Holden Commodore Plant Is Up For Sale Auto Evolution
by Mircea Panait
17 May 2017
Following the sale of the Port Melbourne V6 engine plant in 2016, Holden now plans to dismantle the Commodore line. Industrial liquidation specialist Maynards is tasked with the sale of every bit and bob of value at the Adelaide Vehicle Manufacturing & Assembly facility. According to the listing, binding offers are open until October 31, 2017, including private negotiation for the assembly line’s tools and robots.
Too late. Most of the third party suppliers have closed shop. Even if you bought the plant complete you couldn't make cars, once the current build stock of kits is exhausted. V6 plant is closed, tooling's gone and they're dismantling the buildings. GM's made well and truly sure they're leaving scorched earth behind. Now they just have the redundancies and an estimated $1bill in site cleanup costs...... Given they're going to bleed Holden to death, it makes no sense not to have sold it as a going concern, they could have guaranteed component sales for decades.
If the plant were truly a money-loser, why didn't they just sell to Punch? He would have taken everything - workforce, liabilities, shutdown and environment costs straight off their hands.
The logic is that GM has discontinued domestic production in a country where it is not profitable. Not buying the imported Holdens threatens the businesses of Holden dealers and the jobs of their employees.
Municipal fleets are purchased from the lowest bidder. Domestically manufactured government vehicles are usually purchased below dealer invoice for private vehicles. For a GM to sell an imported police prowler, it must be taking a bath on each vehicle sold.
That said, the classic police sedan is fast becoming a thing of the past. The go to vehicle for police departments is now the Ford Explorer. GM's go to police car is now the Chevrolet Tahoe. Police departments are switching to SUVs because sedans no longer feed the bulldog.
Was just coming in to say the same thing. GM is shrinking faster than Barra's credibility. She will single handedly disrupt GM from once being the worlds largest car makes to a US domestic brand with some sales in China. The approach to difficult markets is weak and pathetic. Why it should be so hard for GM to succeed where most other manufacturers have viable operations of some kind, is beyond me. The soft bellied GM execs cut and run. Instead of these fabled new approaches and outside of the box thinking they bail. It's utter hypocrisy.
Holdens death has to be inevitable. I don't whether to punch a wall or sit in the corner and cry.
The accountants have too much sway....They'll keep Ebitda % high by chopping 'low profit' operations and vehicles until they have little left, and then get snapped up or have no economy of scale to ride the ups and downs...shades of Pan Am, another American institution that was f'ed over by mis-management at the senior management level. I guess MBA schools need something to study in the 2030's.
That's two more RHD markets that GM is stepping away from and now that Vauxhall - Opel is gone,
there seems very little point in GM sticking around in Australia.
I'd say that GM has one foot out the door and if things don't pick up soon, it's hardly worth GM's while
to fund any new RHD product period.
I pinched this from elsewhere (sorry for pinching it but it was interesting):
Its sad to to think not too long to go and Australia will lose apart of its fabric which has made this country. Some interesting things to note;
That since the announcement in 2013 of the closure that quality has actually gone up, infact the Elizabeth plant and Holden have just received a build in quality level IV, with 97.5% and are the number 1 car manufacturing plant in the world for quality product.
Also the Elizabeth plant is the most financial and cost effective plant in the whole of GM, and has received an award for it.
To build a car it spends 8hrs in Body Shop, 12 Hrs in Paint and 7hrs in GA, there are 279 robots in Body shop and a car comes off the line every 142 seconds and the plant pumps out 175 cars a day. Its a far cry from its hey day of 2005 with a car coming off the line every 87 secs and over 800 cars being built a day over 3 shifts.
I also remember reading a couple of years ago that Toyota were shocked that Holden could build a Commodore cheaper than they could build a Camry.
Mondeo sales climbed 47 per cent last year to 3122 units in a segment down 2 per cent — enough for 6.1 per cent share. A promising result yes, though short of the Camry, Mazda 6 and Subaru Liberty, and also the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and BMW 3 Series.
Mondeo sales are up a further 6.3 per cent this year, in a segment down 10 per cent, and Ford’s 846 sales trail the Mazda 6 by just 52.
“The Mondeo is crucial to our line-up, and continues to receive praise from media and customers alike for its design, innovative features and safety,” said Ford Australia president and CEO Graeme Whickman.
“The changes for 2017 give consumers even greater choice and style for what’s a technologically advanced package, with EcoBoost engines, smart diesel as well as SYNC 3 technology.”
For context, in its final year the locally-made Commodore has 5607 sales thus far, though it’s hard to imagine the 2018 imported Opel-based replacement getting close to this.
So nearly six months into the year, the Mondeo's sold about a thousand cars YTD. I would bet, based on what I see on the roads, most of them are salesman's vehicles - fleet-spec wagons being popular amongst photocopy/vacuum cleaner reps.
So nearly six months into the year, the Mondeo's sold about a thousand cars YTD. I would bet, based on what I see on the roads, most of them are salesman's vehicles - fleet-spec wagons being popular amongst photocopy/vacuum cleaner reps.
I find it amusing to discuss how well a single model is doing when the rest of the manufacturer's lineup is in trouble. In the case of Ford, the manufacturer has been on the slide since 2014. Ford shareholders and its board of directors have grown very concerned. Its recent announcement that the company will be layoff 10% of its salaried employees in North America and Asia is one consequence of their concern.
I can only imagine imagine how much greater Ranger and Everest sales would have been if only
FoA had chosen to make them in Australia instead of running Falcon and Territory into the ground.
That's the problem with letting someone as removed as Stephan Teflon make the call. No idea about Australian market - just assumes it's the same as the US, or very similar to Europe and will eat FWDs.......
No idea about Holden or it's legacy or it's core business or very strong ties to enthusiasts or traditionalists - just assumes that as Opel has turbo fours with AWD they are an interchangeable product and superior to 'old-fashioned' RWD.
It does not help that since before the GFC GM has 'helpfully' been modifying the way Holden did business with it's suppliers, the way it developed models (like AWD wagons and RWD-based SUVs) and markets for same. Inserting GMIO between Opel and Holden and Holden and GM Saudi killed two business streams: Holden and Opel looked to have small cars cracked dealing direct with Opel. Just when they had Astra and Barina up to the point where reviews said 'it's a solid buy despite being pricey' they killed all the smart pricing/equipment options! And shutting Holden out of the M-E was just insult to injury. The reason why they got the market was precisely because of very powerful large RWD cars.
Belatedly he's admitted maybe they got it wrong........
I am starting to see queries to motoring journalists from Commodore and Falcon owners asking what they can replace their towing vehicle with. Unless you go large AWD SUV the answer is nothing. Good luck on a lot of boat ramps with FWD car.
From what I have been reading in some financial circles, the US car industry is on the precipice of a rapid decent into hell.
You would think the US would have had enough of Ninja style loans and collateralized debt but apparently not. With the economy awash with cheap money, everyone who couldn't afford a new car has been able to get one. Car sales boomed and the debt has been collateralized and sold to pension funds just like they did with housing loans.
These loans are now coming due in rapidly increasing quantities. The used car market is being flooded and prices are crashing, killing the new car market along the way.
Is this why GM is contracting? Divesting of all unprofitable ventures in an attempt the weather the coming storm?
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