END OF AN ERA
LAST AUSSIE HOLDENS GO DOWN THE LINE:
THE last ever Australianmade cars are due to roll off Holden’s Elizabeth production line today.
The historic occasion will mark the end of almost a century of automotive manufacturing for the nation and 69 years for Holden.
Fewer than half a dozen cars are due to be built before midday in a private ceremony attended by about 1000 workers past and present.
The final examples of the Holden Commodore sedan, wagon and ute – and a Caprice limousine – are expected to be kept by Holden as museum pieces.
The last car, a red Commodore V8 sedan, will mark the end of Holden manufacturing and an industry that represented about 50,000 jobs at more than 120 parts suppliers across Australia.
About 940 people remain at Elizabeth for the final day. The company has not revealed how many have found work but 85 per cent of those who have left the company in the past four years have found jobs.
Holden manufacturing began in Port Melbourne in 1948 and the Elizabeth facility opened in 1958, initially building car bodies before becoming an assembly line in 1965.
In the end, Holden will have built a total of 7.6 million cars – including more than 2.3 million Commodores, not including exports – versus Ford’s tally of 5.9 million vehicles and Toyota’s total of 3.4 million.
Although the Elizabeth factory is closing, General Motors will retain about 350 Holden designers and engineers in Port Melbourne to work on foreign cars, some of which will be sold in Australia.
Although Holden is culling 30 dealerships, it will still have 200 showrooms across Australia, second only to Toyota.
With the factory gone, Holden will instead become solely an importer of vehicles, with 20 new models due by 2020.
The next-generation Commodore will come to Australia from Germany in March 2018.
Unlike all other Commodores over the past 39 years, there will not be a V8. It will have a choice of four-cylinder or V6 power.