Peter Hanenberger isn’t Australian, but he’s regarded as one of the brightest minds to have taken the leading role at Holden. Hanenberger, a former Opel engineer and German native, began his stint at Holden in 1976 when he ushered in new chassis dynamics to clean up the cars’ handling and precision.
He’d leave in 1982, but return to lead the brand itself in 1999 through 2003. During those years, Holden was on top of the world. The former executive received approval for the VE Commodore, rolled out an expansive strategic expansion for the brand through the Zeta platform and it was the last time Holden was the number one seller in the country. Today, it resides in fourth place behind Toyota.
Motoring sat down with the now-retired executive in Germany and he wasn’t quiet about his feelings towards GM today.
“It’s not my General Motors anymore,” he professed. “It’s [now] a very short-sighted company.” He references the sale of Opel and Saab’s eventual bankruptcy—both brands he worked with during his GM career.
As for Holden, he shamed the management that let Holden dwindle from the top, all the way to the end of local manufacturing.
“This was just pure mismanagement to let a company down like this,” he says. “I just couldn’t believe it.”
Hanenberger likened GM’s strategy and global retreat to President Donald Trump’s campaign promise: America first. He sees GM as a U.S. company with fewer interests abroad than ever. But, “it’s global,” he remarked of the auto industry. “I think there will be no GM in the near-future,” he added.
It’s fair to note outside factors also contributed to Holden’s decline, but Hanenberger rightly points out missed opportunities his successors never enacted after he left the position as managing director and chairman. He said he’s at peace in his retirement, but he has no plans to visit Australia in the future.
“My mind is still full of all the beautiful things. If I come back now I think I would be disappointed.”
Comments
I’m glad Barra is in charge now instead of Hanenberger. He was great for his time. Wheels mag famously tested one of H’berg’s “Radial Tuned Suspension” Kingswoods against a 1st-gen E12 5er from BMW and the Holden trounced it. That set-up is still called FE3 today. Also, he truly followed Alfred Sloan’s idea of global expansion of GM, at a time when that was still good. Curtain and Sloan did the right thing at the right time with the old Humpy for Australia, just like FDR really helped us in 1942 by sending MacArthur to protect us in the Battles of Guadalcanal and Coral Sea, when Churchill was telling us to abandon Australia and move our entire population to England to defend the King…
But Opel in Germany owned by America could never, ever work into the 21st century, unless John Kenneth Galbraith is to be followed, and the elections of Brexit and Trump make it super-crystal-clear that Galbraith’s calls are going to be ignored. Galbraith said to either 1. Stop border controls for both people and money, or 2. Control borders for people AND MONEY.
Galbraith’s point is that letting money flow free yet stopping people from selling their labor freely always favors those who already have the money and disfavors those who have only labor to sell. Borders which are open to money but closed to people’s labor always end up causing friction. With BrexTrumpit, that’s what the world now wants, and friction is what we’ve got. Galbraith’s truth is in the rich Americans who deliberately employ Mexican nannies and gardeners literally BECAUSE they are illegal and exploitable.
So, Hanenberger, if you wanted to advocate for anybody who just wants to move to Germany and get a job building Opels, then we can sell Opels everywhere. It’s clear the British don’t want no Opels (with shiny Vauxhall badges) or any Polish folk or Romanians to build them. Which is fine, because the Pommie baah staads can keep their Reliant Robins and Rover rustbuckets, all ruled over by Lucas the Prince of Darkness.
And if Aussies only care about V8 super sedans recalling their glorious Bathurst histories (where the truth is that the V8’s were regularly shamed by BMW M3 4-pots, and Sierra Cossie 4-pots), they show it by watching V8’s on Sunday the tele, and then going to buy Corolla’s on Monday from the dealer.
So long as GM don’t ship Yank Tanks out here it will be all good !!! The Mustang looks like ahairdressers car and the Camaro is something from a Hot Wheels catalogue and the Vette !! Well just over priced and under talented !!!
Compliments to Peter Hanenberger, at least somebody can see straight through the avalanche of BS coming from GM’s current crop of grossly overpaid underachievers. He’s also spot on about the future of the new microscopic GM – it doesn’t have one.
Didn’t Mark Reuss run Australia/Holden for a few years before being re-patriated?
Yes, Reuss was the Chairman and Managing Director of Holden from 1st February 2008 until 1st September 2009
Not since DeLorean have I seen such a senior ex-GM executive talk so bluntly. I have privately corresponded with some retired GM executives who were right near the top and they lament were GM is going on a global basis, but are most cautious with their words and expect me not to disclose their names.
Hanenberger, or Handlingberger as Aussies affectionately referred to him, publicly echoes what is being said privately in some GM circles.
He came very close to heading GM Europe but his outspoken nature resulted in the Australian post instead. His engineering credentials are/were impeccable. As a parting gift, the Australians gave him a Monaro to cruise the autobahns knowing the car and its driver were capable of humiliating the highbrow German makes.
Listen to what he says.
As a former dealership manager, partner, wholesaler, restorer, collector, and life long lover of GM cars and trucks, now retired…I find myself saddened, and disappointed in the direction GM is headed, and in total disagreement with the parting of Opel, and the closure of Holden.
It seems to me, that the current regimes first priority is huge pay days, stock options and bonuses!!
Hey, I am all about protecting the American worker, and putting American product first…I am also ‘seasoned’ enough to remember when Buick proudly sold Opels, Pontiac sold the Vauxhall line, and Holden built some great automobiles, that gave great pleasure to the American buyer ?? and Americans bought those Opels, Vauxhalls and re-badged Holden’s, with pride, because those Company’s were divisions of General Motors, an American manufacturer…the employees of those three automobile manufacturers took pride, in working for General Motors…In their heart, they ere ‘American workers’, allies in the building of quality engineered, well designed American product…a Partnership.
To the Holden / HSV owners and fans
Find the “historical thoughts” of Hr. Hanenberger good! Only, the world is changing ever faster. The policy determines the strategy of the manufacturers! So a small company like Holden can not fulfill the tasks of a big company and had to close. In Germany, policy sets the strategy for all German manufacturers. So from VW, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Mercedes comes nothing without the permission of the policy. The diesel engines were developed on behalf of German policy, as the German state buys 90% of the production!
Note: The Holden and HSV were always a bit of Australian BMW and therefore the Australians now like the German BMWs.
I have been Holden and HSV fan since 1984 and will always stay and visit Holden in 2018!
Grüsse from Germany / Bavaria
Peter Hanenberger became CEO of Holden because GM failed to impose him as CEO of Opel, in a power struggle between GM Europe headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, and Opel management in Rüsselsheim. Hanenberger was made responsible for the cost cutting measures which resulted in severe degradation of qualitiy; he as manager of technical development was held responsible for the policy executed by José Ignacio López de Arriortúa as chief manager for purchases of components. The “advisory council” of Adam Opel AG not only refused to make him the CEO, but also refused to renew his contract as boss of technical development.
Peter Hanenberger had worked all his professional life for GM, beginning in 1958 as apprentice in the Opel technical development center in Rüsselsheim, which is not far from his birthplace Wiesbaden.
English and German Wikipedias have an article on Peter Hanenberger.
There is no argument that Lopez destroyed Opel. Unfortunately his influence went to the very top of GM. Hanenberger was hemmed in by the financial constraints imposed on his operations by Detroit. The Opel Advisory Council could not influence Lopez so lynched the only person they could control – Hanenberger.
That sounds plausble.
Thanks for that comment.