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Mark Reuss: GM Has ‘No Exit Plan’ For Australian Market

General Motors has no plans to exit the Australian market, even after the shuttering of all local manufacturing by its Australian Holden brand last year, and reaffirmed its commitment this week by announcing an extra $28 million (AUD) in Holden funding that will create another 150 jobs. Speaking after the announcement, Mark Reuss – an Executive Vice President at General Motors, who served as Holden’s Managing Director from 2008 to 2009 – said that the automaker has no plans to abandon the Australian market.

“We’re here to make sure that Holden is strong,” he said. “It’s really tough to win” in Australia, he admitted, but the market “is part of who we are, and always has been. Either we’re in the game or we’re not.”

Holden’s 150 new employees will be engineers working on the development of autonomous and electrified vehicles, joining another 350+ engineers and designers currently working for the lion brand in the country. General Motors is contending with declining market share in Australia, slipping to just a 4.6-percent share of the market by the end of July – significantly less than even the 7 percent it held at the same time last year.

Still, Reuss said that GM’s Australian operations are “a fundamental part of who I am, but… also a fundamental part of our company, and a fundamental part of this industry here – and we take that very, very seriously. That’s the way we look at it, and we take those commitments very, very seriously.”

GM has “no exit plan” for Australia, the GM Executive Vice President later stated.

(Source: CarAdvice)

Aaron Brzozowski is a writer and motoring enthusiast from Detroit with an affinity for '80s German steel. He is not active on the Twitter these days, but you may send him a courier pigeon.

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Comments

  1. HOLDEN IS IMPORTANT TO AUSTRAILA AND GENERAL MOTORS
    Right hand drive of Silverado crew cabs, Camaro and Impala can be accommodated
    at the Australian production center with Knock Down Kits. Australia wants Holden’s
    built in their country. Pride yes. New Zealand market yes. Right hand drive export markets yes.
    Thank you,

    Reply
  2. Holden is not going anywhere in name. But they will be made up of global models from GM.

    The market is important enough to serve but too small to have their own independent lines due to development cost.

    Even here in America we will have to share some models for them to survive.

    Reply
  3. Why for goodness sake, why would GM even consider holding on to the dying Holden brand?

    In General Motor’s very rich and proud 100 plus year history the Holden brand rates as a comparative ‘new comer’. It must be remembered that prior to 1948 ‘Holden’ was not even the name of a car. It was simply the name of a former ‘failed’ Adelaide South Australian based car body building company which was taken over by General Motors.

    General Motors must continue its down size by retiring the Holden brand in the same way that General Motors has retired its Saturn, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, La Salle brands and more recently sold the Opal and Vauxhall brands. It must also be remembered that Vauxhall and Opal have much longer history’s that Holden.

    Some people want to think that ‘Holden’ is car company on its own, and that retail sellers are Holden dealers. This is simply NOT correct. The company is ‘General Motors’ – Holden and the retail dealers are ‘General Motors’ – Holden dealers who for the most of the past 100 years have sold not just gardens variety Holden’s but also Vauxhall, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, La Salle and Cadillac. But this is the problem, far to many brands!

    The generation that related to the Holden name are limited to ageing Australian ‘baby boomers’ who for the most part are now one step way from nursing homes. The younger generations prefer internationally known car brands. Looking forward the economic fuiture for GM is now with just two brands. Cadillac for the premium market and Chevrolet for the mass market. This is the only direction for General Motors.

    I expect attempts will continue to improve the sales figures for the Holden brand, but I also expect General Motors must realise that the retiring a brand that’s not performing is going to have to be the best option. It’s only a matter of when, but I would suggest sooner rather than later.

    Reply
  4. Holden’s history is actually longer than Vauxhall and Opel, so Carl is wrong there.

    In fact, Holden’s history is even longer than Mercedes Benz, BMW and Audi.

    But I agree with everything else Carl said there.

    GM Detroit failed at realising that Australians take pride in the Holden brand and GM Detroit just threw away it’s reputation like it was nothing and also ignored the pride that Australians had built up in the brand over the decades. That has now come back and bitten them hard.

    Selling the Insignia in Australia as a Commodore was a very bad marketing idea. GM Detroit would have sold more Insignia’s in Australia if they just left them nameplated as an Insignia rather than insulting the intelligence of Australians and attempting to pass it off as a “new” Commodore. A smarter marketing decision would have been to retire the Commodore badge (as Ford Australia did with the Falcon when they also closed Australian manufacturing) and sent it off with dignity.

    It’s clear that GM Detroit have no interest in RHD markets, they should either sell off Holden to someone who understands those markets or (and I hate to admit it) if they continue this desecration of the Holden brand, shut the brand down and retire it with the shred of dignity it has left.

    Reply
  5. No, Carl is not wrong about how long the humble Holden car has been offered in Australia by General Motors.

