Holden closure

Holden has asked dealers to report all remaining new cars as sold by the end of this month, so it can clear the books before the brand is retired at the end of 2020. The car maker had asked dealers to report most of their stock as sold by the end of last month, but some late deliveries prompted an extension. It is unclear exactly how many cars are left in Holden’s skeleton showroom network, however numerous dealer sources estimate approximately 500 or fewer new vehicles remain for sale.

EXCLUSIVE The bombshell announcement about the closure of the Holden brand narrowly avoided being broken weeks earlier than planned – after claims that executives openly drafted confidential emails while sitting in business class on a flight home from Detroit.

US car giant General Motors has broken its silence and hit back at claims its compensation offer to Holden dealers over the shutdown of the brand is unfair – and says accusations of unconscionable and misleading conduct are “baseless”, “plainly wrong”, and “unsupported by fact or law”.

EXCLUSIVE Bargain hunters are expected to stampede Holden dealers across Australia as a dealer bulletin obtained by CarAdvice outlines discounts across the entire range of between $7500 and $17,500. The biggest discounts are on the Holden Colorado ute, ranging from $13,000 to $17,500, slashing the drive-away cost by up to one-third on some models.

Holden will be axed in Australia at the end of 2020 – just three years after the end of local manufacturing and the lowest monthly sales since it was established in 1948 – as US car giant General Motors gets out of right-hand-drive markets globally. Although Holden had been posting record low sales – which led to the end of the Commodore and Astra models late last year – the announcement has still come as a shock to industry veterans now the brand has lost its final lifeline.