Second Opinion: Let Holden Be
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This article is part of the GM Authority Opinion Desk series, where you can see exactly what’s on the minds of the GM Authority crew. This opinion piece also doubles as an argument opposing the notion that Chevrolet should replace Holden in Australia and other markets.
Before I go forward, I need to let everyone know the following: this is NOT some sort of attempt to stroke the ego of anyone within General Motors or those around the world who don’t quite see eye-to-eye with our own Alex Luft’s proposal suggesting that Chevrolet should eventually replace Holden in the Australian and the greater Oceania market entirely. This is only my opposing view to Alex’s extensive piece and is meant to encourage friendly and thought out debate. But either way, if you do strongly oppose such an idea, stick around for the next few paragraphs. Chances are you’ll like what you read.
Okay. So, the main point in Alex’s proposal is that in order for Chevrolet to be on a more recognized level globally with the likes of Ford and Toyota, GM brands exclusive to one market such as Holden should be absorbed gradually into the Bow Tie brand for the sake of global brand harmony and simplicity. This will help reduce the number of names a particular model goes under depending on the market. It would also reduce multiple marketing slogans, giving a more concise brand message to consumers. Plus, rebadging would be reduced. There is no doubt, such a unified process for Chevrolet would be positive for the brand, and would play out nicely in a vacuum.
But the world we live in is full of X-factors.
I’m not going to pretend I have some sort of greater knowledge base than the marketing data General Motors has collected for the Australian market. Truth be told, I’ve never even been to Australia. But I don’t need to take a trans-Pacific flight across the Globe to understand that the thought of phasing out Holden can be taken as an insult to Aussies the world over.
It doesn’t matter if a Chevrolet takeover of Holden would take 10 years, or happens tomorrow, Australians will continue to be Australians, and they will continue to have a passion and pride for Holden. Marques that have been around since the mid 1800’s command such things. Yes, Holden has roots that run deeper than even Chevrolet, which turns 100 this year. Over the years, it has become incorporated with Australian history, culture and tradition, not to mention recognized across the planet as something that is distinctively Australian, just as Chevrolet is distinctively American.
This kind of attachment cannot just be disregarded.
Take the following scenario for consideration: think if GM decided to phase out Chevy in America in favor of a more popular global brand, or — more realistically — if Fiat wanted to phase out Chrysler in favor of something more Italian. Dark days would fall upon American car culture. Cries of outrage, and feelings of alienation are easy to imagine if such a story were to unravel. Is the Australian car market so different that such repercussions could not be visualized? I like to think not.
But today, most consumers of Chevrolet vehicles such as the Malibu, Cruze, Aveo, Traverse and Equinox treat their cars just like house appliances, and could care less what badge the car wears, so long as it’s priced right and is reliable.
But you don’t see people restoring 1960’s Toyotas in their spare time. You don’t hear songs about Hondas. As the slogan goes, Chevy Runs Deep here, and not just with old people. Young American car enthusiasts also appreciate Chevrolet models such as the Camaro, Corvette and Silverado past and present. Reflectively, Holden has the beloved VE series, and a strong following with it — even globally — and makes many American car enthusiasts upset that they can’t buy one at their local dealership.
Perhaps a more tolerant solution would be to sell Chevrolet and Holden in the Australian market side-by-side, giving The Bow Tie more global consumer vehicles such as the Cruze, Captiva and Barina (Aveo/Spark) in order to simplify name variations (the Holden Cruze will join the rest of the world as a Chevy Cruze, the same goes for the Captiva and Aveo) while Holden would maintain offering the entire VE Series line from Calais to Ute to Statesman, as they are distinctively Holden, and thus, distinctively Australian.
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Finally someone with some depth of understanding on this website! Bravo!
Manoli…your ideas on this issue parallel mine almost exactly.
Brand loyalty, that most ephemeral of sales phenomenon, is something that cannot be bought. It is earned over time, the hard way. Holden has a huge following in Australia. Songs are written about the brand, stories as well and nearly every Aussie can recount a Holden story from their family from the past, if pressed. that sort of brand recognition and loyalty you just can’t buy and to suggest that we should ditch it for the Chevy bow-tie, which, in this day and age, has no street-cred in Australia is patent nonsense. Your idea about selling Chevies alongside Holdens is just fine and most Aussies could live with this but remember that this is exactly what happened up until the late sixties over here. Chevies sold alongside Holdens in showrooms but Aussies voted with their feet and cashbooks for the locally-made car.
