GM selling Opel/Vauxhall to the makers of Citroen and Puegot

[MAGP]

So our Holdens will be offshoots of Citroen and Puegot in the years to come
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39172225

[immortality]

They've been talking about this for a while, I don't believe it's the first time they have tried to flick off Opel.

[MAGP]

I hope GM has a plan B for Holden because when they start selling us rebadged Citroens etc as Commodore, Kingswood, Statesman, etc, I'll get myself a Subaru.

I worked on Euro cars for a living and apart from comfort I couldn't find anything good about them. It took Australian engineering to make a Holden a Holden and not the Euro cars they were loosely based on.

[psyolent]

yep. i wonder about the future of Holden in AU. bring out FWD commodores and there will be a problem.
ah the media at their best. first few paras in ; The sale could threaten the jobs of 4,500 workers at Vauxhall's plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton.
by the sounds of it growth has been stymied by GM so might actually be a good thing ...

[vlad01]

I hope GM has a plan B for Holden because when they start selling us rebadged Citroens etc as Commodore, Kingswood, Statesman, etc, I'll get myself a Subaru.

I worked on Euro cars for a living and apart from comfort I couldn't find anything good about them. It took Australian engineering to make a Holden a Holden and not the Euro cars they were loosely based on.

agreed. except on the subaru part, I wouldn't buy those either. I'll stick to restoring aussie cars and driving them.

[MAGP]

I've always liked scoobies but I do prefer Australian built to anything else. Unfortunately it is getting harder to restore Australian cars, Rare Spares and other suppliers just don't have the stock for our homebuilt classics like other markets (US and UK) do for theirs. It is easier for me to buy parts for US cars (e.g. 1st or 2nd gen Trans Am) than it is for equivalent Australian cars (e.g. HK-Z Holden).

[vlad01]

The H series seems damn well covered in the restro market to me. I certainly wouldn't call them hard, not compared to the cars I have to do up where it takes on average 2-4 years to find a single arbitrary part with a comprehensive search of the entire pool of data on the net for these models nearly every single day and having many 10s of real life contacts without much luck.

And if you go for a early commodore as a restro with a modern transplant you basically beat the market of shitbox cars of today. Plenty of VC to VK commodores out there, there is heaps of NOS parts and restro stuff available and heaps of aftermarket go fast bits, conversions and what not. Id def go this path before buying anything from outside oz

[MAGP]

The NOS and resto market in Australia is nothing like the NOS and resto market in the UK or US.

It took 6 weeks to get a headlight for my VC and it took alot of searching to find and even then auto parts shop at Toowoomba didn't want to let it go. There are no NOS or resto clocks available for them. If you want to get an NOS or resto sunvisor clip for a VC HDT in the correct colour you have 2 chances (buckleys and none). Try buying an NOS or new aftermarket oem looking centre console. The early H series (HK-HG) have some things like centre console with the console mounted tacho but compared to something like a 67 Firebird which Year 1 supply parts for our cars have very little available for a concourse restoration.

[immortality]

So the deal is done.

http://www.driven.co.nz/news/news/gm-se ... workfooter

[MAGP]

This bit is a worry

GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra told analysts that the sale may not be GM's last. She said the company has work to do on some international businesses and could make a similar deal for them if they can't be fixed.

I doubt Australians will like what Holden has planned after October so I can see Australia being a bit of a train wreck for GM over the next 5 years. If that happens GM may just axe the Holden brand altogether.