Our say | Demise is all about money, not memories

And the realisation that even the biggest brands in our country are not immune to market forces only adds to our sense of nostalgia as we recall the "good old days".

When Ansett went under in 2001, it was a collapse that shocked Australia.

Almost overnight air travel dropped from a duopoly of Qantas and Ansett to just a single major player.

In the intervening years any number of smaller competitors have entered the market to provide choice for customers, but no airline rivalry has come close to matching the place Qantas and Ansett held in the national psyche.

Of course, while they were battling it out in the skies, for many decades the big story on Australian roads was the battle for market share between Holden and Ford.

And so even if we've seen it before, nothing could really prepare Australians of a certain age for the news on Monday that General Motors was planning to scrap the Holden iconic brand by the end of the year.

Driven largely by competition on the race track - and particularly at Mount Panorama where Holden's heroes such as Peter Brock and Allan Grice went head-to-head with Ford's Dick Johnson and Allan Moffat - the two marques, in their heyday, accounted for the vast majority of sales in Australia.

But not so much now.

If you take much notice of the cars parked beside the road today you can barely find a Holden or Ford among them.

The writing was probably on the wall, and people who have closely watched the industry say the end of the Holden name was no real surprise (particularly given the end of local production some years ago).

But it's still sad to think the end is coming, and so soon.

Holdens have held a special place in the heart of many Australians.

But time marches on and what was is not always what will be.

More importantly, nostalgia does not pay the bills and the demise of Holden is more about money than memories.