Holden is gone, much to the indifference of General Motors, who only kept it around because it was paid for by government handouts.
Being a Yank mob, primarily responsible for such beaut gas-guzzlers as the Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet, their management was never likely to be bothered by any social impact closing Holden might have. After all, they are quartered in the post-apocalyptic city of Detroit. And this is business.
What’s more, they must’ve been puzzled over Aussie pride in this Australian motoring icon. Being into low margins and high turnover, it probably seemed unreal that Australians could get hung up on such a local brand, and not want to buy their own American monsters.
But that’s how it’s been for a long time, until about 2018, when for the first time rival Ford outsold the American-owned Aussie brand. The correlation between marketing size and immigration figures might offer reasons behind this since after all, we are a diminishing race within our own borders.
Still, by then Holden was importing a Commodore model as the manufacture of Holden had ceased in Australia. And that was more than sad, as the brand was part of our national DNA.
Over the years, the rivalry between fans of Ford Falcon and the Holden Commodore created a subculture equivalent to football fans flying their rival colours. Yes, this was the battle of the donks and it was waged on the speed track and touring circuits and generated more Aussie icons than a jumbo packet of Freddo Frogs.
Names like Bob Jane, Peter Brock, Allan Moffat (Canadian), Craig Lowndes and a whole bunch of others mixed and matched brands and generally drove for one or the other, however, Peter Brock was a well-known Holden dealer back in the day.
Having said, Holden has such a connection to Australian identity, having been established as a saddlery in South Australia in 1856 by its namesake James Alexander Holden, that we can blow raspberries at the Ford drivers since it’s not an Aussie car and they’re traitors. It just might’ve been possible that one day Holden might’ve been Ferrari at Le Mans.
It’s a pity that the iconic V8 Interceptor Mad Max drives in the first two movies is a Ford and not a Holden but that shows what kind of un-Australian dicks they are in the movie business.
None of this fanfare, it seems, was enough to keep the car alive. Holden, along with just about every iconic brand ever made here, has gone to the Aussie manufacturing hereafter leaving as us little more than a service economy flogging our national assets and useless degrees to overseas cheats who only want to study so they can move here and take over our country.
The business writers in the mainstream media, indentured as they are to their conservative masters, are now blaming the rigidity of unions for the brand’s demise. Others are writing that Scott Morrison sold us out by taking money that should’ve gone to keep Holden on life support and giving it over to French conmen for dodgy submarine building contracts.
The reality is that the writing is on the wall, not just for a brand of a motor vehicle, but for ourselves. We as Australians are a brand that is currently being replaced by offshore manufacturing in the form of Chinese, Arab, African and Indian immigrants who breed like termites.
Given that Australia is now little more than a bargain-basement warehouse with everything including the floor up for sale, it’s time to wake up. It’s time to realise that we don’t need foreign rubbish here because we’re quite capable of manufacturing own. Erm, not rubbish, but quality products. It’s a skill that we cannot allow to be lost so that we’re forever dependent on international markets.
We look forward to the next iconic Aussie brand, and we hope that true Australians will do all they can to support it.