With Ford Australia’s Falcon ending production this year and the Holden Commodore following next year, there has been ample speculation as to why our automotive industry is moribund and why the big Aussie sedan has gone from hometown hero to zero. Perhaps this picture helps sum it up: a standard-size Holden, an HR from 1966-68, next to a 2009-16 Cruze. If you think they look almost identical in size, you are absolutely right.
In fact, the similarity in size is uncanny. The HR sedan was 181.1 inches long with a 106-inch wheelbase; width and height were 70 and 58.3 inches, respectively. The Cruze measures 181 inches long with a 105.7-inch wheelbase; width and height are 70.4 inches and 58.1 inches. It seems the Aussie sedan just kept growing and growing until it reached its current size, while compacts similarly grew until they reached their sweet spot. Indeed, compacts – or “small cars” in Australian parlance – are far and away the most popular vehicle segment in Australia today, occupying around 20% of the total market. Industry body VFACTS divvies up the market into different segments and in 2015, the second most popular segment – “medium SUVs”, eg the Mazda CX-5 – was a distant second at 12.5%.
Sadly, even the Australian manufacture and slight re-engineering of the Cruze – Holden’s first locally-built small car since 1996 – wasn’t enough to save our ailing industry. The Cruze has sold well but in a fiercely competitive segment it hasn’t been able to shake the indefatigable Toyota Corolla and hugely popular Mazda3 and Hyundai i30. So, for those that speculate our industry died because the automakers “didn’t build cars people would buy”, well, they tried and you still didn’t buy enough of them to keep the industry alive.
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Curbside Classic: 1965-66 Holden HD Special
Looks a lot like a late 60s Chevrolet Nova in the USA
Yup, the “big Aussie sixes” (and V8s) were generally about the size of the US compacts until about 1970 – and usually were them in Ford and Chrysler’s case.
With a population of just 23 million, I guess a local industry was simply unjustifiable. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still mourn the death of Holden and Ford Australia, it is just that I don’t think it made any economic sense to keep building cars in Australia.
Agreed. We were discussing this in Nashville. New York state has almost the same population as Australia; who would imagine that it could support its own automobile industry? There were once many countries that had its own auto industry, like little Austria and Czechoslovakia. But those days are gone forever.
It’s really a sad state of affairs. I’ve always been fascinated by the Australian auto industry, and it’s parallels to the US industry. Some very notable machinery has come from Australia. Unfortunately, I see the same thing happening to the US market as has happened in Australia. The Japanese have swooped in and dominated every market, set up a few token manufacturing plants, and within the next ten years, will have succeeded in killing off the domestic industry. Once they have essentially eliminated their competition, they will close their US plants as well. Exactly what they’ve done in Australia. What people fail to understand is, without competition, their quality will slip substantially, (a thing that has been happening slowly, but steadily for a decade now) and there will be nothing but inferior products to choose from because, there won’t be any reason to offer anything else.
+1!
“Once they have essentially eliminated their competition, they will close their US plants as well.”
That sounds like the “Devious Asian” stereotype, as if we Westerners are paragons of chivalry. Actually it was in response to our unchivalrous 1980 Voluntary Export Restraints (Newspeak for import quotas). It strains credulity to think they planned to shut them down later.
Now a good way to drive out Japanese plants is for workers to keep demanding higher & higher wages & benefits. No company will abide this indefinitely.
Having worked for two Japanese companies back in the 80’s, I have a pretty good idea of how they generally operate. For one, it’s all about economics. Neither of the companies I worked for would pay American workers anywhere near what our Japanese counterparts were paid. Promotions were not available because managerial positions were only held by People brought over from Japan. While I’m not blaming or faulting the Japanese, it’s simple economics, why would they need plants here, if nobody else has them. Of course, they are on top now, which only means there is only one place to go from here, and that’s down.
I agree Neil. In Australia Nissan and Mitsi tried very hard, but were forced out. Toyota is still going with Ford and Holden, but once one company goes, the remaining two won’t have enough work for suppliers. Hence they all have to go. No devious Asian plans there. Toyota are even building Hybrid Camry here. With a great deal of local content regarding the “hybrid” components.
“Dominates every market”??? Umm, full-size pickups, anyone? Toyota and Nissan would LOVE to have Ford’s and GM’s pickup market share but that ain’t gonna happen. The Tundra’s butt ugly (and its sales reflect that fact) and the new Titan’s just a tacky previous-gen F150 ripoff.
And powerful RWD American V8 pony cars have the field mostly to themselves in a segment formerly contested by Celicas, Preludes, & 200SXs. Moreover, they are marketed overseas more aggressively than they were before.
