GM scraps historic Holden car brand in Australia

I'm sad about this but not surprised. Holden was one of the two iconic Australian car manufacturers (Ford is the other, but we also had Toyota and others) but had really lost touch in the last 10 or so years.

Go back 20+ years, and there's no way you could have convinced any petrol head that Holden would exit Australia, ever. Ever second car you saw on the road was either a Commodore or a Falcon. There's a car championship (Supercars Championship) that was literally built, for decades, on the "rivalry" that was Holden vs. Ford.

We have a "luxury car tax" that was implemented as a cushion for the local automotive industry. It's meant so if you buy a car from overseas, there's a tariff to make it less enticing, and buy local. Now that Holden will exit, and Ford/Toyota will no longer make cars in Australia, I hope we abolish it. Doubtful though.