I saw the demise of Ford and GM in Australia coming a long time ago and predicted it in 2008; at the time it was a subject no one was talking about in the US. Ford’s already given notice, and now Holden has been given the death sentence, with its plants shutting down by 2017. So the appearance of this FJ at the Cohort makes a nice moment to remember Holden’s better days.
The FJ holds a special place in the hearts of Holden lovers, not unlike the passions that the tri-five Chevies have inspired for over half a century in the US. Marlin87 found and posted this gem at the Cohort, and it marks the first appearance of an FJ here. The passion about early Holdens is understandable, as they were Australia’s first cars they could call their own, even if the design had its roots in a still-born Chevrolet prototype.
The FJ was the second Holden model, appearing in 1953 and succeeding the first, the 48-215, commonly called the FX. Built from 1953 to 1956, the FJ’s OHV six had a displacement of 2.2 L (132.5 cubic inches), and was rated at 60 hp; later upped to 65 hp. It strongly resembles a down-sized Chevrolet six of the era.
Of course there was a sedan along with the ute. The original origins of the 48-215 was a Chevrolet prototype, often mistaken for the 1947 Chevrolet Cadet, GM’s ambitious but aborted compact car program from the immediate post-war years. But the Holden was based an an earlier small car prototype, dating to the pre-war years when GM was already considering a compact car. Its general configuration, design and tallness mark its origins in the late thirties, as the Cadet was a lower and more modern design.
The 50th anniversary of the FJ inspired the 2005 Efijy concept, a rather cartoonish affair that one might expect to see at SEMA. So now that the plug is to be pulled on Holden, maybe a 60th anniversary FJ concept is in order, but in black, and with a hearse body. Pass me the tissue; it’s always hard to think of another brand dying.
Yes indeed that is too bad, I’ve always admired Australian pluck in doing their own thing.
I guess this is another casualty of globalization. The company I work for has offices worldwide, and Australia is the highest cost for getting stuff designed and built at the moment.
Wages are high in OZ though so is the cost of living so anything coming out of there will be expensive, $16 min wage
Partly globalisation, but hey Sweden’s a small country too.
Right, but the home market for any EU automaker is the entire 500 million population of the EU.
You’re right, but it doesn’t make me any less angry. Not 10 years ago, we were producing the best rear wheel drive platform within GM. Our go-to-whoa and cost on new car development set best practice. We protected our industry with tariffs for too long, but then look at Brazil. Makes me angry is all.
I bet you have some interesting stories Don, I had a chat with a former Holden design bloke at the Birdwood museum a month ago, a great guy. Eg were you involved with the awd/crewman/tonner model proliferation back then?
Is it just me or do the grilles of these cars look like they should be on a Mercury? You could tell me that the concept car was a modern interpretation of a classic “lead sled” and I would believe it, except for the right-hand drive of course.
The FJ was the customizers favourite for decades in OZ that concept is in the traditional mould.
I am pissed myself considering that GM corporate stole Holdens platform to sell in the US then let Holden die. That is not what I would consider looking ahead and just living for the stockholders of right now.
+1. But at least the platforms live on, unlike the equally excellent Falcon/Territory…
What a great-looking little fat-fendered pickup.
While I do agree that it is too bad that Holden will be shut down, we have to remember that we’ve lived in a time when remarkably few brand names were born or died. If we were living in the 1920’s when more than two dozen brands were still extant in the US, losing or gaining one wouldn’t seem such a big deal.
Nice ute that was the bottom of the GMH tree at the time. Chevrolet stood at the top Utes and all Vauxhall utes and sedans next with Holden the bargain basement but at the bottom. The FJ was their first export model to NZ though not in ute form mostly only the Humpy sedans. GMH is closing mostly due to stupid decisions in Detroit within the failing parent company.
Holdens are rarely seen in the UK,the Vauxhall Monaro/VXR8 being the usual one.A shame they’re closing as they made some great looking and performing cars.
Holdens make performance models that BMW M5s cant match at less money, gawd knows what GM will try to replace them with.
It is sad about Holden and Ford, but the only reason they existed was protectionism within Australia. This kept the prices high enough that Ford and GM could make money. With Australia having a large current account surplus, it’s much harder to justify tariffs on imported cars. Australia is also a very expensive place to build things as wages and shipping costs are high.
From what my buddy is Aus tells me, the large RWD cars are less popular now, replaced by small Japanese cars and SUVs.
If only Ford and Holden had been making money; not for quite a few years now, especially factoring out the government supports.
If you click on to that link to my 2008 article, already back then both ops were losing money, and the best selling Holden in retail sales was in the #8 position. Fleet sales were propping it up. Smaller FWD cars have dominated Australian retail sales for quite a long time.
Govt sales were what kept Ford and GMH afloat for years, Discounted fleet sales meant cars could be bought and run for 40k the resold at retail used prices without loss. With fleet sales declining there isnt an option but to close down,
“With Australia having a large current account surplus”
That is a long way from correct – last quarter the current account deficit was $12.7 billion. The last time there was a surplus was 1975!
Bottom line is the sales of “Australian” cars are declining, and production costs are significantly higher than Thailand, Korea or China. The exchange rate does not help – Holden lost their shirt on the G8 due to it having been costed at US$0.75 which was overtaken, plus the closing down of Pontiac.
Fleet discounting killed the resale which made the cars less attractive to new car buyers, then as fuel prices increased and in the wake of the GFC fleets are going for other options. Ford had a winner with the Territory, but cancellation of the diesel option by a short-sighted American CEO meant that sales tanked when fuel prices increased.
The reasoning was that the diesel wouldn’t be cheaper to own, ie too long a payback period, but of course that doesn’t matter to a lot of people (it ignores resale value for one thing) as the fuel cost or perhaps fuel usage & associated image becomes more important than a small difference in purchase price.
