Eighties Big Hair to the Beginning of The End (1980-1999) | Shannons End of An Era | Part 3
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- The easing of the oil crisis, means the larger Ford Falcon proves to new car buyers that ‘size does matter’ up against Holden’s smaller Commodore. We hear directly from Holden’s Designers and Engineers as to why they adopted the smaller Opel based platform, to go up against Ford’s larger family sized XD Falcon.
This rivalry would continue the classic Ford versus Holden duel, lasting for more than the next three decades, both on the race track and on showroom floors. It would take Commodore some years before it returned Holden to a large scale family sedan, even adopting a Nissan six cylinder and turbo engine in the meantime.
The winds of change had well and truly started to blow, as Chrysler bowed out as a local manufacturer with the last CM Valiant, before Mitsubishi took over the Adelaide plant for their Sigma and the later medium sized family car, the Magna.
Not long after changing their own badges from Datsun, Nissan also decided to close local manufacturing and concentrate as a vehicle importer. The effects of the Button Plan, which intended to cut Government protection tariffs to local manufacturers in the face of a more competitive and open economy, had already started to have an impact as sales of imported vehicles continued to rise at the expense of local manufacturing.
A model-sharing plan that saw Commodores dressed as Toyota Lexcens and a Ford Falcon Ute wearing Nissan nomenclature was known as ‘badge engineering’ - what was going on!
The small car success had seemingly everyone’s mum driving - either ‘Corolling-along’ or a Ford Laser.
Then the unthinkable - Holden and favourite son Peter Brock, part ways. Watch a defiant Peter Brock as he more than ruffles the mane of an agitated Lion, live on national TV. This would see the Bathurst champion lose his Holden Dealer Team and HDT performance car business, ultimately giving rise to Holden Special Vehicles and a dynasty of race-inspired performance road cars, and the Holden Racing Team. In years to come, HRT would dominate the new-era V8 Supercars series, unearthing a new wave of young drivers including Craig Lowndes.
Increasing sales of imports, including a wave of lower priced entry European brands started to offer prestige motoring with affordability like never before, plus a rise in the new look recreational type soft-roader, called the SUV was making an impact with family buyers. The Aussie station wagon has lost its shine as new SUV’s dominates a new category with the likes of the Honda CR-V, the Subaru AWD wagons and the prestige of BMW and Benz now offering family motoring.
In response, Holden is aggressive with multiple developments off the VT platform, including a return to the Holden Ute, which had been missing in action. Long wheel base luxury derivatives and performance HSV extensions, as well as AWD utes and wagons, plus a focus on exports to the US and Middle East, are all part of the plan to keep Holden in business.
Watch as a Sunday afternoon pencil sketch, secretly became the basis for the return of the Holden Monaro, capturing the hearts of Holden fans as the covers are removed. Making cars in Australia was becoming a fight for survival, before Toyota elected to focus on Camry exports and dropped the local manufacture of such an enduring nameplate as Corolla.
Shannons End of Era. Celebrating Aussie Motoring History.
This was the greatest car doco series,,...absolutely fabulous ... The ironic thing about the AU Falcon though is in reality that model created the biggest advances in Aussie car development than any other . It really did . It took years though before anybody realised it . The AU was superbly engineered and has turned out to be probably the most dependable and reliable Falcon of them all...Just look around ...There are still plenty on the road and still driving well .. I have one of them and had her for 19 plus years and she still drives as sweetly as the day I bought her in 2003 . It was 2 years old then and was a government fleet car . Brake calipers in 2021 and an alternator in 2015 aside she's completely original even down to the ball joints ., A couple of door power window switches , a few bulbs and replaced the bootlid rams when they began sagging a few years ago , No centre shaft troubles the BA/BF had , no A/C issues . She is a gem .. And I know I'm not the only one . Matter of fact the AU has become a truly terrific car and proving Ford could produce a world class car .
True too, I counted four AU Falcons in our work parking areas the other day. Including a flat bed 'Farmers' ute. The only other Falcons parked up were an XF Ute and a BA XR6, just goes to show. They're an underated car but no-one could get past the looks thing. Must say I wondered what Ford were thinking when I first saw one back in the day. Hang onto yours it's probably worth some coin now. But you already know that.
