Could a return to its roots have saved Holden?

Holden didn’t have to disappear just because General Motors didn’t want to run a right-hand drive car company on the far side of the world. In another multiverse, GM could have made the decision to sell off Holden, as part of its deal to off-load its European brands, Opel and Vauxhall.

The Anglo-German duo had a long history with Holden, with Opel supplying the building blocks for the first Commodore and then dozens of models over the years, including the Barina, Astra and Vectra.

Credit where credit is due, Torquecafe reader DaveRides inspired this idea with his comment on our previous ‘What if… Holden’ story, and the idea immediately got my brain turning over. What could a modern-day Opel/Vauxhall/Holden trio achieve?

It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds, as Vauxhall’s deep roots in the United Kingdom means current brand owners, Stellantis, need to keep producing right-hand drive models for that market. Adding an extra right-hand drive country, two with New Zealand, would have been a good opportunity for Stellantis, allowing it to rebadge the Vauxhall range with the Holden lion – just like the old days!

Vauxhall still offers the Corsa and Astra hatchbacks, which Holden fans will remember as the Barina and Astra. In truth, while both are stylish models with electrified options, both would likely struggle in today’s SUV-dominated market. Perhaps the familiar names might have served them well, it certainly hasn’t hurt the Toyota Corolla, but that comes out of Asia, not European, and at the price-sensitive end of the market that would have made life difficult for ‘Stellantis Holden’.

What Vauxhall does have is a nice-looking range of SUVs, the compact Mokka, mid-size Frontera and family-friendly Grandland. This trio could have formed the backbone of a would-be Holden range, and with European style and build quality helping to erase the painful memories of Holden’s ‘Daewoo era’ with the likes of the Captiva, Viva and Epica.

The real ace up the sleeve for the Vauxhall-led Holden would have been its commercial vans, a market that doesn’t sound sexy but has been successful for Ford and even Stellantis’ own Peugeot and Citroen in Australia in the past. The Vauxhall Combo Cargo, Vivaro and Movano offer a small, medium and large van solution, and as an added bonus are available in the UK with both a diesel and electric powertrain.

Would this have been enough to have kept Holden going? Obviously we’ll never know, and certainly the lack of a ute and even a performance hero are glaring omissions, but it’s still an interesting ‘what if’ to ponder for those of us still unhappy with how Holden was ultimately handled.