What’s Happened To Holden's Dealers?
A biggest point of contention created by the departure of Holden is reimbursement of dealers, many of who have paid out massive amounts of money for car yard enhancements in recent years even with reducing sales numbers.
We won't be going into the whole events of the period of fighting both sides have had, General Motors made an offer of remuneration for one thousand and five hundred dollars per car, and Holden dealers demanded six thousand and ten dollars. Despite Holden dealers repeated private and public urges for talks as well as for more settlement GM never moved away from its one thousand five hundred dollar figure.
One year ago today #Holden announced they were closing down their manufacturing in Australia #auspol pic.twitter.com/5sPtecZjCl
— SA Labor (@alpsa) December 10, 2014
This meant more than one hundred and twenty of the remaining 184 Holden dealers had to accept the original offer earlier this week due to General Motors setting a deadline of the end of June.
Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) Chief Executive Officer James Voortman was scathing in his analysis of the talks with the two sides went down, blaming General Motors.
Yet, this doesn’t indicate the argument has come to a end. AHDC (Australian Holden Dealer Council) says the remaining 60 or so dealers will continue to pursue GM for increased amounts.
Neither GM or Holden issued any comment about this current settlement.
Who Will Repair The Calais?
With a lot of dealerships removed the Holden Lion signage & changed to independant signage, it has created much angst & lack of understanding for owners of Holden cars.
General Motors said in February it were looking to to have five year agreements from Holden dealers with the possibility to take this to over a the period of ten years, to enable current Holden drivers have security. While exact details of these deals have been forsaken with all the saga around remuneration, it is understood that the other dealers that did come to agreement with General Motors have been able to get servicing contracts included with agreements.
What Is Becoming Of Holden Special Vehicles
Holden Special Vehicles is set to rebadge to GMSV (GM Specialty Vehicles).
The February announcing of the shutdown of Holden, General Motors relayed plans to continue selling a limited number of models under the GM Specialty Vehicles banner. While GM are quiet about the ideas after the statement, it is widely assumed that GM will join forces with with Holden Special Vehicles, to increase HSV's offerings of right-hand steer changed GM cars.
But, there's a catch for this roadmap and AHDC issuing the following statement recently in the month of June questioning the GMSV's legitimacy. Â
Voortman stated that is concerned about the possibility GM could close Holden’s network and come back in the marketplace with a new company.