Just where is General Motors heading in N.Z.?

Press, 28 August 1986, Page 32

Just where is General Motors heading in N.Z.?

By

PETER GREENSLADE

New Zealanders bought more than 37,000 new cars in the first six months of this year and more than a fifth of them opted for Fords. Next in the popularity stakes were Toyota and Mitsubishi, each with a 15.4 per cent market share, compared with Ford’s 20.4 per cent.

General Motors, with its Holdens, narrowly gained fourth place among the best-sellers with 10.7 per cent, followed by N.Z.M.C. Ltd’s 10.6 per cent with Honda.

The G.M. figure is not without significance because the Trentham-based company gained import licences worth $3B million in the most recent motor vehicle tender round.

On the assumption that G.M. plans to persist with the cars in its current model range, that could give it the potential to increase market penetration by 100 per cent in the meantime. What is more, that might be achieved with the importation of completely built-up cars

from Australia, a scenario that could be calculated to put more of a spring in the steps of the occupants of executive suites in General Motors-Holden’s embassy row. G.M.-H is an Australian car-maker that is dragging its feet at present.

Naturally enough, G.M.’s New Zealand executives are playing their cards close to their chests, but the indications are that G.M. will take up all of the licences for which it has successfully tendered.

If this proves to be the case, it introduces some possibilities that could create more Waves in an industry that has ridden out stormy seas for long enough. Although G.M. has indicated in at least one New Zealand industry publication that it does not intend to curtail its Trentham assembly operations, that may be a possibility that should not be entirely discounted. Any ultimate decision regarding the future of G.M.N.Z. is most likely to be made in De-

troit, by people who would certainly be very much aware of Australia’s compelling need to boost its output, if it is to remain securely viable. At the same time, G.M.N.Z. took quite a significant step a year ago when, under the industry plan, it introduced Opels to the local market in token quantities. This, in effect, has been a familiarisation exercise, because G.M. is building an assembly plant in Korea which will produce Opels that will be marketed in New Zealand.

Another intangible (at

least as far as New Zealand is concerned) is the fate of the latest Commodore, which is powered by the leadless-fuelled Nissan engine. Already up and running in Australia, G.M.N.Z. does not plan to introduce it until there is lead-free fuel in local pumps. That may be early in 1987.

In the first half of this year, G.M. dealers sold 3983 cars to New Zealanders. Whichever way you look at it, an additional $3B million worth appears to be more than New Zealand can stomach at present.

However, although G.M.N.Z. appears to have been stumbling along the automotive path recently, there is nothing much wrong with the way the Detroit people are pointing the world’s greatest car-maker at the moment. On the face of it, whatever G.M.N.Z.’s future, it is unlikely to be dismissed, with anything more than a shrug back at the ranch. On the other hand, if the significance of that $3B million spending spree has not been lost on it, it is likely to cause more than a shrug in local trades halls.