Thread: Favourite Aussie-made vehicle?

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

Anything XA/XB/XC Falcoon.
Must be a V8.Love the hardtops most of all.
I think its the classic "coke bottle" styling of these cars that I most like.
Then again,I really like the very last GTs,GTR spec.Unfortunately they say no more GTs in the final falcoon run,just XR8s with the left over GT bits
Andrew

After the purple P76 I owned a lime green XA Hardtop. Have to agree, loved it most of all. Geez I've had some kewl cars

Has anyone owned a Landau? Made from the left over body shells from the discontinued XC's I think. Super groovy

Either of these 2, I think the FG is aussie made.


Any Yet I had a Landau many years ago.


Cheers Ean

Another example of a good car ignored was the Mitsubishi 380 which was better than the Commode or Falcon but just didn't sell.

Sent from my GT-P5210 using AULRO mobile app

I've recently bought a late 70's built house with a Frigidaire electric oven manufactured by General Motors Holden that works as designed,the only thing I've ever owned by GMH that has. Pat

I would think that the best Australian vehicle would be a totally Australian design, chassis, engine, the lot. Most of the vehicles built here are U.S. or Euro modification and only played with with the Bathurst 500 race in mind, e.g the Cortina GT 500 and Escort Lotus 1600. The Falcon, Mini and the Torana are all Euro or U.S. chassis.

I'm a Holden man, but I loved dads old XC Fairmont. It was just tough, towed a box trailer full of timer every winter, did two laps of the odometer and was eventually traded on a 110!

Still love my Torana (even though its powered by chev now)...

In the late 1960s Australia had a fantastic local production of motor vehicles even though Australia was a small market.
If it was not 100% aussie it was assembled in Australia with as much Australia in put and components as possible and this usually helped make the various models more suitable for the Australian market.
I own a 1960 willys CJ6 jeep with a 4 cylinder hurricane motor.
80% of that vehicle is Austalian, being built in Brisbane.
The main imported part is the engine block and crankshaft and dash board instruments.
Diffs local BorgWarner
Brakes local Bendix
Body is all local.

The total electrical system was Australian Lucas ( that's right lucas on a American designed vehicle including distributor)

The gear box is BorgWarner and a improvement on the American version.
Springs are Aussie

In those days we had import tariffs, it was before the Sutton plan of the late 1970s.
It is a shame we cannot now even produce a Holden without chinese parts in it.

The Volkswagon beetle was mostly Aussie until 1969 and it was the second most popular car in the early 1960s.
The only reason why we needed to import Volkswagons from 1969 was need to sell the latest versions of the beetle/bug as the parent companies were not willing to up date the production line and pressure from the goverments of the time to reduce the high number of local vehicle producers/assemblers.
The British side of things as good too locally before Leyland killed things.

Ever since the Sutton plan I knew it was a backwards move to very low import tariffs as we will never complete with assembly lines where people work in thongs and weld stuff together using green glass bottle bottoms as safety googles and work six days a week for 15 dollars a week.

The stuff we made from semis to small cars etc was breath taking in the late 1960s.
We mangaged to do it with a small market and reasonable standards of living.
I fear what will happen if Australia ever gets cut off again from the rest of the world like what almost happen in world war 2.
The tariffs of the late 1960s encouraged a lot less tax for the car makers if the vehicles had a high percentage of locally produced parts and that made the local vehicle industry very strong.
Ron

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

Ever since the Sutton plan I knew it was a backwards move to very low import tariffs as we will never complete with assembly lines where people work in thongs and weld stuff together using green glass bottle bottoms as safety googles and work six days a week for 15 dollars a week.


Ron

Do you mean the Button Plan?

Jeff