    Holden’s early history not as a car, but as a buggy and later a car body builder certainly can be traced back to the horse and cart days, but a car called the ‘Holden’ only came into being in November 1948. At best that’s just 69 years!

    Even after the introduction of the working mans car the Holden, in 1948 GMH continued to assemble and sell Pontiacs, Chevrolets, Vauxhalls and Bedfords. This arrangement continued until at least 1970. From the early 1970s GM-H started to downsize it Australian operations and just offer garden variety Holden’s. So perhaps GMH actually started leaving Australia in the early 1970s.

    GMH (General Motors – Holden) dealers are often referred to as “Holden Dealers”. There is no such thing. So the Holden as a car brand is just short of 70 years old. That’s considerably younger than Mercedes Benz, Vauxhall etc.

    Kill off Holden and welcome the internationally known GM brands Chevrolet and Cadillac to Australia. That’s the future for General Motors down under.

    Reply
  6. Didn’t Reuss run Holden in Oz earlier?

    Think so – no vision, and no exit plan sound about right.

    Reply
  7. Captain Carl’s is right Mr. Reuss did head up General Motors – Holden for a while. The ‘Exit Plan’ for the Holden brand is absolutely simple.

    1/ RETIRE GMs HOLDEN BRAND.
    Kill off not only Holden but also the Buick and GMC brands.

    2/ EXPAND GMs CADILLAC & CHEVROLET BRANDS
    Expand and grow the two GM ‘book end’ brands Cadillac and Chevrolet. Both have long history’s and Chevrolet, much more than Holden ever did, put Australians into cars. Chevrolet had a long a respected market share in Australia, from its earliest begins in 1915 until GM-H stopped selling Chevrolet in Australia in 1970. But GM-H will not tell you that!

    The Chinese would buy the Buick brand as China buys 80% of Buick production today. The proceeds from selling the Buick brand could be then directed into building the Chevrolet and Cadillac brands.

    Australians need to face up to the fact that Holden internationally has never been a major player, and with a Holden today simply being a name plate on something else there is increasingly no point in continuing to support the Holden name. Holden is finished and the increasing reduction in market share proves this.

    Forget ‘Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden Cars”. Today in Australia Mercedes Benz sells double the number the cars annually that GM-H does. The Holden is dead. Australians need to embrace GMs Cadillac and Chevrolet brands or see General Motors leave Australia completely.

    Time will prove me right. Re-read my comments in 5 years time from now and you will see I am right.

    Reply
  8. They tried the Chevrolet brand in Europe and it failed. It won’t be tried here.

    Reply
  9. Carl Kelson…I think you have a VERY limited view and understanding of Holden and its place in Australian culture. Yes, Holden was a saddle maker and then a buggy maker. In the early 20th century it assembled Model T Fords and then took up a prime contract importing Vauxhall and GM US chassis (as fully-built cars attracted a prohibitive tariff back then). The years up to WW2 were very productive for Holden. They were a very flexible manufacturing organisation able to build a multitude of bodies on top of the imported chassis to a quality level that surpassed the original product at times. When GM sent Larry Hartnett (ex CEO of Vauxhall) to Australia prior to WW2 he was instructed to make the company work or shut it down. When Hartnett saw the industriousness of the local workers and their ingenious engineers he fought hard for the company to go over to making a locally-designed and produced car as the “Holden”. The rest is history.

    Holden held the lion’s share of the local market right up until recent years. A new model Holden was a big time event and I well remember the fuss made by the media when a new model was introduced. Australians knew Holden was owned by GM BUT they considered the marque their own. After all, Holden was always marketed as “Australia’s Own Car” and Aussies took pride in the fact that we could design and build cars that were the equal of many other marques around the world. The early cars were so sturdy that they were a favourite in far flung places like Saudi Arabia. In fact, when the Saudi King visited Australia in the early 70s he requested that Holden gift him an HR Holden to take home. Unfortunately, the HR was a ’66-’67 model so Holden engineers bought two used low-mileage HRs and had them totally restored to “as new” status…both being gifted to the King.

    Now Holden is in big trouble, with national sales floundering and being overtaken by the likes of Mitsubishi and Kia. The reason is simple but GM refuses to see the problem, instead hiring an ex Toyota Australia exec to turn things around. He might do well in the short term with huge discounting but the brand is almost dead in the water and this is primarily due to Australians giving GM the middle finger for what the company did in shuttering its plant here. Holden could have gone back to CKD manufacturing with input into basic design (Holden already does handling engineering here…thank goodness…as Holden chassis engineers are recognised as world experts) and changed their lineup gradually. Sales would have continued to be okay and then they would have improved as new product came online. What Australians see now is a lot of badge engineered cars purporting to be Holdens and, sadly, these cars just don’t have the “Holden allure” of old.

