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Holden New Zealand
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Holden New Zealand Limited, formerly General Motors New Zealand Limited before 1994 is the sales subsidiary for General Motors in New Zealand. Holden New Zealand was incorporated as a company on January 4, 1926.
Petone assembly plant opened in 1926 and the Trentham (in Wellington's Hutt Valley area) assembly plant opened on August 26, 1967 by the Prime Minister of New Zealand Keith Holyoake. At this time, the company had almost one million square feet of floor space, situated on three (Petone and Trentham: assembly/manufacturing plants; Upper Hutt: parts, and later, assembly, warehouse and office facilities) properties in the Hutt Valley totaling .
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Encyclopedia
Holden New Zealand Limited, formerly General Motors New Zealand Limited before 1994 is the sales subsidiary for General Motors in New Zealand. Holden New Zealand was incorporated as a company on January 4, 1926.
Assembly plants
The Petone assembly plant opened in 1926 and the Trentham (in Wellington's Hutt Valley area) assembly plant opened on August 26, 1967 by the Prime Minister of New Zealand Keith Holyoake. At this time, the company had almost one million square feet of floor space, situated on three (Petone and Trentham: assembly/manufacturing plants; Upper Hutt: parts, and later, assembly, warehouse and office facilities) properties in the Hutt Valley totaling . The Petone assembly plant was sold in 1984. In 1990, General Motors New Zealand announced its decision to phase out local assembly of passenger cars.
Brands
While the Holden name was (and is) used on virtually all GM products in Australia, in New Zealand other GM products from Vauxhall, Bedford, Isuzu, Pontiac and Opel were sold as well.
However, for such a small market, it made little sense to have so many brands, so each was rationalized from the 1960s. Chevrolet and Pontiac had effectively disappeared from the market by the 1970s, though there were still Chevrolet trucks from the US and a top-end Holden Statesman with a Chevrolet V8 engine, known as the Chevrolet 350. Vauxhall's full line-up was pared back to the Chevette and Viva by 1977 as Holden's range expanded to include mid-sized cars (the Torana and Sunbird). Isuzu (selling the Gemini) and Vauxhall (with the last Chevette) disappeared on the launch of the Holden Gemini TE series in 1981, while Bedford met its demise with the assembly of the last CF vans in 1984.
As 1983 began, Holden began fielding something close to a full range: the Gemini as the entry-level car, the Camira as the mid-sized one, and the Commodore in the large sector. All ranges had sedan and wagon variants (the Gemini also had a van version), and each lineup included sporting and luxury versions.
However, the Australian Holden Camira (JB series) fared so badly due to quality problems in New Zealand that local GM bosses decided to replace it with a the GM J car based Isuzu Aska (or JJ) from Japan. This was known as the JJ Camira, and proved to be much better than its Australian-sourced predecessor. The Isuzu-based model survived until Holden introduced the ultimate Camira, the JE, which made it across the Tasman Sea in 1987.
As the 1980s continued and Holden's future became uncertain, General Motors New Zealand pondered the reintroduction of other GM brands. In around 1985, there were strong rumours, and a GM report, that indicated that Holden would cease to exist in its current form, and that its models would be exclusively designed offshore. Certainly what was happening in Australia did not instil confidence: rebadged Suzukis, Nissans and Isuzus were occupying the bottom end of the range, while the Commodore was about to shift to a Japanese-designed three L engine.
Therefore, Opel made a small reintroduction with a tiny selection of highly priced models (Kadett GSE, Ascona GT, Senator, Monza) of European origin. Research showed that Pontiac had a good reputation, so rather than follow the Australian route with a rebadged Toyota Corolla, GM New Zealand brought in the Opel Kadett-based LeMans from Daewoo of South Korea, attempting to fill both the compact and mid-sized sectors until the arrival of the Opel Vectra. Despite the car's origins and place of manufacture, it was marketed in New Zealand as 'American'. Many New Zealanders never knew that "Pontiac Le Mans" was an older name for a much larger car in the United States.
In the late 1980s, General Motors New Zealand attempted to use many makes and have "GM" as the main brand. Therefore, the mainstream range in 1989 consisted of:
Commercial vehicles were branded as Isuzu.
General Motors New Zealand's marketing strategy created little brand loyalty and consumers did not accept 'GM' as a brand, probably due to the multiple brands on offer.
Name change
From 1994, with Holden's future starting to look more secure, General Motors New Zealand changed name to Holden New Zealand.
The Opel name was dropped, and the Vectra was rebadged as a Holden, even though it was (at the time) not available in Australia. The Astra was introduced the following year, identical Opel-badged models, imported second hand from Japan, already being sold locally.
Early models of the Holden Astra and Vectra in New Zealand differed from those sold in Australia, in that they had a distinctive grille with a 'V' containing the Holden badge, similar to that used by Vauxhall in the UK. Later on this was changed to bring the New Zealand model range in line with Australia.
Similarly, the Isuzu Trooper off-road vehicle was rebadged the Holden Jackaroo, as in Australia, although owing to the widespread availability of the identical Isuzu Bighorn as a used Japanese import, that name was used on brand new models imported by Holden New Zealand. This policy of rebadging the Isuzu Trooper under another General Motors brand name was used by Opel in Europe and Asia with the Opel Monterey and in Latin America as the Chevrolet Trooper
For a short period between early 1998 and late 1999, the Holden Frontera was sold new in New Zealand as the Isuzu Wizard, although this range is now semi-identical to Holden Australia's line-up.
There are still differences between the Holden model ranges in Australia and New Zealand. It was only in August 2005 that the wagon version of the Holden Astra went on sale in Australia, while in New Zealand, the Astra wagon was not available until June 2008, like the Zafira in 2004. The Tigra was also released in Australia, but will not be sold in New Zealand.
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