Last ever locally made holden today , end of a era?
Submitted by quadfisher on Fri, 2017-10-20 07:58
Yes as a boy growing up in the 70,s and dad buying EH wagons , H.g sedans and a belmont ( big spender!) and seeing and hearing brand new xu-1s and monaros
as well as sandman vans and 308 premier wagons on the streets , as well as geminis , sunbirds and 4 cycl commodores its a sad day , so if your having a beer tonight after work ,
raise a glass to what was and will never be again. 69 years of local car manufacturing dead.
Feel free to list the good and bad holdens in your life, I got a few memories back just writing this.
____________________________________________________________________________
quadfisher
Red Dog
Posts: 311
Date Joined: 13/12/12
Had a HQ panel van, 3 on the
Had a HQ panel van, 3 on the tree six cylinder - foam mattress in the back of course. Drove it to Exmouth a couple of times and all down through the south west back in the early eighties. Awesome vehicle and never missed a beat. Remember points, a carby and spark plugs?
Can remember the ol' man buying a HT wagon at the govt auctions - it was ex navy and had been converted to an ambulance - had a third door on the passenger side with a fold down 'dicky' seat for the nurse. Came complete with a stretcher in tha back, big red crosses on the side and one on the roof. Six cylinder and two speed auto powerglide trans - think it may have had a limited slip in the rear too. Apparently one of only six made - wish I had it now.
scano
Posts: 1246
Date Joined: 31/05/07
Sad to see them go for sure
but let's be honest, Holden and ford went broke for a reason. Ford milked the old 250 cross flow for all it was worth, and then some! Late model falcon engines were nothing more than a glorified 250 cross flow with injection and a turbo. Holdens best commodore even had a Nissan engine (VL with an RB30)
dont get get me wrong, I still love a tuff 308 or even 355 stroker, and a HK Monaro has always been a favourite of mine (my old man has an FJ Holden also). Unfortunately Holden and in particular ford just didn't move with the times.
dodgy
Posts: 4563
Date Joined: 01/02/10
Sad to see them go. Out of
Sad to see them go. Out of the 40 or so cars I’ve owned I really don’t think there has been a holden though.
Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
sea-kem
Posts: 14857
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Lol had a 3 on the tree HQ
Lol had a 3 on the tree HQ once which I bought for $450 while I put a new gearbox in my XB. Was a great runarround and sold it to some indigenous fellas for $900 when it cam time to sell
. I reckon I had about 50 calls for that car when I advertised it. Favourite holen for me bodywise was the EH and loved the power to weight ratio of the XU-1's
Love the West!
Faulkner Family
Posts: 17868
Date Joined: 11/03/08
yep sad to see another
yep sad to see another collaps. only holden i owned , if you could call it one was a barina, beep beep.
altho never owning one the older ones up to the start of commodore had a style of their own .
just cant compete with the imported cars
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
Dale
Posts: 7930
Date Joined: 13/09/05
Not a Holden person, but sad to see as it was for Ford. Blame the govt fairly and squarely for letting it all happen.
"Just because you are a Character, Doesn't mean you have Character."
Mr Wolf
dano83
Posts: 790
Date Joined: 25/05/12
Yeah It is sad......but
Yeah It is sad......but look at the mustangs and camaros we will be getting here now to fill the void
uncle
Posts: 9353
Date Joined: 10/02/07
Had an fc holden years back
Great car went everywhere as a lad. The metal part on top of the rotor fell off at gascoyne jtn.twitched it on with wire, got back to carnarvon for a new one.
all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
Vale holden and ford
All the V8 car thieves are going to hold a requiem mass for the loss of the two most enjoyable and easiest makes of cars to steal, some memories of great chases will no doubt be relived.
opsrey
Posts: 1200
Date Joined: 05/10/07
I had to stop for a while this morning
A bit hard getting my head around it.
rodfishsa
Posts: 82
Date Joined: 29/03/13
G'dayVery sad to see holden
G'day
Very sad to see holden close, only a few years ago we had mitsubishi close, between the 2 along with all the ancillary businesses it adds up to many thousands of jobs. We've lost so much manufacturing here in SA over the last few decades. The transition from a savings and production economy to a taxing, borrowing and spending one doesn't bode well imo. With the chinese buying up farmland and apparrent intellectual collapse of our education system, thank goodness for fishing :-)
Cheers
Rod
quadfisher
Posts: 1146
Date Joined: 28/09/10
Sorry Rod
Yeah all the closures must be hitting hard in S.A. mate , reguardless of the reasons why , and everyone has a opinion why its turned out this way
its a sad time when the things that made up a big part of your history and childhood memorys goes down the toilet.
Australia did build some world class cars over the years ( the pros from other countrys opinions) and yes we built some bloody lemons , but I guess
they were our lemons , and maybe some dont know but Ford and Holden Australia , were among the very few branchs off the main international companys given
the respect , money and support to design and build our own cars.
All the great knowledge of the men that built and developed our own motors , cars , suspension systems etc etc is now gone , lost to time like what happens
whenever a large manufacturing sector goes under.
Yes for those that can afford we may have the choice of a mustang or camero , but for the masses it will be crossworld hybrids , nissan tidas, and endless cheap chinese
recycled fridges in our future.
My last real holden was a 1 owner , immaculate 1979 hz premier sedan , 308 , turbo 400, pwr steer, factory air , radial tuned sus , 4 wheel disc brakes, a wholey designed and manufactured Australian car
perfectly made for comfortly eating up the hwy miles , towing the boat or hitting the drive in, in style with a twin system burble to make everything seem alright on a friday night.
Old thinking perhaps , a link to a time gone by , maybe but I still think it was all about who we were, and thats worth remembering.
quadfisher
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
Right on
You have hit the nail right on the head, we are losing our identity fast.