    So the way forward is clear. Either reopen a smaller factory assembling CKD kits so Australians see that the company wants the Australian brand to thrive or just kill the brand altogether. The current situation is killing the brand slowly anyway. My comment for GM is this… Australians were very proud of Holden…loved the fact that they even sold in the US as Pontiacs and Chevy SS. Australians do not want badge-engineered “quasi Holdens”. It’s as simple as that.

    Reply
  10. By the way, Carl Kelson, I suggest you watch this video and the follow-up episode. The program was made in 1987 but it amply shows GM Holden’s manufacturing history.

    Reply
    1. Thanks Tommy, I worked at Fisherman’s Bend for 24 years from 1990. Sadly it’s almost gone now. Just a flat piece of dirt. It’s also worth mentioning that in the bad old Rick Wagoner 30 billion dollar loss days, Holden was the only GM subsidiary that was making a profit. Not huge, but a profit nevertheless. We did great work with little resources, that’s why these negative comments are hard to take.

      Reply
      1. Yes Anthony…I agree. Lots of negatives from folks who don’t live here.

        Reply
  11. Tommy,
    I am well aware of the 1987 TV documentary you refer to it. It like most other claimed histories of GM-H fails totally to give the complete story.

    It mentions absolutely nothing about the GM-H Australian assembly of 1949 to 1970 PONTIAC, CHEVROLET, VAUXHALL & BEDFORD.

    The historical fact is that Holden has run its race. Australians can, and do buy a Mercedes Benz for less than Holden prices.

    Reply
    1. Carl Kelson,
      So GMH assembled some Chevies, Bedford vans and up until the mid 60s, the Vauxhall Cresta and the like. Big deal…all that did was to widen Holden’s sales portfolio and, I might add, the sales of such vehicles were insignificant against the profit they made from Holden-badged cars.

      As to prices the sticker prices for the VF models were perfectly reasonable for the car you were getting. Prices did not sink Holden…bad descisions in Detroit were the reason why the marque floundered…that and the prime minister we had at the time who was such a Tory he wanted all support for local manufacturing to cease.

      BTW…when your local motoring writers looked at the G8 and the SS most conceded that no GM North American factory could match the build quality and handling smarts Holden took years to develop. Thats one of the reason imports were restricted…we wouldn’t want the American Auto Worker’s Union to get too upset, would we?

      Quite frankly I find your smug dismissal of Holden hard to stomach and if this forum was more widely read in Australia I think you’d find plenty of opposition to your views. Holden was an amazing company which developed amazing skill sets despite years of questionable funding from Detroit and a fundamental lack of understanding of the Australian market by the bean counters in Detroit.

      Reply
  12. Tommy,
    It might come as a surprise to you, but I actually agree with ‘some’ of what you are saying. However not all of your comments are historically correct, and like your good self GM-H conveniently choose to forget or even acknowledge the factual and complete history of the cars General Motors have sold in Australia.

    GMH assembled more than a few Chevrolets, Pontiacs, Vauxhalls and Bedfords. In the 1963 model year, GMH assembled over 2000 Chevrolet Belairs sedans. These cars were the GMH flagship selling at three times the price of the Holden. As expensive luxury cars GMH were never going to sell as many Chevrolets as they did the far cheaper Holden. So your comparision is meaningless.

    The top of the range Holden (luxury) Caprice that was introduced in the mid 1970s never sold as well as the CKD Chevrolets and Pontiacs that GMH sold from 1949 to 1970.

    Until 1962, Holden did not even offer an ‘upmarket’ model at all. The GM-H line up worked as follows:

    General Motors – Holden Passenger car range (1949 to 1968)

    * Premium HIgh Priced luxury
    Pontiac Laurentian & (Parisienne from 1964)
    Chevrolet Belair & (Impala from 1965)

    * Mid range
    Vauxhall Velox & Cresta

    * Entry Level
    Holden Sedans and wagons

    You are right that GM did go on to produced some notable Holden models however many of these were powered by American designed V6 and V8 engines. The bottom line is that any future ‘Holden’ offered by GM will simply be another brand dressed in Holden badges.

    I will repeat my firm view on GMs worldwide future. We live in an Internet driven time. Brand names must have international exposure. BMW is simply a BMW regardless of where its sold.

    GM has been right to retire or sell off the Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Vauxhall and Opel brands. Holden has to also be retired. Calling another GM product a Holden by simply adding a badge will not and is not working.

    General Motors needs to sell Buick to the Chinese. (80% of Buick sales are in China) Then build the new General Motors company on just two brands, those being CADILLAC for the high end market and CHEVROLET for the mast market.

    In closing, you should also keep in mind the a 40% import tax that the Australian government placed on fully imported cars during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. This enabled GM to make serious profit on very basic poorly equipped Holden cars. No carpet, radios, heaters or similar.