At the end of WW II, the British car industry (and Britain as a manufacturing country), when told to build/manufacture products that could be exported….or run the risk of going under. But with Australia being so far from other large markets, that wasn’t a viable option. Too bad, some of the Fords and Holdens were great cars, and if not for the shipping costs they might have been competitive in other markets.
Unfortunately for Holden, the Cruze isn’t setting sales records in any market it’s sold in.
And the latest generation of the Cruze sports a strange two-level grille that doesn’t relate to anything else in the range.
Just yesterday I was talking about how American automotive assumptions don’t always translate to Australia – without a showroom of other Chevy products to back it up, the new Cruze grille design just comes across as rather odd-looking.
Australian governments had been donating hundreds of millions of dollars to our auto manufacturers for many years but that ended a couple of years ago when the current conservative government decided to cease subsidising our foreign multinational car makers.I recall in 1975 when the oil crisis was current my father dragged me along to his conservative [Liberal] party function meeting with a senior federal politician and I asked that politician why we had to have high import duties on fuel efficient European cars.He replied that is was to protect Australian industry.Australian cars were certainly not economical vehicles as far as fuel went and nor were they particularly advanced in terms of engineering,compared to the Europeans.Of course the Opel/Holden Commodore was quite a fine handling car but constrained by aged and agricultural Holden engines.I guess a small market and no real incentives to engage in research and development and then the Cruze,widely described as underdone and not a great drive,were also factors in declining sales.I like the look of the last few Commodores and supposedly a great drive but many Australians want more compact fuel efficient vehicles that possess driving excellence and many other Aussies just want white goods like Corollas.I think it will be a shame to lose our industry and feel very sad for the many thousands of Australians who will be left without a job.So if you want to be part of a global economy and your product is no longer as desirable as it was then the big fish will eat the smaller fish and stuff you,I am going home,to the USA or Japan ,Toyota will also cease making cars in OZ soon.These days Holden has been responsible for many great car designs and it will retain its design studios..Australia is a small auto market and one that had a monopoly on sales due to high import duties and I believe for many decades that that monopoly made OZ manufacturers complacent.Think rack and pinion steering,strut front suspension,ball joints,disc brakes,independent rear coil suspension etc,didn’t have those when many other makers did.So the future is European,Japanese,Korean,Chinese and an assortment of products from the USA.
As an aside, the original Commodore sixes weren’t that old, having been around for fifteen years as an engine family, and seven years in their latest iteration. The problem was that they weren’t that good. When the 1976 emission laws came in force, Ford had comprehensively re-engineered the 200/250 with a crossflow head, Chrysler’s Hemi sixes didn’t even notice, but the Holden copped all the worst of early-emission-ear bandaids to make them comply. They were noted for poor driveability. Hence Roderick’s ‘aged and agricultural’ comment above.
With Holden’s resources, they could have done better, but they chose the lazy option. That’s the danger of being number one in a protected market.
speaking of chevy cruz my personal experience with one was not so good.bought one new in 2011 and by 57k miles the trans started slipping.by the time that i sold it(97k miles)it had gone throu two water pumps a fuel pump and two window regulator.never ever buy another car made by Daewoo.
Both cars may be of similar size when measuring external dimensions, but I do wonder which of the two has more usable interior space. I have no experience with the Holden, but the outgoing Cruze was notoriously cramped for its size, especially in the back.
Perhaps a better comparison for CC’s North American readers would be the original front wheel drive X-bodies. Like the Cruze, the sedan variants measured 181 inches stem-to-stern, albeit on a 104 inch wheelbase. But the thirty year-old cars, have notably more space inside, even if the numbers suggest otherwise.
I would surmise the loss in usable space is due to more stringent safety requirements, though perhaps there are other factors.
Yeah, making cars safer and packing in more comfort features and aerodynamics has made them “thick”. I’m not convinced that it wouldn’t have happened even without restrictions. Comfort plus geegaws plus handling plus speed plus efficiency plus anti corrosion = weight.
BTW, put a little bit of dog bone in the Holden’s grille, and you”ve got a credible brother to the contemporary Belvedere..
The HR was a very hasty restyle of the unpopular HD which also rusted with alarming rapidity its unvented panels evaporated real fast it was styled in the US and built to Fisher standards, the HR was an Aussie restyle with proper panel venting and drainage to cope with the tropical climate they lasted much better.
+1. It was always much easier to find a tidy HR as a used car than a clean HD. HDs rusted alarmingly, even in a mild climate.
It’s not as if the US has no high-humidity regions, so I wouldn’t let Fisher off the hook here.
