TOPIC:

HT Kingwood wagon, which I drove across the (then still dirt) Nullabor on my honeymoon.

VR Executive sedan, bought cheap at auction - ex-Woodside executive's car, with tons of extras, which I had lined up on advice from former workmates at Woodside.

VS Acclaim demo, bought from Melville Motors, and sold when I moved overseas in 2002.

For balance, I also had a couple of Fords - an FE Fairlane, and a 2006 Focus.

PS - I am not surprised at gtrxuone's distress at the passing of the marque.

Bazza wrote:

Talking Footy wrote: Hopefully everyone's Torana just went up in price again.

We had a little LC for a while in 70s, complete heap of crap broke down constantly.

You must have had the 4cyl version. My mate had one of those.

Of no surprise really. The writing has been on the wall for some time. Still hard to believe nothing can be done to save it. But as someone said, gm is getting out of right hand drive vehicle production all together. With Australia's dwindling sales, was only a matter of time.
All of which begs the question is it the end of the Bathurst race? What about all the other v8 racing games? It would make a mockery of everything if holden only made special vehicles for racing?
Will Ford follow? One would hope not!
All the dealers will slowly close I would imagine.

DD wrote: So let's get down to it. How many Holden's have you had?

My first car was my Pop's Holden LC Torana. Sadly he ended up with Alzeimers. It was your stock standard 173 cc, three on the tree, bench seat, mustard brown colour.

After that a HX van that was turned into a Sandman kinda. Not long after bought my uncles HZ panel van for work.

We had an EK Holden ute that was the farm workhorse. Used to hunt roo's in it.

Had one of the early model Commodores in the early 90's but that was just a bunky.

My last Holden I saved the best til last. Bought a Holden Berlina VY 2004 I think. Was an absolute beauty and had Gas injection fitted. A beautiful car. That's it for me.

Had too many, but here's a photo of one of mine hidden away in the shed.

Beasley Hutton wrote:

Bazza wrote:

Southerner wrote: some of the old dealerships will suddenly sprout big shiny Chevrolet signage very soon - amazing to think a few years back Holden was the sole money spinner for an in trouble GM
Gone forever now

The Big Question locally - is the future of Fremantle Icon SHACKS Holden is now up in the air. amazing they lasted this long, but will probably be the last straw for them.

Gee I spent some time getting parts down in there at the under croft side street Spare Parts counter, you used to have to line up on a Saturday morning there in the 80s. Now its a closed I think.

I only drove past Shacks Holden on Friday and noticed that it looked like it was either downsizing or moving as there was only a dozen cars on one side of the lot and the other side next to the old Woolstores side was completely empty.

Confirmed yesterday - whole site is up for sale for demolition, its over. They knew it was coming obvisoulsy and yesterday afternoon the site hit the internet for sale.

DD wrote: So let's get down to it. How many Holden's have you had?

My first car was my Pop's Holden LC Torana. Sadly he ended up with Alzeimers. It was your stock standard 173 cc, three on the tree, bench seat, mustard brown colour.

After that a HX van that was turned into a Sandman kinda. Not long after bought my uncles HZ panel van for work.

We had an EK Holden ute that was the farm workhorse. Used to hunt roo's in it.

Had one of the early model Commodores in the early 90's but that was just a bunky.

My last Holden I saved the best til last. Bought a Holden Berlina VY 2004 I think. Was an absolute beauty and had Gas injection fitted. A beautiful car. That's it for me.

We were Holden through and through.

Drove the old mans HQ for a while. Legendary design - probably the best they made.

My first car was a 77 HX, loved it - it got stolen and wrecked.

Then got a VL Commodore, totally different feel to the real Holdens, had a Nissan engine.

Last one was a VP, which blew up on me, I decided my Holden loyalty was at an end.

I moved to the imported brands, been a Mazda fan for a while now. Mechanically just so much better, never have an issue with them.

Once the tariff wall came down in the 80s, under Keating the writing was on the wall, Button put together a subsidy plan to keep them going and it did pretty well, they ended up with an export market and still dominated sales, but by the early 90s Toyota had moved to the number one car. Apparently around this time holden wanted to make a 4WD Ute to take on the HILUX but Detroit said no, once Sedan sales tanked it was goodnight, its just too small a market and in the end Holden were only selling about 2800 cars a month, GM are struggling to stay alive, they have left the international scene, sold Vauxhall, Opel and are closing down Thailand as well.

The old man had an FB wagon he used for deliveries for his butchers shop, then later when he went into business broking he had a Statesman deville, beautifull car, I only had 2 Holdens, a Sunbird with the Starfire motor which was a complete slug, wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding but absolutely bullit proof and a Gemini which was a great little car, Izusu actually but badged as a Holden, had Corollas, a beautiful old 380slc Merc and since then had Subaru's 1800 sportswagon, 3.0 Outback and currently an XV all beautifully built and ultra reliable.

Holdens will live on via the multitude of restorers and street machines around the place, was down Freo on Sunday to watch the "Freo Bog laps" cancer fundraiser, some beautiful cars and plenty of amazing Holdens to drool over, especially some of the late 60's and early 70's Monaro's, now worth heaps of money. A mates doing an HR street machine, full 300kw Clubby running gear, will be a gorgeous machine when he's finished.

jackspratt wrote: HT Kingwood wagon, which I drove across the (then still dirt) Nullabor on my honeymoon.

VR Executive sedan, bought cheap at auction - ex-Woodside executive's car, with tons of extras, which I had lined up on advice from former workmates at Woodside.

VS Acclaim demo, bought from Melville Motors, and sold when I moved overseas in 2002.

For balance, I also had a couple of Fords - an FE Fairlane, and a 2006 Focus.

PS - I am not surprised at gtrxuone's distress at the passing of the marque.

When did you drive across the Nullabor?

Leather Stops wrote:

jackspratt wrote: HT Kingwood wagon, which I drove across the (then still dirt) Nullabor on my honeymoon.

VR Executive sedan, bought cheap at auction - ex-Woodside executive's car, with tons of extras, which I had lined up on advice from former workmates at Woodside.

VS Acclaim demo, bought from Melville Motors, and sold when I moved overseas in 2002.

For balance, I also had a couple of Fords - an FE Fairlane, and a 2006 Focus.

PS - I am not surprised at gtrxuone's distress at the passing of the marque.

When did you drive across the Nullabor?

I think that's where Jack found love under the starry skies sitting by a campfire.

Senior Seagull wrote: The old man had an FB wagon he used for deliveries for his butchers shop, then later when he went into business broking he had a Statesman deville, beautifull car, I only had 2 Holdens, a Sunbird with the Starfire motor which was a complete slug, wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding but absolutely bullit proof and a Gemini which was a great little car, Izusu actually but badged as a Holden, had Corollas, a beautiful old 380slc Merc and since then had Subaru's 1800 sportswagon, 3.0 Outback and currently an XV all beautifully built and ultra reliable.

Holdens will live on via the multitude of restorers and street machines around the place, was down Freo on Sunday to watch the "Freo Bog laps" cancer fundraiser, some beautiful cars and plenty of amazing Holdens to drool over, especially some of the late 60's and early 70's Monaro's, now worth heaps of money. A mates doing an HR street machine, full 300kw Clubby running gear, will be a gorgeous machine when he's finished.

They were a beautiful looking car SS, not sure exactly the model but i remember our neighbor had one, from memory burgundy with a beige vinyl roof. That was when we moved into Noranda in 1979 so I'm guessing it was the HZ.