Strewth! Holden to go six feet down under

Around 600 people will lose their jobs as Holden shuts its sales, design and engineering centres including the Lang Lang proving grounds. Australia will lose a brand that has been interwoven into all aspects of national life in a way few car companies anywhere have managed. The hashtag #RIPHolden is trending on Twitter as people post pictures and memories.

The news provoked an angry response from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison who said that while Australian taxpayers had put millions in, GM had “let the brand just wither away on their watch. Now they are leaving it behind. I am disappointed but not surprised. But I am angry, like I think many Australians would be.”

Holden cars over the past 72 years have left an indelible impression on Australian life. Big and tough cars on dirt roads; Peter Brock in Commodore 05 flying across Skyline at Bathurst; torquey six-pot engines and rear-wheel-drive; the famous Aussie ute; surfie vans with makeshift beds in the back; custom paint jobs and wild Holden street machines; some of the world’s most outrageously enjoyable (and noisy) V8 sports models; even a whole TV sitcom based around the Kingswood model… all are vivid images down under.

The following for Holden, and the way its hero models clung to big-power V8s and rear-wheel-drive, was not confined to Australia. The fastest Commodores had fans all round the world. In the UK they were rebranded as the Vauxhall VXR and most recently included the monstrous 536bhp Maloo ute that royally entertained us at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard a few years ago.

The first “proudly Australian” Holden might have been in 1948 but Holden goes back much further than that. The company was founded in South Australia as a saddle-maker in 1856. GM bought it in 1931 and began assembling cars by putting Holden bodies on Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile and Vauxhall mechanicals.

The first all-Australian car, the Holden 48-215 (subsequently known as the FX), was unveiled by Australian prime minister Ben Chifley on 29^th November, 1948. Ninety two per cent of it was Australian made and it cost £742, or two years’ average wages. Despite a looming recession, Holden held 52,000 unfulfilled back orders by March 1950, two and half times the annual production rate.

The FX was followed by the FJ and the FE and by the late 1950s Holden had almost half the Oz car market to itself. The EH of 1963 was such a hit that this one model alone accounted for 40 per cent of new car sales. Many factors led to the slow decline of the brand through the 1980s.

GM President Mark Reuss said: "At the highest levels of our company we have the deepest respect for Holden's heritage and contribution to our company and to the countries of Australia and New Zealand.

"After considering many possible options – and putting aside our personal desires to accommodate the people and the market – we came to the conclusion that we could not prioritize further investment over all other considerations we have in a rapidly changing global industry.”

He added that GM would look at ways of keeping the “specialty vehicle business” going with a partner company. So who knows, the cult of the hot Holden may yet live to fight another day.