The end of Holden’s Commodore: How a great carmaker crashed

The announcement that the end for the Holden Commodore was nigh was in stark contrast to the gala event that welcomed the first Holden to Brisbane in 1948 when the chance just to see the new vehicle was the hottest ticket in town

HOW many readers of this column have owned a Holden Commodore?

I remember when Holden launched the revolutionary new vehicle in 1978. It was bigger than Holden’s Torana but smaller and more nimble than the Kingswood it replaced and came amid an avalanche of publicity about its groundbreaking design and technological advancements.

I owned two Commodores – a VH from the 1980s and a VN in the early 90s.

I thought they were great, though the best ride I had in a Holden was as a passenger in a Monaro driven by the late, great Peter Brock at a Sydney racing track.

It was only at a sedate pace as Brock demonstrated the comfortable ride in Holden’s last throw at the sports car market.

Brock had just about seen it all in his long career as the doyen of Australian racing car drivers.

But as he was showcasing the Monaro to a lunch group at Oran Park on Sydney’s outskirts, he encountered a one-eyed Holden fan like no other.

A Holden Commodore ad from 1978.

As the motor racing ace was signing Holden caps, flags and jackets, one car nut whipped out a glass eye and offered it for the great man’s signature.

Brock, more used to corners than corneas, didn’t even blink.

Sadly Peter Brock is gone and this week saw the announcement that the Commodore was finished aged 41.

The Commodore was Australia’s top selling car for 15 years until 2011 as sales slumped from more than 90,000 a year at its peak to just over 30,000.

The last Holden Commodore (2017) with the first from 1978. Picture: Supplied.

In 2013, Holden announced it would soon discontinue local manufacturing at its plant in Elizabeth, South Australia and even though the imported German-built Commodores were more technically advanced and safer than the 2.4 million models that had been made in Australia, the brand was doomed.

At its peak in 1998, Holden sold 94,642 Commodores that year but only 6000 have been sold in 2019.

Racing driver Peter Brock driving a Holden Commodore in the 1997 Bathurst 1000.

Australia’s favourite cars are now the Toyota HiLux and the Ford Ranger.

Once Holden was king of the mountain, both at Bathurst and in showrooms around the country.

The company’s iconic jingle – ``we love football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars’’ came to sum up the love affair between this country and the company which began in 1856 as an Adelaide saddlery run by English immigrant James Alexander Holden.

In partnership with the American company General Motors and amid victorious post-war euphoria, Holden produced its first Australian-designed car in 1948, the name Holden being preferred to suggestions such as ``Austral”, ``Melba”, ``Boomerang” and ``Emu.

It was advertised as the first all-Australian motor vehicle and on November 29, Prime Minister Ben Chifley unveiled the first Holden known as the ``FX”.

Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley launching the first Holden motor car in 1948.

It cost £733 – almost two years’ pay for the average worker – but there was such a buzz around it that for a long time Holden could not satisfy demand.

Without even having seen the vehicle, 18,000 people signed up and paid their deposit. Holdens were so popular and the waiting list so long that they began trading on the second hand market for more than the new price.

The Holden made its Brisbane debut on the morning of December 9, 1948 when 186 workers from the car dealer E. G. Eager and Son, were given a special preview of a sleek new model on display in the ballroom at Lennon’s Hotel.

That night more than 500 special guests viewed the gleaming machine at a Lennon’s cocktail party.

In those days just to get a look at a Holden was the hottest ticket in town.

Grantlee Kieza’s 15th book, a new biography of colonial governor Lachlan Macquarie, is published by HarperCollins/ABC Books

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