1948 The First All-Australian Automobile
On this day, Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley and 1,200 hundred other people attended the unveiling of the first car to be manufactured entirely in Australia--an ivory-colored motor car officially designated the 48-215, but fondly known as the Holden FX. In 1945, the Australian government had invited Australia's auto-part manufacturers to create an all-Australian car. General Motors-Holden's Automotive, a car body manufacturer, obliged, producing the 48-215, a six-cylinder, four-door sedan. The 48-215 was an instant success in Australia, and 100,000 Holden FXs were sold in the first five years of production. During the next few decades, General Motors-Holden's Automotive went on to introduce a number of other successful marques, including the Torana and the Commodore. Four million Holdens, with their trademark "Lion-and-Stone" emblem, were sold in Australia and exported around the world by the 1980s. In 1994, General Motors-Holden's Automotive finally adopted Holden as its official company name, and today Holden continues its mission of meeting Australia's unique motoring needs.
The current Pontiac GTO, and I believe also something from Cadillac, is basically a Holden Monero with left-hand drive (which Holden had already been doing for the Indonesian market), some cosmetic changes, and a different engine. They bring them into the US partly built and finish them here.
Posted by: triticale at December 17, 2005 10:31 PM