Last fall, the General Motors Special Vehicles brand, or GMSV, indirectly replaced Holden as the American automaker’s sole active brand in Australia and New Zealand. Now, GMSV has marked its one-year anniversary with a series of celebratory posts on its various social media pages, thanking its fans for following along as it prepares to bring more unique American GM products to Australian and New Zealand shores.
“Today GMSV officially turns one,” the company said on its Instagram page this week. “Thank you for joining us on the GMSV journey. We can’t wait to celebrate by getting out and about with our new promo vehicles.”
The GMSV product portfolio currently consists of the Chevy Silverado 1500 in the LTZ Premium and LT Trail Boss trim levels, as well as the C8 Corvette Stingray. It will also launch the Chevy Silverado 2500HD locally in the near future, which will be offered in a market-specific LTZ Premium trim level and with the Duramax turbo-diesel 6.6L L5P V8 engine. The company is currently evaluating other North American-market GM products for potential sale in Australian and New Zealand, as well, including the Chevy Tahoe and Chevy Suburban full-size SUVs.
GMSV was launched after GM decided to discontinue the Holden brand in Australia and New Zealand. Compared to Holden, GMSV offers specialized GM vehicles that have higher profit margins than the budget-minded crossovers and passenger cars that made up Holden’s portfolio. GMSV director Joanne Stogiannis said previously that GM believes there is “significant opportunity in Australia and New Zealand for our iconic North American vehicles to compete in niche segments.”
“General Motors Specialty Vehicles – GMSV for short – is a newly launched General Motors venture operating within Australia and New Zealand,” the company says on its website. “At GMSV, we hand-pick only the most iconic GM vehicles to bring to our customers who are looking to own something truly special.”
There were 50 active GMSV dealers when the brand launched last November, including 44 in Australia and six in New Zealand. At the time, Stogiannis said the brand was looking forward “to adding more” dealers in the near future.
GM is also increasing its marketing presence in Australia with the expansion of GMSV, committing to the new Supercars series ruleset with the Chevy Camaro and partnering with a local race team to bring the Camaro nameplate to a local Pro Mod-equivalent drag acing series.
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So when they going to shutdown before the 5th anniversary?.
GM once held the top selling vehicle manufacturer in Aust/Nz however through poor management and product selection surrendered the massive sales position to Toyota and
Korean manufacturers. Australians do not respect GM,,for what they did to an old and very prominent Australian Car brand and will find it very difficult to sell their higher margined cars here which is really saying the vehicles are overpriced to start with. I will NEVER buy a GM vehicle again…….
George,
Many Americans feel the same way. Pontiac and Oldsmobile, beloved by many, are both dead. The former was loved by car enthusiasts and the latter was a one-time staple of suburbia; it was the quintessential middle class American car cherished by the American masses. Buick, also a once great American brand seen as one of life’s rewards is now pretty much entirely a Chinese entity. An American icon handed off by gm to their communist subsidiary. Cadillac, the pinnacle of General Motors and synonymous with “the best” all across the States is now merely rebadged Chevrolets and a couple of pseudo German sedans that are the antithesis of what a Cadillac was.
Americans too have lost their affinity for gm. I think you see it exemplified here. This is a gm fan site yet it’s filled with hate for the company. Not only has gm alienated the Aussies but us too. I grew up seemingly with GM in my DNA. I loved them like most Americans love their baseball team. Today, it’s all shattered. I have memories but that’s it. I love what they once were. All that’s left really for Americans are their trucks and for now, they still have a loyal following and engender some passion. It’s a shame really. I know to Australians Holden was a part of the family as Oldsmobile was for generations of Americans. It’s just a memory now. Today we drive Kias but I don’t know of anybody who seems to love them like they loved their favorite GM brand when I was growing up.
Sounds too dramatic, if this was the case why GM still selling trucks that people want, to that same buyers that bought Olds in the past?. The Aussies has blood on their hands as they to didn't want Holden or Ford as the factories had to close.
Guestt,
I said gm still sells trucks and engenders some of the same passion in that category that they once had across their portfolio. They do have Chevy-truck-guys that are loyal still and buy new trucks year after year.
The rest of their lineup though doesn’t have the same loyalties. When I was growing up in the 70s/80s, GM was king and the families in our neighborhood or church were very loyal to General Motors. As a car loving kid, I paid close attention to this.
A man at our church got a new Buick every two years. It didn’t matter what GM did to the cars, he bought it. He didn’t seem to even shop around. He traded his big blue Electra for a new 1977 downsized Electra, and he got a new one again and again. In 1986, he bought the new, even smaller FWD version. When GM upsized it a bit as the Park Avenue in the 90’s, he bought the first one I’d seen. His wife drove a Riviera. They were Buick people.
Other families were Oldsmobile people. In my neighborhood we had a family that had a new Delta 88 every few years and their two daughters both had X-Car Omegas. The mother had a Oldsmobile station wagon. The son I suppose was a traitor, he had a Fiero GT.
My pediatrician always had a new Eldorado parked out back. It was the only good part about going to the doctor. They were such beautiful cars in the early 80s. They would literally just sparkle in the sun. I still remember all this. It was a world where GM held sway over their customers and the kind of GM car folks had reflected their status.
My family was loyal to GM and my Dad had precisely followed Sloan’s ladder of brands. When he married my Mom, he had a Chevrolet. By the time I was born, he’d moved up to Pontiacs. As I was growing up, we had a series of Oldsmobiles. He later switched to Buick’s.
Am I being dramatic? Perhaps. Am I romanticizing the past? For sure I am a bit but I don’t see anything like that today with gm. The people who do drive a gm product, aside from trucks, have no particular affinity it seems. They bought the Equinox over the Explorer for the rebate. It’s what gm has lost in my opinion. If they’ve lost that loyalty in Australia, I would argue, they have here too. They still sell cars and a lot of trucks but today they have 17 percent of the US market. In my youth, they had half of the American market so GM back then was everywhere and people loved them and trusted them in a way that I just don’t see today.
I do get what you're saying as where I'm from and the period I grew up,, the well to do people drove Buick/Olds/Cadillac, blue collar drove more Ford then anything and fleets/inexpensive or drove Chevy and Dodge.
The biggest mistake I see from GM and Ford is the inconsistency of products on the car market. I hope to see GM put a decent effort on that front once again.
Couldn't have said it better. You summed it perfectly. When I was looking for a vehicle, GM family was first and only brands I looked at. They always had what I wanted. Not so much anymore.