Im an aussie and was deeply offended by the notion of putting a chevy badge on my VE Commadore. Im sorry but Over here American cars are seriously looked down on..
I agree with the whole article. Bring Chevy over and put its name on the FWD economy cars like the Cruze. Keep Holden for the RWD cars the Aussies love to brag about.
One point in Holdens favor. Reuss was your guy for a couple years and he knows you guys better than some US based bean counter. He will make a much better informed decision.
American cars are looked down upon?? There are no Proper American Cars sold here via a dealership
American cars like the camaro covette silverado (other brands Dodge RAM) are cars OZs dream about but cannot afford due to private importers charging 100 grand more then u can buy in USA
http://www.carpoint.com.au/all-cars/dealer/details.aspx?Cr=0&R=9783935&keywords=&trecs=643&__sid=12FAC69D5EA7&__Ns=pCar_PriceSort_Decimal|1||pCar_RankSort_Int32|1||pCar_Make_String|0||pCar_Model_String|0&__Qpb=true&__Nne=15&SearchAction=N&seot=1&__N=1216%201246%201247%201252%201282%204294966907&silo=1011
Our brands in Aussie land wouldn’t work, as I remember the 60’s Pontiacs being sold in Canada. “WideTrack” here – not there & what an ugly overhang.
I agree with Carstuff about GMdudeinNA – For the time he spent with Holden he sure has been smitten.
It would suck for the Aussies to loose the Holden brand, but probably not more than it did for the American’s to loose Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Mercury! I still can’t believe these brands with rich history, both good and bad got killed off!
I honestly wouldn’t want that to happen in a million years, you obviously do not understand our car culture in Australia.
We drive large RWD powerful family cars, Commodore/Kingswood (Holden) and Falcon (Ford) rivalry has been around for longer than most Australians have been alive.
Holden is not Chev, it is GM. I feel you only want to take away from Australians what they love and claim that our cars are Chev because they are awesome cars and you want to brand it to something you prefer.
How about selling Holdens in the USA as Holdens? Thats what they really are instead of trying to impose a badge that will drop sales of our own cars.
I also see you don’t realize the Cruze is a joint effort between Holden and Daewoo yet claim it also to be a Chev. I couldn’t care less about small cars and front wheel drives and don’t even like the Cruze but it is in no way a Chev apart from the badge.
We don’t want Chev’s in Australia, we don’t want to go down the global market route and end up with shit box FWD large cars like USA.
I don’t even know why I bother to reply to a idiot that has no idea about our cars and our car culture and not even affiliated with GM in any way.
The same what Andrew Foster said, we love our cars and American cars are looked down upon.
Replying to “suburbans and silverados”, the Camaro is a VE with a different body, its the Australian designed Zeta platform. We already have the Corvette motors in our VE Commodores also and I would much prefer a Commodore to either of those.
No one would buy a Silverado, even the Suburban sales for Holden were horible and made a loss.
Dodge/Chrysler died in the 70’s because no one one had demand after they stopped building large family cars. They made a short come back recently but are already packing up shop because they don’t get any sales here.
Australian demand for those cars are minimal, if Jeep doesn’t sell well this year then Chrysler is gone for good.
I have owned Holdens ranging from 67 to 2010 models over a period of 30 years, more than 20 in total and thats just me. Holden lovers have Holden in the blood and are offended to see a Chev badge on a Holden.
GM was thinking of selling Holden in 2008 untill the South Australian tax payers pulled more than 3 billion out of their pockets to continue local developments with GM only putting in $450m after Australians had already bailed them out for GM’s fault for losses.
All GM does is take money from Holden, Holden has to pay its own taxes, its own employess, makes its own designs, develop 99% of everything, build its own cars and then hand all proffits over to GM who probably bought it the 30s for few $100 thousand.
How about rebadge the Camaro Holden while you are at it seeing it was designed and developed here in Australia?
Or even better how about GM rename Chev to “Green Vaginal Discharge” or something similarly repulsive as to how much Australian’s would hate to be driving around.
Holden has been around longer than both GM and Chev, even thinking about changing its name is a disgrace to the nation.
Holden and Ford are our only cars left with history in Australia, and Ford is going the way of the global market soon enough and that would only leave Holden making distinctly Australian cars, if that was taken away I would have to stick to old Holdens or be forced to buy Japanese RWD V8s (as much as I hate them).
