investigate the wider auto industry announced earlier this month.