Okay, question from an ignorant American: has an Australian manufacturer ever made any serious attempt at exporting to Japan? Too late now, I suppose, but it’s an idea that I find interesting.
Mike if my recall is correct the mid to late 1970s Holden Kingswood was sold in Japan and I think it was badged as a Mazda with Mazda’s rotary engine.It was not a sales success.Holden Statesman/Caprice were sold to the Middle East and the same cars were/are sold in China with Buick nameplates.Kingswoods were also exported to Fiji and other Pacific nations.Monaros were sold in Britain and the USA.Holden had a reasonably sized and successful export programme.Buick was a great innovator way back in the past and I often wondered why GMH did not follow that example,the pattern for sales and technological success was clearly evident but perhaps the conservatism of GM in the latter part of the 20th century meant that Aussie engineers expertise was toned down for a dumbed down populace.Strange, because so many great innovations were by Australian inventors.I wish the government here would encourage someone to utilise our soon to be derelict plants for making high tech or even basic,simple,inexpensive and efficient cars that we could export and purchase.It is federal election mode in OZ at present and our PM keeps talking about technology and innovation whilst his government has cut large amounts of funding from our scientific organisation,the CSIRO.Coal is the governments priority,
The HJ Premier was exported engineless and repowered with a rotary and fitted with all the Japanese creature features then available and rebadged Mazda Roadpacer it wasnt a huge success.
That Premier/Roadpacer was a nicely sized, American Style sedan in the ’70s GM clamshell idiom. I like to think it would have sold in the US but you never know.
Isuzu sold a version of the early seventies Statesman, but that was more from Isuzu wanting a toe in the prestige market than Holden wanting to sell there.
“our PM keeps talking about technology and innovation”
Auto industry is all about technology and innovation. Be the cars powered by ICE or Batteries. From the design board all the way down to the assembly line. Process wise is also very sophisticated.
The pollies from both sides, and specially those in the PM’s opposite footpath, think that unless they’re BEV, cars are dinosaurs.
“Coal is the governments priority”
I fail to see the issue here. Actually, we should leverage that low cost energy source to our benefit.
Moreover, considering coal is our first or second biggest export staple, it should be a top government priority, independent of the party.
If Japan had any sort of fair trade, it wouldn’t even take Ford or GM, instead Kaiser could be capable of taking the whole market by the late ’40s already.
American makes back then had their hands full meeting pent-up postwar domestic demand. And maybe only American Bantam was sized right for Japanese roads & cities, even assuming many Japanese could afford cars of any kind.
Henry J built under license were one of Mitsubishi’s first postwar cars.
Going from memory the second generation Mitsubishi Diamante station wagon (Verada in Australia) was exported to Japan, as they only built the sedan/hardtop.
I think that’s right.
Holdens as far back as 1960 were exported all over the Pacific and middle east they were available in LHD for those markets that required it, unfortunately in a lot of cases they were inferior to what could be bought from elsewhere.
My Dads first Holden was a wagon version of the HR, he bought a Special with 186 and three speed with non syncro first gear, the mid range model, he complained about it almost from the day he brought it home lack of power and comfort being his chief complaints the 64 Velox he traded for it was certainly more comfortable and as I found later in life much faster and full syncro in the gears but dad wanted a wagon and he stuck with Holdens untill 89 but not the HR it was gone the moment the new larger HK was released and available in NZ.
actually according to my uncle who has been living in sydney for over fourty years some Holden products are tougher than toyotas and much more practical.for example his sons 98 Holden Vectra with five speed and half million kms still running on original motor and his Holden caprice with v8 sill trouble free after 350k kms.makes me wondering what went wrong there
The reliability is what gave Holden the market, they just kept going and were simple to fix should anything go wrong though agricultural compared to the UK GM six cylinder cars Holdens could withstand the rough roads of rural Aussie without breaking, something Ford’s Falcon couldnt do until it was re engineered locally for local conditions.
Great article William. Interesting to compare the sizes. I think of the Cruze as a small car, and the HR as ‘Holden sized’ I never thought they were so close in dimensions
+1. It’s alarming to realize how bloated the current Commodore is compared to ‘real’ Holdens of my teenage years.
What is the white thing covering the top of the Cruze’s left rear door?
It is a shade that slips over the window, very faded
http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/SCA-Window-Shade-Side-XL-Curved-Black.aspx?pid=342346&menuFrom=1021738#Recommendations
Neat – never seen those in the U.S., only window tint film that you stick to the inside of the window or those square screens that are attached to the inside of the window with a suction cup to shield your baby from the sun.
Also commonly known as window sock.
We have tint available here as well and it is not enough. The square ones let a lot of sun in through the sides, and you cannot lower the window for fresh air.