I found this first article, immediately thought of some Holden loving friends, and had to post this Holden fest just for them.
The Argus 20 Dec 1948 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22694211
I was not surprised at all to find out that the first Holden reported stolen was dumped nearby, clearly unwanted. After all, it was a Holden….
I can’t really feel sorry for the owner, Mr. Bettle, since he was the general manager of General Motors Ltd. He can probably just pick up another one at work on Monday morning.
Really, they must have had plenty of spare cars hanging around there, the thieves didn’t even want to keep this free one, quickly abandoning it in the next suburb. 😉
To curtail the howls of protest from the Holden lovers I will distract them with a picture of the ‘new’ Holden ute from 1951 (it could have been yours for a mere £785, plus tax), and a television ad for the Monaro from 1968 “the most flattering accessory a beautiful woman could own”……. 😉
The Courier-Mail 30 Jan 1951 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50103766
UPDATE: The next post has the 1970’s Holden commercial, ‘Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars’ and added in the comments is the hilarious Holden Thunder ute ad running currently on Australian TV.
Buried words and Bushwa. 
God almighty they were and are some of the ugliest cars around. I watched that show on the ABC about Australia’s love affair with the car and I could not understand why so many of us loved /them/.
I do love cars but my definition of a mean machine is a vintage Porsche Carrera. I know I’ll never own one, or even drive one -cries- but I still wouldn’t settle for a Holden.
Okay, I’m leaving town now so please tell the lynch mob that I won’t be back for a millenium or two so there’s no point staking out my house! -runs-
Yeah, thanks for that, like I haven’t already annoyed them enough with my ranting!
I loved that ABC series on cars! Yes, I am a petrolhead…shame shame shame…. 😉 Even I will admit that the Monaro is just beautiful. It is funny how those old cars have influenced our society, probably more than we realize. All of our childhood memories have a Ford or Holden in them, don’t they?
Most of my most vivid childhood memories have Holdens in them. The open air lion park in western Melbourne in the 70’s, a boiling day and an old grey Holden wagon. Lions mean no opening the windows and a car further ahead in the queue must have broken down as we sat there for what seemed like hours. Vinyl seats and no AC……ahhhh memories….
lmao – oops :p My only memory of a Monaro is not a good one. My boyfriend borrowed his Dad’s brand new Monaro so we could go to a party. On the way home an idiot ran a stop sign and ploughed straight into us. Neither of us were hurt but a certain father was very, very unhappy. Wouldn’t believe it wasn’t his son’s fault for quite a while. He didn’t like me so by extension it was my fault too. Ah memories…
See, where would we be without those memories… You would never want to tell that story if you had to substitute ‘brand new Hyundai Excel’ for ‘brand new Monaro’ would you!
lmao! You know I never thought of it in those terms but you’re right! Maybe Monaros have their good points after all :p
When I was doing this post I found the clip for the old ‘football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars’ ad. I was tempted to post it, but I like this Monaro ad better. You should love the Monaro, it saved you from that ad! Unless you want me to post it of course…….
-grin- actually I sort of remember that add and wouldn’t mind seeing it again.
Ok, just for you, it will appear over the weekend sometime……. brace yourself…. 😉
lmao – quaking in my boots already 😉
night night!
I’ve never heard of the Holden so I’m guessing it’s an Australian owned company? Maybe that’s why it has so many fans. I don’t think we have a British company left these day except the odd kit-cat company. Fords here have the worst reputation and people often use the letters of the word FORD to stand for something else. I don’t drive (shock horror) so have never taken that much interest until recent years when Julia started to rave about Hyundai and we’ve gone through a few models now. Currently their i20 though I miss the old Matrix if you had that over there. I honestly think Ju would give up cars altogether though if she could go back to motorbikes.
Holdens are your Vauxhalls. The are slightly different though, and naturally I am going to say that the Holden is better. 😉
Even though they are under the umbrella of the same company they are not identical. I don’t know much about Vauxhalls though. Ford Britain and Australia are very different too.
We have very different expectations from our cars in Australia than you would in England, and Aussies love big cars, if we can afford to run them!
In the category of ‘learn something new every day’ all I have to do is read an Australian blogger’s posts before my morning coffee and I can check it off my to-do list.
I had to Google Holden. Yes, never heard of them because GM of the US didn’t bring them here, or build anything with the same name. It sounds like one of those cars that people feel nostalgic about but really aren’t running out to buy and maintain.
Actually, Meeka and I are being obscenely cruel. The Australian love of their old Holdens and Fords borders on national obsession and many a backyard shed has one safely stored away. The reason this post is being so derogatory is that in our little house we are Ford lovers, so there is no way I can be nice about Holdens….
I did a post earlier in the year about our old Fords hidden away in our shed, we are just as gulity as anyone! https://picsandstuff.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/fords-rule-ok-a-post-about-our-money-suckers/
The ABC series that Meeka and I commented on was called Wide Open Road and was a brilliant commentary on cars and Australians. Here is the promo, just to give you a taste 🙂
I learn something new every single time I come here, Metan! (And Meeks, I wish we had that series here! It’s not on Netflix. I’m going to try Hulu, next.)
Regarding Australia’s love affair with cars— how much does that have to do with living in big, wide spaces?
I actually bought the Man the DVD of that series for fathers day. It makes you well up all patriotic at every turn 🙂 I noticed that quite large chunks of it are on youtube, so if you have no luck anywhere else you might be able to piece together most of it from there.
It is no secret that our love of big fast cars stems from our environment. Most people at some time have imagined themselves buying a 4WD and travelling around seeing the sights. Many people have the 4WD and fully expect that one day they WILL travel, even though they have never left the state.
An insulting name for the 4WD that never goes anywhere other than the shops is Toorak tractor, Toorak being an exclusive Melbourne suburb far, far from anything dirty, but full of extremely expensive vehicles that will never be off-road.
Public transport is not what it could be here either, so unless you live in a major centre you have to have a car. If you are of driving age and don’t have a car you are looked upon strangely.
OhmaiGAH, the same thing happens in Texas! 4WD trucks! For people whose only opportunity to off-road will be when they step from the curb to cross the street on foot!
Same here for cars in Texas. There is public transport. I used it daily until I started university and I had two jobs. However, unless you live near the center of the city, the bus system is inadequate.
So fascinating, Metan!
It is ridiculos, isn’t it? I will have to post a photo of the school carpark or local supermarket one morning. The rows of shiny 4WDs lined up. I know a few of them have been on those long trips, but mostly they are used as shopping trolleys.
I hope eventually we all figure out how to be proportionate about things like cars. Although I don’t go big over unnecessary vehicles, I’m sure there’s some outsized thing I’m doing. Oh, yeah, I own about 1500 books. Have I read all of them? Noooo! : )
You might not have read them, but you MUST possess them. I think we all have something in our lives that is both completely unnecessary and vitally important to our survival. We are as guilty as anyone with the big car thing though. We have more vehicles than humans at our house…. It keeps the Man happy though. Everyone has to have a hobby 😉
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