For years, GM Authority has had the pleasure of following, reporting on and bringing you the latest from Holden as a manufacturer. Tomorrow, that will change as Holden’s Elizabeth production facility closes down forever and the brand becomes a full importer of vehicles.
Images of the final Australian-built Holden Commodore made their way onto social media ahead of tomorrow’s planned shutdown. As the photo shows, the VF Commodore Series II is red and fitted with the 6.2-liter LS3 V8 engine. It’s unclear what Holden’s plans are for the final Australian-built Commodore, however.
Holden will not hold any sanctioned public events tomorrow, though the brand held the Holden Dream Cruise earlier this week to celebrate 69 years of Holden manufacturing. The event drew over 1,000 Holden cars. It will hold a ceremony at the factory where the plant’s 950 workers will watch the final car officially leave the assembly line and Holden’s chairman and managing director, Mark Bernhard, will address workers before a final farewell is held at the facility.
GM Authority will continue to bring you the latest Holden news in the future, but it’s been a privilege reporting on news from around the world on cars made in Australia, built for Australia.
Comments
Thanks for the commentary over the years. Can’t say it going to be the same from now on, waiting for the spy shots of next Holden, reading every article, every snippet of Information about the next new model. A lot of loyalty and passion is going to die today. Good Luck with that
I’m with you there, Rob, a sad day in Australia’s history. Lemons and shopping trolleys are all we have to look forward to.
I hope you’ve had a bit of rain in your part of the country.
Wouldn’t mind a bit more John. Might go out and service the old Kingswood ute today just for something to do. Cheers
Nice job GM and, thanks Mary! Have to hold on to my G8 or update with an SS, eventually. After that, the only choice is to go Mopar!
How sad!!
Thank you Holden for building such great Zeta platform cars that a few of us in the USA have been lucky enough to experience. I was paying attention at the right times and got a G8 GT as the curtain was falling on Pontiac in October 2009. It seems kind of an eerie coincidence that I bought a ’17 SS w/ manual transmission this week around the time the final Commodore (fittingly, a VF) was coming down the line. It’s amazing that GM and Ford built cars for the tiny Australian market as long as they did, and some very cool cars at that. Very few Americans know about them, but when they see or ride in my G8 they’re always impressed. Whatever your opinion on car plants, unions, government subsidies, bailouts, etc., manufacturing facilities like this create jobs and help the economy. Here in the US Honda, Toyota, and Nissan were the first foreign makers to establish plants here and now we have Kia/Hyundai, Subaru, Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, and Volvo. One job added at a factory creates 4-5 additional jobs down the supply chain. I hope y’all Down Under can keep some of your heavy manufacturing alive.
Enjoy your SS, a truly world class car.
Unfortunately, heavy industry in Australia is fast attaining Doe Doe Bird extinction. All we do here is dig minerals up, sell them to China, and buy it back. Even our railway carriages are made in China.
You’re going to love your new SS. They just got better and better to the last. It’s a pity our Government was (is) so narrow minded, manufacturing not only created jobs but the skills spread through so many other areas of the work force. Manufacturing is declining in this Country and we are probably still a couple of years off entirely realising what we have lost. Enjoy your new car, it was our pleasure to design it and make it – world class. Cheers