    Reply
    1. Carl, with respect, are you cognisant of the numbers involved? You say in the year ending 1963 that some 2000 Belairs were produced (and a smaller number of other GM US sedans). Without meaning to sound gauche that’s a drop in the bucket compared to sales of Holden models in that same year. In total approximately 259,000 EH Holdens in Standard, Special, Utility and Premier versions were sold in that production cycle~year. A bit more than two thousand, eh?

      You contend that the Holden Statesman and Caprice never sold in the numbers that the GM US models did. That’s probably so but by that time Holden was competing against the Ford Fairlane (the local Ford luxury sedan), the “Chrysler by Chrysler” and Valiant Regal, not to mention the Toyota Crown and the AM Matador. There is no doubt that shifting back to producing the Impalas and the like would have done nothing to change the sales situation and, I hate to tell you, by that time local drivers saw many US cars as being bloated and hard to handle (which is essentially correct). The tariffs on imported cars dropped incrementally year after year forcing local makers to equip their cars to a better degree than ever before to stave off imported competition. The VF Commodore, for example, is better equipped than many imported cars…even the standard “Evoke” version.

      Now there are some things I totally agree with in your stance. They are as follows:
      1. The Holden nameplate has been destroyed by the closure of the Holden factories in Adelaide and Melbourne. Australians saw the closure (correctly) as a stab in the back, given the years and years of taxpayer subsidies to keep the factory going. Nearly all Australian governments (correctly) surmised that to have a car industry was a protective element in time of war (as was proven in WW2 when Holden plants wholly went over to wartime production very quickly under the leadership of Larry Hartnett). It was only the extreme Tory government of Tony Abbot (2013) which thumbed their nose at GM causing the US head honchos to drop the company like a steaming …well you know what I mean.
      2. Holden sales will never recover under the Holden name whilst the company resorts to badge engineering of inferior foreign products.

      I disagree about going over to using US nameplates. It was tried in Europe and a sales disaster ensued. The same would happen here as most Aussies would see the move as a cynical ploy to shed Holden’s considerable legacy.

      You have to consider the national pride aspect in all of this. Sure…Aussies turned away from Holden products primarily because Holden would not build the smaller cars, SUVs and large utes the buyers wanted but they stuck by the VE and VF Commodores well enough to ensure continued production. When GM went to the local government for yet another taxpayer subsidy to build a new smaller model car the faucet was shut off. That was the end for Holden as a manufacturer.

      You see Aussies always saw Holden as a local company despite its true ownership. The early advertising stuck…”Australia’s Own Car”. Do you think that such a legacy can easily be forgotten? Imagine if GM US decided to close up shop and go over to importing Chinese Buicks? How would the US public take that?

      Reply
      1. P.S. Do I own a Holden? Yes I do…a lovely metallic black VF Sportwagon. I bought it because I knew that this model was the finest car ever designed and produced in Australia and it has not let me down. I have owned many Holdens over the years.

        Reply
  13. Tommy,
    Of course GMH sold far fewer Chevrolets in Australia than Holdens. Chevrolets in Australia were sold as high end luxury cars. You could buy three brand new 1963 EH Holden Special sedans for what one GMH assembled 1963 Chevrolet Belair sedan would set you back.

    Also keep in mind that 1963 EH Holdens continued to be sold for over two years through 1964 and into early 1965. There is actual no such thing as 1964 Holden. The ‘63 EH model simply carried on and as a result is often incorrectly referred to as a ‘64 model.

    The advertising “Australias Own Car” is nothing short of rubbish. The 1948 Holden was designed and built in the USA and Holden design until at least the 1966 HR model was USA approved and influcened.

    I am going to close my comments on this subject, as I don’t see that we will agree.

    Reply
    1. Carl…you are right. All local designs up to the HK Holden had to get final GM US approval. The EJ was given a cosmetic make-over in Detroit because the Australian design team disregarded the GM design ethic. From HK onwards the Detroit input was basically rubber-stamping. With the VE/F Australia’s design team were so respected in the company that no approval was necessary.

      Now you contend the 48/215 was totally an American car. Yes, it was…it was a reworked pre-war Chevy design BUT components were re-engineered at prototype stage and it had nearly 90% local content. In the years that followed local content got up to 99%. No Holden for general sale was ever made in the US…I don’t know where you got that from. So, in essence local content meant that the Holden could be called Australia’s own car.

      Carl…the use of US branding would never work in Australia just as it bombed in Europe. That’s why the Holden name has been retained…sadly. Your vision of a world-wide Chevrolet is a flight of fancy which will never be realised. I, for one, will NEVER forgive GM for what they have done to Holden. If they go broke again I will laugh my head off…serves them right!

      Reply

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