GMH compo in slow lane

GOLD Coast car king Wade von Bibra is still waiting for compensation from General Motors Holden more than four months after it pulled the pin on the iconic brand in Australia.

It comes as car dealers across the Gold Coast struggle with customers unable to obtain finance for car loans.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows loans for road vehicles fell by 37.8 per cent in April.

Mr von Bibra, who has two Holden dealerships, at Southport

and Robina, said the long wait for compensation from GMH was disappointing.

“It would have been nice to have been wrapped up a lot sooner,” he said.

“But … like anything, what they (GMH) deem as fair and reasonable is very different to what we as dealers deem as fair and reasonable.”

GMH decided to discontinue the Holden brand in Australia in February, citing a fragmented right-hand-drive market in Australia that left it without a viable investment return.

Dealers have since been locked in a dispute with GMH over the size of a package to compensate them for the investment they made in the brand and their dealerships.

Mediation talks overseen by retired Federal Court judge Peter Jacobson QC that ended last night failed to break the deadlock.

GMH has offered $1500 per vehicle sold by dealers between 2017 and 2019 – an offer seen as unacceptable by the Australian Holden Dealer Council, which represents the dealers.

Mr von Bibra confirmed he received a compensation offer but would not disclose the amount. He sold 750 Holden vehicles across his two car yards in 2019, meaning his compensation for the past year alone would exceed $1 million.

“We have approximately two-and-a-half years left to go under our dealer agreements so in essence they have breached the dealer agreement, so they have to compensate us,” Mr von Bibra said.

He said he hoped an agreement would be reached in the “near future”.

A spokesman for GMH said its $1500 per car offer for sales from 2017 to 2019 was “fair and reasonable”.

“The compensation for new vehicle sales was calculated using three fiscal years, 2017-2019, and includes highly profitable Commodore units,” he said. “This compensation is over four times what the average dealer made in the new vehicle department over this same timeframe.”

He said dealers had the opportunity to continue their aftersales business for Holden vehicles (service and repairs), which represented one of the most profitable parts of a dealer’s business. GMH has committed to maintaining an aftersales operation in Australia for 10 years.

Mr von Bibra invested heavily in the Holden brand. In June 2018 he bought the Surfers City Holden dealership from AP Eagers for an undisclosed sum and then built a 10car showroom with workshop bays next to an existing dealership at Expo Court. About 150 Holden vehicles had been sold by Mr von Bibra’s dealerships since February.