Holden Museum owners in shock over news the brand is to be scrapped

Tuesday, 18 February 2020

The last lap for Holden is near - but could this spell the end of the road for General Motors?

They're arguably New Zealand's biggest Holden fans with an internationally recognised collection, but Steve and Joy Fabish had been given no prior warning their beloved brand was for the scrapheap.

The couple have the country's largest private collection of Holden vehicles and opened the Hillsborough Holden Museum and Bathurst race track-inspired mini-putt course just outside of New Plymouth in November 2017.

In recognition of their commitment to the brand, in 2018 General Motors, the American car manufacturer that makes Holdens, had motor racing legend Greg Murphy present them with a $70,000 Holden Commodore ZB for Valentine's Day.

Because of this, Steve said they usually got a heads up when things were happening.

But it wasn't until a journalist phoned on Monday that they learned General Motors would retire the Holden brand and wind down its Australasian operations by 2021, he said.

Hillsborough Holden Museum owners Joy and Steve Fabish are shocked the Holden brand will be scrapped by next year.

**READ MORE:

The pair have been collecting Holdens for 30 years and say they can't understand why General Motors would stop producing Holdens, as they are such good cars.

* Greg Murphy's 'total shock' at Holden axing

Holden fans Steve and Joy Fabish got an unexpected $70,000 Valentine's Day gift personally delivered by race car driver Greg Murphy.

* Holden has killed off the Commodore

* A museum that's a Holden lover's dream**

'I was just blown away. And why? It's such a nice car and all of a sudden they just cease production,' he said.

'It's all about funding and with electric cars and all that stuff going on at the moment, they're putting their resources in to that.'

Steve said the Australian and New Zealand market was the only place right hand drive Holdens were sent and the market for them was just too small in the scheme of things.

The Fabishes - who own the oldest registered Holden in New Zealand, a 1949 FX, and have been collecting the cars for 30 years - soon won't be able to buy any new model Holdens for the museum but said they would continue to buy older models.

Steve reckons he gets a new piece of Holden memorabilia every week and friends and family regularly buy him bits and pieces too.

Although they are in disbelief at the moment, the Fabishes believe the decision could ultimately work in their favour.

'It is certainly a shock and hard to comprehend what has actually happened,' Steve said.

'Hopefully it will make ours something unique. I think in time it will be good for us.'