Bazza,
The stereotypes go both ways. I don’t think you have an educated clue on the current quality of most American made cars, especially Chevrolet branded ones. Holden is not the only GM division that produces well-built vehicles.
As for the Cruze, it’s a Chevrolet in Europe, it’s a Chevrolet in Asia, it’s a Chevrolet in South America, it’s a Chevrolet in the USA and it’s a Chevrolet in Africa. Putting a Chevrolet grille on the Australian-built model as they roll out of the Elizabeth plant not only simplifies things, but it also will not turn the car into a rolling tin can, like you want to believe.
As far as development goes, you forgot to mention Opel’s hand in the Cruze, and that its overseeing engineers are American. It’s a global model. Not just Australia’s.
Aren’t there plenty of Aussies who opt to switch the badge in front of their cars from Holden to Chevrolet?
Did you even read my article thoroughly? Not once did I suggest that it would be a good idea to phase out Holden. So quit sipping the Haterade, and recognize.
I think that GM should reintroduce Chevrolet in Australia. Keep Holden Commodore, Calais, Sportwagen, Ute, then separate the other cars, For example, Cruze should be a Chevy and replace Holden Cruze with Buick Verano, call it Holden Verano so it won’t be just different grilles. So Holden would get some Buick cars and GMC Trucks (like Canyon) and Chevy would be same Chevy (Global).
As an Aussie the Holden brand is as important as the Chevy brand. We would love to have the Chev and GMC brands available but the problem we have for me to buy a Camaro there it’s say $45 + grand there in the states here it’s $120 + grand but the aussie doller is setting at the same as the US dollar. The trucks are the same there all upwards to $100 grand. If this could be changed the GM brand would live long here. long live GM
Spot on article Manoli. The Holden brand is stronger, has more recognition, a more loyal following than Chevrolet could ever have here in Australia. Already the media in Oz is labeling it offensive to our culture. Changing it will be politcal suicide to the GM brand. A thought that could only ever be dreamed up in a Dilbert cartoon.
It is a wrong idea if they decide to replace the Holden name with Chevrolet – The Holden name is indigenous to Australasia, even though it is part of GM’s empire. The Chevrolet name has not been placed on a vehicle in these markets since the 1960s.
Notice now that GM are still using the Vauxhall name for their UK market cars – that name has been in constant use there since 1903.
Well, that’s why this particular opinion piece suggests to rebrand Chevys (Cruze, Sonic/Barina/Aveo, Spark, and Captiva) as Chevrolets… and keep truly Australian products (which are truly loved by the natives) Holdens.
We’ll how about you change your brand from Chev to Holden!!!
You’d get the same response from the Aussies if you try to change from Holden to Chev.
Our Holdens may use some US parts but they are Aussie and it is an insult to even suggest the change of name.
We produce quality performance cars that not only go but handle around corners, unlike your cars with sponge rubber suspension. Our cars can be turned into race cars unlike your US cars that don’t handle or stop, and look ugly to boot.
See what you’ve done, you’ve stirred up the ****. Maybe you thought we’d just take it lying down!!
Just remember one thing Aussies don’t like to be told what to do by outsiders especially USA.
“Our Holdens may use some US parts but they are Aussie and it is an insult to even suggest the change of name.”
There are only three distinct Holden models that are true “Aussie” cars: Commodore, Statesman, Ute.
Everything else was designed and engineered in Europe, Korea, and the U.S. — even though it may have been built in Australia. This includes the Cruze, Barina, Barina Spark, Captiva, and the Epica replacement — the 2013 Malibu.
So the spongy, ugly, and poor-handling cars that you describe are long gone. And here’s the entire point of the article: if you — as an enthusiast — are not aware of this, would a “normal” Aussie be? I think it’s safe to say that the answer is “no.” So Holden can/should keep the Zeta-based vehicles that are truly Holden… and the rest of the lineup should become Chevys. What do you think?
I agree with Alex on this, but the only way it could work is if Holden can expand their lineup. Ford have the Territory – an SUV based on the Falcon, it sells extremely well and is a market leader – so GM should let Holden make a Commodore SUV. In addition, bring back the Torana (mid-sized commodore), Monaro (commodore coupe) and make a wagon Statesman/Caprice.
Sounds like some people in this thread (Bazza / Allan) can’t separate Alex’s blog post from Manoli’s.