As a 56 year old Aussie with two grown children, one of whom has left home, I can confirm that. Dad had a ’67 Falcon, but I never felt I needed a car as big as that. Yes, big. I started with a ’74 Ford Cortina. When I married, my wife had an ’83 Corona. We ditched that for an ’89 Mitsubishi Magna (local build), then replaced that with an ’00 Diamante which we still have.
We considered the local RWD sixes at one stage, but the space utilisation was woeful, and the quality just wasn’t there. They’re better now, but then so is the opposition – if you leave which wheels drive the car out of the equation. Plus they’ve suffered from the ever-growing-size disease. If Dad’s ’67 was too big, a ’13 is much too big!
I believe that I read recently that Mazda and Honda were also giving up as well.
In Australia? I doubt it.
Not likely, when the Mazda 3 is set to be the top-selling car in the country for the third year in a row!
Honda has never been all that big here. That dates back to the first Accord, when prices were set way above the competition. I still remember being quoted $6700 for a base Accord hatchback in 1976. An attempt to give the Honda name cachet, or just plain old greed? As a result, Hondas have sold in comparatively small numbers, and buyers have tended to overlook Honda until fairly recently, when they’ve taken to cutting prices to a competitive level.
Hondas have been premium-priced in Aus for a long time and sold in low numbers; versus California where they are in the same ballpark as Toyota on pricing and sales. Not sure what the strategy behind this is.
Poor durability always hurt Hondas high prices and early smoking and flimsy construction yet they charged as if they were good cars.
They don’t manufacture here. Australian profit margins are too good to give up the territory. Particularly Mazda, who probably can’t find enough 3s to sell.
it is sad because Australian cars were always interesting, kind of alternative universe American cars….and this is just another step to forcing everyone who can’t afford exoticars into little global 4 cylinder front drive sedans and crossovers, as meanwhile climate alarm is debunked and more and more oil is found.
The Uk has no real knowledge of Holden, except as the Australian for Vauxhall, which it isn’t really.
But, as Paul notes, it’s always sad to see a brand die. Somehow, it makes the world a little bit less interesting.
GMHolden actually stopped building big Vauxhalls in Australia to reduce competition to Holden they never progressed past the 63 PBX Velox and built that thru till 68. That kept the better performing and riding PB51 and PC models off the Aussie market and reduced the in house competition.
Thanks for the write up Paul. I feel pretty honoured to see my pics in a Cohort Sighting.
The FX & FJ Holdens really are the Aussie equivalent of the tri-five Chevies in terms of popularity and historical significance. I would even go as far to say it is THE Australian car. No other car except maybe the HQ series Holdens are as iconic and recognisable.
This example was the best one I had ever seen. It had clearly been through a recent painstakingly detailed restoration, and minus aftermarket twin LED tail lamps (it would have had a single lamp originally) it looked completely original. Period correct tyres and all. I was even lucky enough to hear it start up and take off, confirming the sound of an old ‘grey’ motor and 3 speed with the non-synchro 1st gear.
I saw plenty more classics roaming the streets on that day trip to the Gold Coast. Why a day trip you might ask? Well to buy myself a 1972 Ford Pinto of course. That will be a story for another day 😀
The EH would have to be close, the most popular Holden ever on a sales-rate basis.
Attached – 48-215 on left, EH on right
I haven’t forgotten about the EH. It’s one of my favourites. The HQ was built in higher numbers than any holden, but also over a longer time period. The EH was the fastest selling, and deservedly so.
The EH was the last Aussie designed Holden and sported the new Red 6 great cars I kept one 8 years shoulda hung onto it
When fleets stopped buying these, Holden was doomed. Private buyers still love them, but only as second hand, and with the high AU dollar export models just get too expensive.
Kind of sad, but the sales of big, non-premium passenger cars are in a long term decline and Holden hasn’t been immune to GMs on going problems.
I am buying a truck and cruised CL last night to make sure I was on target for price. Ran across a 48(?) chev truck coupe. Saw it in an older model when I was doing a story on business coupes but never saw one in the metal (still haven’t actually). You could talk me into it having been a mislabeled Holden. If I knew this was going to appear today I would have saved the picture.
Where was it on sale you ask. Why Oregon of course. It would have been fun but I don’t have the patience or funds for limitless projects anymore. An idea I could buy into. El Camino before it was cool.
Holden did a local ute version of the Chevrolet too, up until 1952 which looks not a lot unlike a scaled-up version of the FJ
It is a sad passing, but with globalization, the writing was on the wall. Curious to know where the Chevy SS/Buick Park Avenue/Holden Statesman and Commodores will be built . . . . Mexico? Brazil? Thailand?
With Ford stopping production in Aussie, it stood to reason that Holden would too – the various component suppliers wouldn’t be able to survive. Toyota will no doubt depart shortly too. As a Ford man I was gutted when Ford said bye, but now that Holden has as well…what’s a RWD 6-cylinder fan to do? Chrysler continue to offer the 300C I guess. Funny how Ford and Holden decide to abandon the RWD sedan market just as Hyundai is about to release its RWD Genesis…
Before I was born, my parents had an immaculate cream FJ Ute. Due to the light weight in the rear end, the handling could get a little hairy. Apparently people used to put a couple of bags of cement dust directly over the rear axle in order to give more traction and handling!
My father-in-law took the back seat out of his FJ sedan and filled the space under it with concrete. Not just cement dust, for maximum effect he added water and gravel and let it set good and hard. He put the rear seat back and she looked normal – but handled the twisties much better. As a policeman at Healesville in the fifties, he needed to handle the hilly, twisty roads of the Dandenong Ranges as fast as possible.
It would be interesting to see how much rust there was under the seat when he traded it for a new FB in ’60!