Thread: The Holden Story

Oh yes, my holden experiences. Damned pollies reducing the tariffs.The first was the trusty old HD. The little red 179 with bottom end knock. Taco said I was ringing 5000 out of it on the speedway, still couldnt kill it. Always a bit worried I would throw a rod out the side, which the odd one seemed to.She even survived a T-bone and subsequent roll over. Replaced a buckled rim, a slight dent in the roof, apart from that, good to go. A bit slow, but a good unit.The Kermit green (TF if memory serves me right). Got stolen when living in Sydney. Probably ended up in the bottom of the Georges river!!!Best handling car I have ever owned with the lowered suspension. The more powerful stuff would take me on the straights, but would catch up on the twisty stuff. You could tell the engine was made by a truck builder.

A recent trade mag, had manufacturing at no.3 still in employment, 900,000 odd, health, no.1 at 1.3m. Seems SA in for a rough trot shortly, with 8000 to get the chop in component suppliers - and the businesses classed as non-viable, maybe they can get jobs in the no 2 industry, retail, oh wait, online shopping!

Quite stunning the breadth of stuff we used to make though. Anyway, wouldn't worry too much about the cars, with refining capacity all but gone and a reserve of maybe a matter of weeks, a few hiccups in that supply chain might have us doing a fred flintstone and barney rubble impersonation.

Originally Posted by Glenn.Visca

Not surprising ... Who owns a Holden eh? Anyone who bitches about the loss of the industry and doesn't own a locally built car should keep their fat mouths shut as far as I am concerned.

And yes ... I own a VE SSV.

What a silly statement.

I don't own a locally assembled vehicle but still wish for a local industry. Holden manufacture the commodore and Cruze. I love Commodores particularly SS and above but it's hardly going to tow my jayco expanda outback into Deau National Park.

And when it came time for my wife's new small car did I get a Cruze. No way. Worst maintenance costs of our fleet at work. We bought a corolla and its quality is amazing.

Holden and Ford have built cars for an ever diminishing market and have paid the price for it. When your marketing boils down to how many more KW the new model puts out your selling to a market from 1980.

I have every right to voice an opinion without the prerequisite of purchasing a car that doesn't suit my use or has poor quality control.





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Originally Posted by dazzler

What a silly statement.

I don't own a locally assembled vehicle but still wish for a local industry. Holden manufacture the commodore and Cruze.

Do they make the Cruze here...

It is a god awful car, typical eurocrap design.. I drove one a few times and it could never make up it;s mind what gear to be in... Was slow off the mark..

I do like the utes though.. If I had the need I would have one of them..

Originally Posted by .RC.

Do they make the Cruze here...

It is a god awful car, typical eurocrap design.. I drove one a few times and it could never make up it;s mind what gear to be in... Was slow off the mark..

I do like the utes though.. If I had the need I would have one of them..

I have a Holden Rodeo 4WD flat tray utility - best ute Holden never built. Made by Isuzu in Thailand.

Just like shipping, aircraft et al - if you can't build competitive stuff, don't expect me to subsidise the inefficiencies. Heard all the arguments about preserving jobs and I frankly don't care. The jobs and money will go somewhere more productive. Nobody sheds a tear over the demise of typing pools after all.

That goes quadruple for defence related builds. There's nothing as expensive as second rate military equipment. Building more subs in Australia when we could buy/lease USA Virginia class nuke boats instead, CHEAPER, has to be one of the most stupid military spending decisions of all time. You don't build subs to keep a workforce employed, you have subs to keep your possibly hostile neighbours sleepless at night.....

I read a book on the 'defence' of Rabaul in WW2 recently - case in point being the crap planes et al we had compared to the Japanese. We paid for that in blood.

The demise of Holden doesn't even rate a crocodile tear, sorry. They didn't build cars the market wanted. The reasons are legion and irrelevant.

PDW

Hartnett's Autobiography is a fascinating read if you can find a copy, he goes right into the Holden start up and his demise within the company.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

Hartnett's Autobiography is a fascinating read if you can find a copy, he goes right into the Holden start up and his demise within the company.

Is that "Big Wheels and Little Wheels" ?

Jordan

I think so, it must be twenty years since I last read it.

I don't know too many auto manufacturers that aren't given subsidies from their respective countries. Of course these companies need to make vehicles that sell sufficient units to stay afloat.

We do need to realise that a successful economy needs at least some manufacturing. Karleen (think that's how its spelt)Pratt made an interesting comparison between Germany and Greece. Germany with at least some manufacturing and Greece with none to speak of. You need more than some tourism and agriculture to make an economy work. Im not saying there arent other forces adding to Greece's woes, but a mfr sector certainally help.

Do I even need to mention China; the comparison between the Mao era compared to now? What is the primary driver behind it?

The Hyundai story in Sth Korea is a good read.

Look things could be done better in Oz, & our general attitude needs to change, but you need tax payers and business here paying tax. Putting people and businesses out of work will hurt us dearly. Who do you think is paying for things like pensions, PBS etc...

Think things are bad now; honestly I think the worst is yet to come.

Originally Posted by PDW

I read a book on the 'defence' of Rabaul in WW2 recently - case in point being the crap planes et al we had compared to the Japanese. We paid for that in blood.


PDW

Me too. The civilian population of Rabaul, ( New Britain was an Australian mandated territory ) were frantically wirelessing the Govt. in Canberra for help re: evacuation. They were ignored and many of them were subsequently executed by the japs , usually by chopping heads off . A freighter docked at Rabaul to load coconuts and it was hoped that it could be used for the evacuation, but the Govt. in Canberra strictly forbid anybody to get on that ship and escape . Coconuts were more important than lives Mike

Originally Posted by jatt

Think things are bad now; honestly I think the worst is yet to come.

Those that make the decisions have never seen a depression, never seen a war. Never struggled. When you are comfortable like the decision makers are why would you want to shake up the status quo. Just kick the can down the road for the next person to deal with.

Originally Posted by PDW

That goes quadruple for defence related builds. There's nothing as expensive as second rate military equipment. Building more subs in Australia when we could buy/lease USA Virginia class nuke boats instead, CHEAPER, has to be one of the most stupid military spending decisions of all time. You don't build subs to keep a workforce employed, you have subs to keep your possibly hostile neighbours sleepless at night.....

I read a book on the 'defence' of Rabaul in WW2 recently - case in point being the crap planes et al we had compared to the Japanese. We paid for that in blood.

Ok granted we're going a little OT here
I'm confused, given you say we shouldn't make our own, just whom in 1941-early 42 were we going to buy "good" fighters from? The poms were a little busy and Yanks didn't have any (and what they had they were either keeping or selling to the poms). I doubt anyone else with a good one would have been to keen to sell us any.

Am I missing someone?

Stuart

Originally Posted by Stustoys

Ok granted we're going a little OT here

Really, who'd have thought