Economics. Tooling up to build a new design is seriously expensive business, engine castings, panel stamping, lots and lots of zeroes.
Net profit to gm/Ford of selling a German made Opel or an Aus made one is much the same. If we were a China/India size market, different story, but we’re not.
thats my point, with both falcon and territory (until the diesel) they did not meet emissions regulations to sell outside of australia.
Ford only had to do a 3.8lt Falcon to make it sellable in the EU, but didnt want to make a different engine that compared with Holden (which did sell in the UK as Vaxhall.
Yes the territory was a very good car. But it didn’t export even once it got more efficient because it was just too big for Europe.
Heard some bloke from GM say on the radio that they will still sell spare parts and offer service and warranty work for atleast the next 10 years. Still have enough stock to sell cars for several years