Running Chev and Holden in Parallel could work. As the Cruze is now locally made, it would have to remain a Holden. The Barina Spark (Daewoo/ChevKorea Matiz), Barina (Daewoo/Chev Korea Aveo), Captiva 5 (Opel Antara) and Captiva 7 (Daewoo/ChevKorea Captiva) potentially could move over, although there are thos who would prefer Holden’s nonCommodore products to be sourced from Opel instead of ChevKorea.
This preference is slowly changing with the overall impression of Korea’s car companies prodicing better cars than ever (Kia/Hyundai especially). The ability of Holden to resource Opels seems moot, as Opel themself are coming to Australia soon.
The business case for introducing these cars as Chevrolets here is yet to be one that can claim to be more of a profit earner for GM than having these cars as Holdens.
@Bazza
Mate, I’m an Aussie through and through and if you EVER tried to rebrand the Chevy Camaro as a Holden Monaro I’m sorry but I’d just have to throw rocks at you.
I can appreciate an american icon like to Camaro and to some degree the newer
Corvettes and they should stay exactly what they are; Chevs. In the same respect I’m all for rebranding the global products as a Chev, but would expect to be able to buy a locally designed Holden Commodore forever more.
The facts do not appear to be getting in the way of this story. But in 1972, I purchased a 14 year old Chevrolet Biscayne manufactured in Canada and assembled in Australia at GM’s Fisherman’s Bend plant. It was one of thousands of Chevrolet and Pontiacs sold over many years in Australia. In earlier times Buick and Oldsmobile were also asembled and sold by Holden, but by the mid 1960’s the reputation of the North American product was not in good shape with quality control far short of that offered by Holden, Ford and Chrysler in Australia and by the gwoing number of imports including Toyota, Datsun and Mercedes Benz. It was around this time that UK bramds including Vauxhall, Morris and Austin disappeared from the Australian markewt as they could similarly not offer the same build quality or relaibility as the local, Japanese and German product. Maybe the Chevrolet brand could be relaunched in Australia and the South West Pacific, but it will take a long time to restablish the credentials of this previously failed brand in this marketplace.
The answer is staggeringly simplistic as it usually always is. If GM wants to compete head on with Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen and Fiat in markets for mass produced vehicles to slash the advertising and rebranding budgets it needs to have a stable of four to six cars with one badge.
So create a *new* two syllable name to introduce to the world. Or pick a name from a long *dead* stable / boutique with minimal or no history and these modern “live” brands can be reduced to pages in history like the “resurrected” brand.
Maybe something like Elmore or Asuna? EVERYTHING else, Holden, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, Opel, Vauxhall, becomes a boutique label like Aston Martin, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Audi, Saab, Chrysler, Pontiac, Dodge, Volvo, Lexus, Seat, Skoda, Lotus, Saturn, Hummer, Daewoo. They all produce one or two cars or represent something specific and non mainstream or are now historic marques.
But you can’t do that! That’s why GM “nearly” went bust in the first place.
But why create a new brand (like Elmore or Asuna) when Chevy already exists? Just call global Chevy cars Chevys and — as Manoli suggests in the original article — keep Holden making the Zeta-based Commodore, Ute, and Statesman.
Chevy represents USA and USA means something for most people. Holden, Opel and Vauxhall have equally patriotic and proud fan bases. Superimpose the Chevy badge on their mass produced cars and sales will not happen as has already been highlighted in the discussion. “Fans” will vote with their wallets and go elsewhere. Superimpose the Opel or Holden label over the Chevy and they do not happen in USA. Mutually assured destruction benefits nobody.
Selecting a neutral word / name / brand and establishing it will take time. But it gets the manufacturer beyond the prejudice and into the wallet and bank account – re they need to be. A decent product and word of mouth will do the rest.
Until there is only one vehicle in each size / class, prejudices are real and customers will buy a heap of junk from a favored brand over a quality product from a hated brand until economic reality bites in and they have to leave the junk brand alone.
Alex, I have been scooting around your blog and see that all and anything I could say has already been said in response to your original missive.
In summary, I can agree in part to your long term vision. Holden will finish up with the Commodore, Vauxhall will disappear. Opel will be the pre-eminent brand in the GM stable or will be bought out by management or a venture capitalist banking on the preconceived ideas around a Germanic culture creating a reliable product.
However, I will say branding everything a Chevy is a waste of time and money. Sibling rivalry is a powerful motivator throughout history. The brands being argued over are not siblings but in laws or cousins at best.
The contributor from New Zealand (they who wrote the most but to whom you did not acknowledge) is on the money. We can see globalisation. We understand globalisation. But for one reason or another we are still parochial and always will be.