John Crennan told a Senate inquiry into the brand's demise on Monday that he hoped something similar would never happen again.

Mr Crennan, who also headed up Holden Special Vehicles and the Holden Racing Team, said no-one could deny GM the right to exit the Australian market if it was no longer profitable.

"But I believe all stakeholders, past and present are certainly entitled to question what appears to be, to use a football term, a king hit behind play," he said.

Mr Crennan said the value of the Holden brand could be summed up in one word - trust.

But he said he was struggling with the "trust factor" given GM's actions surrounding its announcement in February that the brand would be retired.

"They have taken 89 years of trust and just blown that to smithereens in the way in which they went about the announcement," he said.

Mr Crennan said he did not buy suggestions the sale of right-hand-drive manufacturing plants in Asia was the reason behind the brand's demise.

He said it would have taken "very little imagination" for GM to have negotiated with the buyers to continue to manufacture Holden cars to allow the company to honour its existing agreements with its dealer network in Australia.

Inverell dealer Mark Palmer also criticised the compensation offered to dealers by Holden, equivalent to about $1500 for every car sold by each outlet in 2019.

He said while most dealers had now accepted the deal, many felt they had no option and were frightened by the prospect of costly litigation.

He told the inquiry that in all correspondence he had with the company the offer was not negotiable.

But Holden's interim chairman and managing director Kristian Aquilina defended both the company's handling of the closure and the offer to dealers.

He also said rejected suggestions the company had formed a "cunning plan" to exit the Australian market well before the February announcement.

Mr Aquilina pointed to new dealer agreements the company signed in 2018 and its launch of a new financing group among other initiatives as evidence the company had, until just before the decision, intended on staying.

"To think we would do all that while having a plan for a windup defies any logic whatsoever and is a complete red herring," he said.

"We were advised of the decision and we announced it straight away."

In earlier evidence, The Australian Automotive Dealer Association told the inquiry that GM's methods in retiring the brand had emboldened other car companies to take a similar stand.

Association chief executive James Voortman said in the months leading up to the announcement GM had recklessly allowed dealers to continue with costly upgrades to their facilities and had then refused to provide proper compensation.

"GM seem to be a law unto themselves and are the epitome of a large powerful offshore multinational using its position of power to exploit the smaller businesses it deals with," Mr Voortman said.

"They have set a very dangerous precedent and in the process, they have emboldened other vehicle manufacturers to exploit the imbalance in power that exists between them and their dealers."

Australian Associated Press