William Maley
Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com
December 13, 2013
With the announcement of Holden closing up production and R&D by 2017, the battle to keep the Holden brand alive has only begun.
News.com.au reports that General Motors is considering dropping Holden and transitioning to Chevrolet. The reasons for this begin with the Holden brand not having any distinction once the brand begins importing vehicles in 2017. There is also an image problem as the brand could be seen as damaged with the shutdown of its factories.
"There will now be the biggest fight ever to save the Holden brand from being shelved. Every time there is a new boss of Holden or a new head of General Motors, the question is asked, 'Why do we still have the Holden brand in Australia? Now that (Holden) won't be making cars and there won't be anything unique about the vehicles, the debate is going to come up again and it will be hard to win. There will be massive implications for the brand," a Holden insider said.
"There is no emotion in this. It will all come down to money. If General Motors thinks sales will go down because the Holden brand is on the nose, then they will switch it to Chevrolet," another insider said.
This isn't the first time that Holden had to fight back. Back at the start of the global financial crisis, Holden was on the chopping block alongside Hummer and Pontiac. Holden fought back with Mark Ruess at the helm.
"The amount of money we've spent trying to defend the Holden brand to Detroit is ridiculous. But when executives from North America come out to Australia, they take photos of Chevrolet badges that people have fitted to their Holden utes, and use that against us," an insider said.
Source: News.com.au
William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.
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