I am an American who loved Australian cars since the day I first saw Mad Max's XB Falcon and his Holden party van, to watch this series breaks my heart. I always said if Ford was aloud to sell the Aussie Falcon here and Holden was allowed to sell their early 70 and 80s models here in the US we would not be having this series, Australian manufacturers has vehicles that would sell well, like the utes and panels. I know the Manaro was sold here as a Pontiac and so was the Capri and Commodore , but the Capri did sell because of the chassis lay out and the other didn't sell because of the badging. If these models were sold a little different things would be different, a Holden is no Pontiac and a Capri is not a MR2 wantabe. I just sucks all that history is gone.
Exactly mate
Don't forget the Sigma Turbo - the first Australian-built turbocharged production car.
Mr Mitsi was on a roll.....
Scorpion
Starion
Sigma.
Magna.
Then they lost it
This brought back memories. We owned the gemini, mazda 323 sedan, Ford laser, VL Turbo commodore, VS Commodore 5.0, XF Falcon, EL Falcon Futura, Nissan skyline sedan back in the 80's and 90's.
Personally, the 70's had more character imo. I miss the 70's.
The same government policies that we're to help actually destroyed the car industries by these stupid politicians.
Great series. How about a documentary on HDT and HSV cars over the years!! Cheers Greg
BEST AUSTRALIAN MOTOR HISTORY EVER, SHANNONS. THANX SO VERY MUCH 🐜
Great episode, I love Commodore, Falcon and Magna. They’re all cars Australia can be proud of. I’ve owned both the Vrx, and Ralliart Magna’s. They were absolutely fantastic cars, and certainly gave my VT & VX SS’s a run for their money
What an awesome walk down memory lane, well done
Im American and I remember when holden launched the monaro. I was obsessed with that car and had to wait years for it to be launched as the Pontiac gto.
My old man (RIP) had a VN Toyota Lexcen Wagon.
He called it the Claytons (I called it the Pseudo).
The Commodore you're driving when you're not driving a Commodore.
Great episode 👍🏻👍🏻Should have squeezed in the VQ statesman/caprice return.
And the catchy Holden Nova(Toyota Corolla)
@@rdrogel1116 And also 1994 AE101 Corolla ruclips.net/video/G9LBGCecZZg/видео.html
@@rdrogel1116 here's the link to Nova commercial ruclips.net/video/H5BVqS3QT60/видео.html
and the short-lived OZ production of the Vectra from 1997 to 1999(replacing Camry-based Apollo) ruclips.net/video/q8o9PQhcwpk/видео.html
I have a few Australian made cars including a P6 Ford LTD, 2 Customlines, a pair of BA Ford Fairmont Ghia FPV, EL Ford Fairmont, BA Ford Fairlane G220 V8 FPV, Fairmont Ghia Brock enhanced, XE Ford, XC Fairmont, XC Falcon GS Rally Pack Ute and five XP Falcons. Id love a LTD FD 5.8 or Fairmont Ghia ESP ...
I miss the Australian made market boom.
I used to buy WHEELS, Modern Motor, Car Australia and Motor Manual. Custom Rodder, Street Machine, Performance Street Car and Street & Custom. I loved keeping abreast with all this Motoring culture.
So if Australian manufacturers are forced to compete with international manufacturing who have more protection from their governments and no rules/respect for workers conditions and lives they lose , who would of guessed, obviously not Australian politicians.
We take for granted the importance of manufacturing and will live to regret it
It's funny to look back at the highlights on what is so different now.
AU for example was a sales flop but they are still literally everywhere. And are almost popular again hahaha.
I had an au Fairmont. Fabulous car.
The guys a chubb safe! He test drove my mate's Monaro and it went lop sided
VB to VL looked familiar, but the VL was the first of that group to have a rack and pinion that steered straight ahead when you hit a bump, the reason for the designed in lack of correct geometry was caused by the sump of the old red motor which required the rack to be placed in a position that {from memory] caused toe out on bump, apparently this was not considered serious enough to affect tyre wear to any significant amount.
If memory serves - Iran didn't cause the 1970's fuel crisis. It was Nixon selling weapons to Israel. That pissed-off the Saudi's, who cut supply to the global market.
