HOLDEN, The BMW Beater This Brand Didn’t Want You To Drive: Which Was Murdered By GM

GM (General motors) an American Automobile company is operating worldwide from last one century and with the time it acquired many more small automobile companies. And Holden was Australian based car which was part of GM.

Once it was part of a joint venture before established its first car in 1908. Alike other motor car companies GM had same story of being a auto repairing company with partnership of other car companies like Buick.

Brief history of GM

William C. Durant started his life by working in his grandfather saw mill which wasn’t his ambition so later he partnered with Josiah Dallas Dort and started a flint road cart company in Detroit.

At the beginning it was horse drawn carriages  which later evolved into motor operated vehicle. Later Durant started buying other small motor companies which couldn’t survive in competition with big motor companies.

Till 1907 Durant had acquired many small auto repair shops like Cadillac, Buick, Oldmobiles, Pontiac and Oakland. Then he formed General Motors company in 1908.

In 1911 Chevrolet company was also incorporated into GM which was formed by the racer Lois Joseph Chevrolet.

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This joint venture gave many awesome cars to the world and vision of Durant and well engineering of Chevrolet gave first v8 engine to car market in 1917. Durant wanted everyday used family cars but Chevrolet was focused on luxury car segment which conflicted with them and Chevrolet sold its shares to GM and kept producing cars individually.

GM in USA

General Motors having top leading automobile companies from all type of sector which had different purpose and different type of buyers which serves their all needs.

Cadillac was known for making premium luxury cars with a high cost to own so it was targeted to soke elite class customers.

Buick was very affordable with lower maintenance and they were made for first time buyers with low income these cars were also having some models which were manufactured for wealthy people too.

Pontiac were meant for middle class people and they had service cars too which were designed for police, servicemen, etc.

Chevrolet motor company didn’t stay in passenger cars only they engaged with other types of vehicles too. They had expensive cars, pickups, trucks, buses, SUVs heavy trucks and tractors.

GM developed truck company which later known as GMC.

GM in worldwide

Later General Motors expended its manufacturing units outside America and currently it is operating in 8 countries like China, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany, Australia, South Africa.

Now GM has Vauxhall, Opel, Holden, Saab Chevrolet as it’s global products.

How GM beats the BMW

As GM has bunch of brands in its operation, it gives tough competition to BMW  with its Chevrolet in power and performance with its corvette to compete with BMW m seriesin drag race and Chevrolet exploring electric and hybrid sector.

Cadillac is packed with most luxurious features which provides comfort, technology, and performance.

GM globally is rival to bmw with its tech innovation and seek leading position with great product value.

To compete with BMW, GM has variety of performance parts in Chevrolet line and gives more custom options to its owners to increase power and performance by adding accessories in its performance packages.

Holden Australian automobile brand

Holden was Australian car company founded in 1856 as a saddlery manufacturers which came into automobile sector in 1898 and it became subsidiary to General Motors in 1931.

Holden was manufacturing popular car models like commodore, caprice, ute, monaro etc. And it had inline 4 inline 6 v6 v8 engines in its product line which were competing with famous car brands in term of comfort and luxury.

GM decided to shut Holden production

Gm gave excuse to close this popular Australian brand that it is too inevitable, too big, too local and buyers have changed their prospective to buy such models anymore and it’s labour cost is very high to manufactur more Holden now.

But it was not truth because Holden was discontinued when it has good sales figure and there was gain in statics of sold cars.

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This was ignorance of GM business strategies to kill a well performed car brand which was later sold to Chinese company SAIC and it was betrayal to Australian tax payers who were

GM has the history of doing same with its partners Opal and Vauxhall previously where it took their profits in 70s and left them to struggle with lower sales by not providing sufficient funds for working on advanced technology design and marketing strategies.

So the same working tactics were applied on Holden Motors by not showing its interest in development but to sale it off.

The main purpose of GM wasn’t to get developed and relay on no subsidies from government but it was to show polititians that Holden needs their help to save Australian jobs to run operation.

GM sold Holden parts not at market price but they sold it at the cost which was set by Detroit headquarter and it was really higher than market price.

GM didn’t invest much money in operation of Holden cars manufacturing but it used zeta platform which Australian taxpayers paid 1 billion to build and GM produced Chevrolet camaro which were sold globally.

Holden was in profit since 80s and good source of revenue for GM but GM didn’t bother to invest money in new experiments to introduce advanced technology and market  need for customers where people were shifting to small and economic cars.

All the profits were pumped back to its headquarter Detroit and Holden was running on subsidy.

GM wanted to enter China and he made partnership with SAIC to make Holden cost effective and south Korea had significantly lower labour cost so GM abandoned Australian market.

Genral Motors moved all its machinery to China and sent Holden well skilled engineers to China to teach all the technical skills to Chinese engineers.

Not only machines, robots, engineers were sent to China even Holden parts, components,  were sent to China and left Australian plant empty behind.

Later most of the Holden models were build by SAIC with changed name and became rival cars to Australia.

GM made partnership with Daewoo in Korea to make small cars which were rebadged as Holden and export it to Australia. It wasn’t wise move of GM as Daewoo cars were known for unreliable feedback which shattered Holden reputation as unreliable products of Australian market.

GM used Holden money to aquire Korean company Daewoo but it wasn’t used back for Holden growth and all the profits was made, sent back GM Detroit. Only headquarter was in charge to decide where to use that profit money.

Greed of GM which killed Holden

Holden made most advanced well engineered platform zeta from Australian taxpayers which used by GM to produce marvelous products and these great models were sent to usa and rebadged as Pontiac, Buick, Chevrolet.

These cars were told as American cars but in reality they were manufactured in Australia under world class engineering in zeta platform.

Holden could sell them in domestic market or import them globally under their badge but GM policy didn’t allowed it and trapped Holden in their business strategies.

On confronting for such marketing tactics GM later called them GM Asia specific models.

So Holden once a great car company of Australian land which used to produce iconic and reliable cars was shut down due to GM one-sided business strategies forever.