If I were you, I'd forget about that new Holden. The truth is, it will be rubbish.
I read this news in the Financial Times this morning, but mind you, anything you read about GM within the next sixty days is going to be a useful as if you'd heard it off of a tramp living in Hyde Park.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fadf3e32-2d43-11de-8710-00144feabdc0.html
General Motors is prepared to part with a controlling stake in Opel/Vauxhall for nothing but a pledge to invest directly in a new company formed from its European operations, according to two people familiar with its plans.
According to a person familiar with GM's thinking, an investor will be asked to pay at least €500m ($652m) in equity but the carmaker will realise no financial gain as the money will be injected directly into Opel/ Vauxhall.
Back in Horse 955 I happened to mention this:
http://rollo75.blogspot.com/2009/02/horse-955.html
Due to the Global Financial Crisis, Opel and Vauxhall are trying to cut themselves loose from GM in America. If that were to happen then not only does Holden lose potential export markets for the car, but it's just possible that the whole project as far as Australia is concerned never eventuates: at least as far as the Astra is concerned.
If Opel and Vauxhall leave GM, then Holden is left in the same group as Geely, Daewoo and GM North America and without access to European technology and design work.
The way I see it, the road forward for Holden is very dark indeed, and they haven't even got replacement bulbs for their headlamps.
The Zeta Platform upon which the Commodore is based was supposed to be the great leap forward for the company. That has been canned.
http://www.themotorreport.com.au/17328/bob-lutz-reveals-the-future-or-lack-of-for-zeta-rwd/
“The strategy we had a few years ago of basically deriving a whole sweeping global portfolio off the Australian Zeta architecture … frankly, we have had to abandon that dream.” - Bob Lutz, GM CEO (at the moment)
With Ford already losing any plans for the Orion to go anywhere other than Australia and both the Commodore and Falcon flagging in sales in Australia, the future is looking incredibly myopic. Now that GM is looking down the barrel of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US and Opel/Vauxhall almost out of the web, unless Holden finds a way to spin itself out (possibly through the grand RuddCar plan) then Holden will go the way of Mitsubishi in Australia; that happens, then Ford would probably follow suit because the support industries would simply dry up.
All in all it means that GM as far as Australia is concerned will be an utter waste of time by 2012. No Commodores, I bet that Opel/Vauxhall won't want to give us the Astra anymore so well be stuck with the awful Cruze, no Corsa, no Vectra and worst of all no VXR/OPC versions of them.
Holden Australia's line will be Barina, Cruze, Epica and Captiva, or if you wish Daewoo, Daewoo, Daewoo and Daewoo, or to put that another way, Rubbish, Rubbish, Rubbish and Rubbish.
Well done Holden, as the theme song to M*A*S*H says Suicide is Painless.
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