Also Saudi convinced every other producer over there that they all were being screwed via pre, during and post WW2 concession granted to western powers. I think the price in ‘73 was $15 a bbl. BUT, DO THE MATH; I began to drive in ‘78, fuel being 17.9 cents a litre. 2020 it happens to be the $1.50 or thereabouts. Loaf of basic Tip Top bread was 19c: today, similar in $3.50.; a house, basis 3br around $22,000, today you start thinking about $350k. A pack of 20 was 39c in 1973, and they became $6.50 by 1988: or so, with the beginnings of sin tax punishment for supporting LABOR govt., who also wanted timed calls on telephony via its own Telecom at the time, with the Australia Card.... cunts didn’t get the call thing nor the card, however they knew mobile was coming, and made us have a number: TFN. Try to open a bank account or get a job without one. This country has lost its way. Now they want to control you by owning YOUR CASH DEPOSITS, they decide how much cash you have. Once they trash cash (that’s what it’s worth now anyway, and we’re forced to go digital, they’ll tax every single transaction you make, income or outgoings. Right down to every single bottle of water you purchase. . . . . Clever little cunts aren’t they? Straya? At my age you can shove the cunt place right where the sun don’t shine. 🐜
2019 and everything is imported 😡
When the Americans can't build cars in the US - with a market 200 times larger than ours - what hope do we have?
@@tcpnetworks Look at the VIN on cars ,there is a lot that start with 1,4 or 5 = USA ( like the BMW X5 ) 6 was Australia
@@tcpnetworks they build millions in the US. Take your meds.
The Workshop Mechanic Channel 2020 and Holden’s gone
I remember the VN commodore having problems with major oil leaks. It was a big story in 1988. The problem was fixed in 89.
I love my fg FPV Super pursuit ute
Told my kids to bury me in it lol
BRING BACK THE AUSSIE V8s
Both the Labor AND Liberal parties in their turns in government, should've been JAILED for HIGH TREASON for what they did to our motoring industry.
GM executives at the time should be jailed too for selling a Holden as a Pontiac. Holdens are Australian not American and the Manaro and Commodore should have been sold in the U.S. as a Holden, what was GM thinking
@@clintonepps3666 It's a bit late now! All the car making plants are finished and gone, with either derelict sheds or empty real estate where they once stood. Pig Iron Bob Menzies(filthy rotten traitor that it was) did NOT want Australia manufacturing ANYTHING! Menzies wanted us to IMPORT EVERYTHING we need from England. That we had ANY kind of industry AT ALL was in spite of, not because of Menzies. It got its wish and is laughing in its grave!
@@elizabethcherry920 Technically speaking, Holden ceased to be Australian the day General Motors bought them out. The initial prototype for the 48-215 was designed and built in America. As for exporting, the 1959 FB was the only model built in Left-hand-Drive configuration. I would be disgusted to see such a thing. Left-Hand-Drive is for the Americas, some African and Asian countries and much, if not all of Europe. In reality, Australia NEVER had its own brand of car. The closest we came was Lawrence Hartnet's design that never got beyond prototype stage.
Ok what a stupid statment
if the tariffs weren't reduced Japanese makers would have given up on our market and we would be driving around in sub standard, poor quality death traps. The imports forced Holden & Ford to improve their game which they couldn't even after having millions of government grant dollars handed over to try and save something that was dead by it's own hands.
Should have also mentioned how the VN was originally given the same tow rating as the Falcon...which resulted in stretched chassis and doors the wouldn't close properly lol
Well presented
Thanks Shane.
No Mention of the BROCK Falcon?
Such a shame you are telling us Holdens are Australian. Rebaged opels with Buick engines. The biggest con job in automotive history
Loved it. So sad greed and governments destroyed car industry
The 80's was a crap time to buy a new car......Camira, Barina, Meteor and all that rubbish.......but it was a grrreat time to buy used. Fancy a Charger or Torana V8 for three grand? How about an HG Premier for $1500?
Try doing that now!
Was this sponsored, funded by Holden?
I have 1992 Magna and bf falcon Australia made the best cars
XD fuel economy WHAT??
The alloy head crossflow and plastic fuel tank worked wonders
jaycharger72 i agree. A Falcon with fuel economy. I call bullshit. Lol.
