Holden — Australia's Own Car, 1948 to 2021

Holden at a glance

Origins: a saddlery in Adelaide

James Alexander Holden emigrated from England to South Australia in 1852 and set up J. A. Holden & Co., a saddlery, in Adelaide in 1856. Henry Adolph Frost became a partner in 1885 and the business was renamed Holden & Frost. The family's move into motor vehicles came with James's grandson Edward Holden, who joined the firm in 1905 with a keen interest in cars.

On 25 February 1919 Holden's Motor Body Builders (HMBB) was registered to build car bodies. By 1924 it was the exclusive supplier of bodies to General Motors in Australia, and GM set up its own Australian company in 1926. In 1931 GM bought HMBB and merged it with General Motors (Australia) to form General Motors-Holden's Ltd. The Fishermans Bend factory in Melbourne opened in 1936. The wider story of the parent group is told in the history of General Motors.

The 48-215 and the 1950s

The first car to carry the Holden name was developed from an unused Chevrolet design. Three prototypes were built by hand in 1946 at a GM workshop in Detroit by American and Australian engineers. The production car, officially called 48-215, was unveiled on 29 November 1948 at Fishermans Bend by Prime Minister Ben Chifley. It had a 2,171 cc straight-six, the Holden "Grey" engine, with 45 kW (60 hp) and a three-speed manual gearbox, and it is described as the first Australian-made car.

The FJ followed in 1953, then the FE in 1956 and the FC in 1958. Holden dominated the market: in 1958 it took more than 50% of all new-car sales in Australia. A plant at Dandenong opened in 1956, and exports began in 1954 when the FJ went to New Zealand.

HQ, Monaro and Bathurst

The 1960s and 1970s brought the EK of 1961, the Torana (1967–1980), the Kingswood (1968–1984) and the HQ of 1971, the best-selling Holden ever, with 485,650 cars sold in three years.

The Monaro, a two-door pillarless coupé, was introduced in July 1968 in base, GTS and GTS 327 versions. The GTS 327 used a 5.4-litre Chevrolet V8 with about 186 kW (250 hp), and in 1968 Bruce McPhee and Barry Mulholland drove one to Holden's first win in the Hardie-Ferodo 500 at Bathurst. The HT GTS 350 brought Holden its first Australian Touring Car Championship in 1970, and the HQ GTS of the 1970s had a 5.7-litre V8 with 205 kW (279 PS). The Holden HJ Monaro GTS of 1974–1976 is covered in its own article.

Racing became part of the brand. By 2015 Holden had won the Bathurst 1000 30 times, more than any other manufacturer, and the Australian Touring Car and Supercars titles 21 times. In 1987 Holden and Tom Walkinshaw Racing founded Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) in Clayton, Victoria, to build high-performance road cars. Its first car was the VL Commodore SS Group A SV of 1988, and the ClubSport of 1990 became its best-selling model. HSV built Commodore-based cars until 2017 and was replaced by GMSV in 2020.

The Commodore years

The Commodore arrived in October 1978. The VB was based on the Opel Rekord and Senator but heavily re-engineered for Australian roads. It became the company's most popular car, though Ford's Falcon overtook it as Australia's best-seller in 1982. The second generation (VN, 1988) was wider and had a Holden-built 3.8-litre V6 and a 5.0-litre V8; the VT of 1997 became the best-selling Commodore up to then; and the VE of 2006 was designed in Australia on GM's Zeta platform. From 2015 the VF Series II offered the 6.2-litre LS3 V8 with 304 kW across the V8 range.

Holden's share of the Australian market rose from 21% in 1991 to 28.2% in 1999, and total sales peaked at 178,392 in 2002. In March 2003 Toyota took over first place. The Commodore became an export product: as the Chevrolet Lumina in the Middle East and South Africa, the Pontiac G8 in North America in 2008–2009, the Vauxhall VXR8 in Britain and the Chevrolet SS in the United States from 2014 to 2017. The revived Monaro of 2001 was sold in the US as the Pontiac GTO from 2003; the 40,808th GTO was the last Monaro-based car Holden built.

The end of Holden

On 11 December 2013 General Motors announced that Holden would stop building vehicles and engines in Australia by the end of 2017. Engine production at Fishermans Bend ended on 29 November 2016, and on 20 October 2017 the last Australian-made Commodore left the Elizabeth plant, which then closed. Holden's share had already fallen to 15.2% by 2006.

The ZB Commodore of 2018 was an imported Opel Insignia, offered with front- or all-wheel drive. On 17 February 2020 GM announced that the Holden brand would be retired by 2021; the design studio at Fishermans Bend closed on 30 October 2020, and the brand ended on 1 January 2021. GM Specialty Vehicles (GMSV) now imports the Chevrolet Silverado and Corvette. Over its history Holden built nearly 7.7 million vehicles. The surviving Holden models are listed in the Holden catalogue, and today's GM cars in Australia come under Chevrolet. More cars of the period are in the classic cars section.

Holden timeline

Landmark Holden models