The plant began with the assembly of American GM vehicles – Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick and Oldsmobile, followed by British Vauxhalls five years later.

Following World War II, British sourced Vauxhalls continued to keep the plant running together with limited numbers (restricted by currency shortages) of Chevrolets and Pontiacs.

General Motors began withdrawing from right-hand drive markets in 2017, leaving the United Kingdom, Japan, India and Thailand over the next three years.

[1][2][3][4] As of 2022 General Motors New Zealand consists of three business groups, GM Specialty Vehicles (GMSV), Isuzu trucks, and Holden Aftersales.

[6] Although from March 1980 it made all the spark plugs for General Motors' production in Australia as well as New Zealand the Petone plant was sold in September 1984 to improve overall business efficiency.

"[17] The Colorado and Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV were made at the GM Thailand plant for both the North American and Australasian markets and was badged as "Holden" in both Australia and New Zealand.

Both vehicles are "re-engineered" (converted from LHD to RHD) by HSV Australia's production facility in Clayton South and imported into New Zealand.

HSV's Managing Director, Tim Jackson, said: "This project has been over three years in the making and involved millions of dollars of investment in product development, testing and validation.

[32] Following General Motors announcement in February 2020 of the demise of Holden, Chevrolet later confirmed that the Corvette may still go ahead, possibly set to arrive in 2021 through GM Speciality Vehicles (GMSV), the successor to HSV.

The right-hand-drive Camaros are built at GM's Bowling Green facility in Kentucky, United States and exported directly to New Zealand (and Australia.)

Since the 1920s, GMC and Chevrolet trucks in the United States became largely similar, built as variants of the same platform, sharing much the same body sheetwork, except for nameplates and grilles, but with different engines.

Following world-wide investigations, the Ambulance Advisory Transport Board in 1988 came up with a shortlist of two suitable replacements: the Ford Transit and the Chevrolet C/K-GMC Sierra.

"[43] The Silverado saw use right through the 2000s[44] Since the 2010s the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and Ford Transit have been the main vehicles used for ambulances, and more recently the Fiat Ducato, with bodies built in New Zealand.

Consequently, General Motors developed their first factory-right-hand-drive model, the second-generation GMC Acadia which was introduced to the Australian and New Zealand markets wearing "Holden" badges in November 2018.

These were brought in, often second hand, from the United States, and were stretched and rebodied in New Zealand by motor body builders Crawley Ridley in Wellington.

From early 1966 the Cresta was locally built at the Petone plant and, from late 1967 at Trentham, and remained largely unchanged until production end.

Victor sedans were assembled at the Petone plant with variations from their UK and Australian counterparts, and saw extensive use as government fleet vehicles.

A lower trim commercial fleet model called the Chevanne was also offered, based on the Chevette station wagon bodyshell.

[57] In 1979 the New Zealand Chevette received Holden-developed "Radial Tuned Suspension" and wider tyres, giving the car superior handling over its rivals.

In around 1985, there were strong rumours, and a GM report, that indicated that Holden Australia would cease to exist in its current form and that its models would be exclusively designed offshore.

Certainly what was happening in Australia did not instil confidence: rebadged Suzukis, Nissans and Isuzus were occupying the bottom end of the range, while the Commodore was about to shift to a Japanese-designed 3-litre engine.

To avoid getting caught up in Holden Australia's woes, General Motors New Zealand pondered the reintroduction of other GM brands for its own market.

The Opel Astra F was introduced in New Zealand in 1995, also branded as a "Holden" even though identical Opel-badged models imported second hand from Japan were already being sold locally.

Early models of the Astra and Vectra in New Zealand differed from those eventually sold in Australia, in that they retained the distinctive 'V' grille used by Vauxhall in the UK.

Holden New Zealand's managing director at the time, Kristian Aquilina, said "This German designed and engineered AWD vehicle is loaded with technology you would expect only from premium European brands.

The vehicle introduced three new technologies to Holden showrooms: adaptive cruise control, lane change alert, and auto emergency braking.

Shortly thereafter PSA announced that all GM-based Opel and Vauxhall products would eventually be retired in favour of new models developed on its platforms.

"[88] On 17 October 2018, Holden in Australia halted production on the ZB Commodore due to slow sales and unsold inventory at its dealerships.

[89][90] Research showed that the Pontiac name had a good reputation in New Zealand, so rather than follow the Australian route of badge engineering Nissans and Toyotas as "Holden" under Australia's ultimately failed Button car plan,[91] in 1988 GM New Zealand brought in the Opel Kadett-based Daewoo LeMans from Daewoo of South Korea, attempting to fill both the compact and mid-sized sectors until the arrival of the Opel Vectra.

A facelifted model, no longer an Isuzu product and in its second generation, was after that sold as the Holden Colorado in both New Zealand and Australia, built at the GM plant in Thailand.