The first XD had a bit of a problem with overheating ,, cook them once and throw the head away ,, the Police modifications were great , bigger radiator ect,
Camira...car of the year and then also named dud of the decade
Ease up.. My first car was a JB Camira 1.6 Auto. Funny story.. I beat a VK Blue Meanie with wanker PB rego plates in a lights to lights drag race... Just imagine a Camira packed full of stoned teenagers pulling up at lights where there's a VK Brock Commodore with the wanker plates waiting. We pull up and see that the driver and passenger are decked out wearing HDT merch.. We're stoned and laugh at how ridiculous they look.. Lights go green the VK driver floors it but backs off midway to the next set of lights.. I keep my foot flat making the 1.6 of pure horsepower scream and fly past and pull up at the next lights which had just turned red.. Sensible VK driver gets laughed at again by a Camira full of stoned teenagers.
@@substandardabuse6028 Yeah the VK backed off because he blew your doors off after the first 100 metres...that's him telling you ...bugger off mate..
"Gotta Get a Holden Nova"
(Corolla) - a catchy commercial that didn't feature....
I did buy a Holden Nova and it got written off 2 years after i bought it.Good car.
Great video, only one small error, the all alloy LS V8 isn't a Chevrolet engine, it's a GM engine, made by the parent company. Chevrolet just used it the same as Holden did. It's about as much of a Chevrolet V8 as it is a Holden V8
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA the parachute on the WB!!
That's because the brakes were shiiiiiit.
Brakes....
R.I.P John Blackman
To be honest, I would have liked t know more about what happened between 2000-2017. The narrative jumped there. We had Holden and Ford selling loads of cars and then suddenly in trouble.Perhaps, there isn't much to say and that it was just a long drawn out inevitable decline. I would have liked to have been told about the number of cars sold in total and about whether other countries with a similar population profile suffered the same consequences. It did say that imports were up to 50%.
Big Daryl Eastlake. Aussie legend. 25:43
17:19 "look inside, and you'll see more broken door handles than ever before."
Got to the stage you couldn’t get hold of one. Had a hassle with interior set up on ZL Fairlane DRIVERS DOOR; had to make new metal disc bit coz. Plastic p.o.s. Just wore out. Couldn’t get one. Drivers door? Fairlane? Wasn’t a real Fairlane at all. Panel fit was atrocious, but ride ok. And didn’t appreciate the roof lining dropping either. Ford lost luxury cars with XD series, but sedans, utes and panel vans ok, and the wagon always gave me the impression that arse end was gonna slide off(down).....
The Monaro is from the Kingswood range, what a joke calling the 2 door Commodore a Monaro.
XD Falcon was a big lounge chair.
No mention of how bad the first gen ls engine were ?
Or the bloody xd-xh door handles
I'd much prefer a VR/VS with a Holden 355 stroker.
OK. Now I see two differing stories here. More then once, I've heard rumors of the Aussie Ute being founded on the idea, of a lady farmer who voiced an idea that we needed a vehicle that could be used to cart hay on the farm, and then drive into town with family (basically illuminating the need for a truck)..
is that a young steve Irwin at 5;40/41
Amazing Ford technology...going from leaf springs to coil springs...hahaha...Incredible Holden technology..we put six windows in...hahahaha
@@sutherlandA1 Haha yes that too! Incredible Australian engineering...
Google 'opel rekord' and look at images . Like today ,this is where Holden copied and badge-engineered there cars from .
@@robwhite240z A shame we couldn't have had a truly Australian manufacturer instead of GM, Ford etc just moving in to make money out of our market
@@robwhite240z Started long before then. The HK-HJ on, was a model already used by the yanks to export to South Africa. The lh torana was mildly altered from a Vega. Dodge had a very similar shape (damn near copies ours) also. The stripes and SS bagging directly swiped from 69 Chevelle (or later 60s at least). The hb Torie is a vauxal, as is the vn. The HR was a tank design, as Was The HD, but the yanks wanted wings.. The Aussie boys said, that wouldn't sell here..
I love my GMs. But hate there arogence in holding us back, which I believe happened more then led to be told.
Interesting stuff
15:55 Brock's "brain-fart", the 'Energy Polariser' got exactly what it deserved and no less. It was nothing more than a stupid gimmick and Holden did the right thing by turfing Brock out. Brock's credibility shot to pieces!
