Sunday Drive: Holden's last blast

Saturday, 11 April 2020

This road trip was completed before the current coronavirus lockdown restrictions came into effect.

Start where it finished, end where it all began.

Signing off Holden's time here with a roadie in its last press vehicle from brand HQ to the birthplace of General Motors New Zealand, calling by places of relevance, seemed right.

That the 'car' is a ute is no insult to a certain other. Regardless of a desultory ZB performance, Commodore stands as GM's biggest hit here, no worries about that. Yet Colorado also deserves dues for having been top dog in recent years.

**READ MORE:

* Holden highlights in New Zealand: part 1

* Holden highlights in New Zealand: part 2

* Holden dealers set to sue GM

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

Retrieving the Z71 from Holden's East Mangere digs is how I wanted it, but accompanying corporate affairs manager Ed Finn upstairs for the keys feels awkwardly intrusive. A coronavirus work from home option explains the empty desks in this ground zero for February 17's bombshell, Ed assures, yet knowing redundancy is looming for almost all the 40 staff, my mate included, is sobering. They deserved better.

GM also deserves gratitude. The first car brand with a car assembly plant here banged out 600,000 vehicles over six decades and employed thousands. When World War II broke out, it stood tall. It put the first fridges into many homes.

Typical of best-laid plans, my honour run derails when I plot a course. Additional to this mission, I'm helping a pal who's selling a model racing car collection to another who is buying. In my mind's eye, this won't impinge on a primary mission ticking off dealer locales where the Lion has roared loud and long.

Even by choosing to skip Pukekohe, where the hugely entrepreneurial outlet here from 1921 to 1994 sold not only cars but, as the local funeral director, also caskets, I can surely at least hit Hamilton, home to Ebbett Group (founded in 1928 by Alf Ebbett and today Holden's single-largest representative dealer body) then Te Awamutu's Rosetown Holden, which opened one month before the 1987 stock market crash?

Inputting the collection owner's address changes everything. Sat nav shows his 'near Hamilton' is nowhere close to that city nor my targets. If I'm to get home in reasonable time, the just-opened Huntly bypass section of the Waikato Expressway is my only choice.

The Ebbett connection is at least made in Taupo, where Holden didn't represent until 1998, but it's gone closing time, so after a quick snap for posterity, I'm off again, straight down the line.

Or not. The Desert Rd is closed. It's way too warm for snow, so maybe something to do with talk about Ruapehu's crater lake warming? I still don't know.

Nothing for it but for me to go the long way around.

Trucking to Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon recognises this being where our greatest Holden hero of motorsport, Greg Murphy, got his motorsport break, that big brand fans the NZ Police have conducted driver training here since the '70s and that, in 1982, the GMNZ-made SS V8s that were then the world's fastest and most powerful production examples also made their racing debut here.

To Wanganui, my home town. Ian Wilks Motors was a big kahuna as I grew up; the nights it showed off the Gemini capsule and first concept car I'd ever seen - Giugiaro's Ace of Clubs, which spawned the Isuzu Piazza – remain fixed in memory. My first Holden press car, a Starfire VK, came through here.

Reminiscence about the massive history of the Robertson Group empire and how it started with Holden, 30 years ago, is not the sole reason for a visit. The ute's deck cover has a broken latch and, though a jury-rigged fix satisfies me, it's not good enough for these pros. A replacement part is fitted under warranty a few days later.

Impending travel restrictions make the last part of this run a Sunday morning now-or-never, via Masteron to clock Wagg Motors (NZ's oldest dealership, Holden since 1972) then battling Rimutaka crosswinds to at last tread historic turf.

GM manufacturing based in the Hutt Valley, with 47 hectares of property, in two key zones, the first now requiring imagination. There's no trace of the Bouverie St factory whose production stream started with a four-cylinder Chevrolet car in 1926 and curtailed with a Bedford van in 1984.

Bouverie wasn't the first place where cars were assembled - distributors had been bolting knocked-down kits together for years – but it was our first plant, establishing 10 years before Ford set up shop, and the first GM owned outside of America. The site was cleared in 2004. It needs a plaque, if only to commemorate a famous employee, Jack the cat.

Twenty minutes later, I'm at the General's second fortress, outwardly no different to when it closed.

Holdens hit NZ in 1954 and we were making 'em from '57, starting with FE Sedans, but never fast enough. Trentham was the solution: A mega plant protecting market share equal to that enjoyed by today's kingpin, Toyota NZ.

Commodore arrived in 1979 and triggered a sweet gold rush. Yet it was short. Eight years after GMNZ built its 500,000th vehicle, a four-cylinder SLX sedan in May of 1982, Government axing of import duty was a killer to local assembly. On November 21, 1990, a V6 VN, the 593,945th GM product built here, marked the end of the line. GMNZ changed its name to Holden New Zealand and left the Hutt for good in 1999.

Perhaps you're wondering how a Isuzu co-designed ute from Thailand fits this history? Well, GMNZ represented Isuzu; we took its cars and Colorado's forebear, the Rodeo. They weren't assembled at Trentham, but were certainly prepped there.

The Colorado's been a trouper; utes are built for toil, yet Z71 comforts make it is good tripper. Even if Holden hadn't been topped, this model was nearing the end of its build cycle anyway, yet age really hasn't unduly wearied it.

At any other time, I'd call it a keeper.