Neil Forbes.and after years in a bmw and fords,by 1991 he was back in a holden
Granted, but things like RTS and AFM/SIDI were also gimmicks
@@michealriseley6261 i might sound stupid but can I ask what rts and afm/sidi are please
@@peterbarber7613 Radial Tuned Suspension, active firing management and Spark Ignition Direct Injection.
They sounded fancy...but in the real world, they really didn't do much.
@@michealriseley6261 ok thanks for that,but the good thing is they all worked
Another hiccup - forgot to mention the closure of Ford Homebush plant in 1994 along with local production of the Laser.
You went far too easy on the Camira, and (to a lesser extent) the VN Commodore as well. You wrote all about it in your Club News articles online, that Camira was an unreliable heap of badly-assembled junk, and early VNs weren't much better. There were so many more ways in which the local industry wasn't competitive against the imports, and it had nothing to do with tariffs!
The first EA Falcons weren't much better either. I heard many stories about the things that went wrong with them too. my stepson bought one and had the diff blow up a couple months after he bought it. and no, he didnt thrash it.
@@catey62 Not a ford loyalist, yet would have owne one. But damn, what was with the careless efforts in the door handle failures for so long?? The cooling issues... Hell, they just dropped the ball when It came to reliability. If Ford lost fans... They had only them selves to blame. I see they came back. But what a kick in the nuts, to see it was to little, to late.
I'm a magna man
zippy quiltonz and so am I;)
I loved the first one.......with that burgandy interior! Beautiful cars, even now!👍😃
John Gibson 100% agree mate
Where is part 4?
Magna men got the atomic wedgy in our school yard.
What the fuck??!? Shane finally stands in front of a Holden and it's a run of the mill clapadore.. I thought he would've stood with a stiffy in his shorts in front of a nice HZ Kingswood or something.. I'm angry now.
a good series, but a extreme bias towards Holden, its always Ford did this or mistubishi did this and then this is what Holden did, mentions the VR statesmen launch, doesnt mention the market leader NF and NL Fairlane launches, 80s,90s and 2000s commodores werealways third best behind Falcon and Magna, i wonder if the light will be shown on Fords Dominace with BA and Territory is shown, how wheels tested every Commodore v Falcon back to back and how every model Falcon embarassed the VY Commodore, Territory being the first SUV to win Wheels car of the year and take market dominace of SUV, lets get off the Holden train for a few minutes and actually talk about the great things the other car makers did rather then a minor mention after thought because you have spent 10minutes raving on about Holden
@@clintonepps3666 the territory got a reputation of shearing front ball joints that's they're claim to fame on the second hand market
@@clintonepps3666 so your got a aussie ford with motor from europe
@@clintonepps3666 but your turbo diesel that's in your territory is from europe
@@clintonepps3666 I'm talking about the early 2004 to 2009 models, the later facelifted models had the problem rectified by then
Lol..I have to laugh at the claim about the Nissan Bluebird being a 4 cylinder limousine..while I owned one for 16 years, ( series 2 LX station wagon ) and had a fantastic run out of it, being one of the most reliable cars I've ever owned, and would never bag them as a car in general you would hardly refer to them as a Limo.
It likely was compared to its predecessor! Lol.
Had one on our taxi fleet that done 400k trouble free miles, so they were certainly durable, but very dull.
Just advertising spin with limo claim. Everyone laughed at the time too, but still sold well for their real features.
@@johnd8892 Yes, they did. mine was a wonderful car that only ever needed work due to everyday wear and tear. other than that I had a trouble free ownership in the 16 years I had it.
What's an ingine
Football meatpies kangaroo's and Holden cars. We lost it all.
Why did Australia need to be ‘globally competitive’?…now we have no car industry…look at the junk that’s on offer now from overseas…we’ll done,Politicians,we’ll done…
I know this will annoy and upset a lot of people, but in general Australian cars of that era were shit.
Big, fuel guzzling, poor handling, badly designed and terribly built.
i had a brand new Commodore in the early 90s. The first time the front passenger door was opened it fell off. it was held in place only by paint. There were no welds. It had been assembled, tested, shipped, PDIed and delivered like that. The dealer did some bodgy welds and did a quick respray....
In the mid 1980s I had another Commodore. This had a big IRS badge on the console. I asked the salesman what it meant. Independent Rear Suspension.
That was the selling point FFS.
And WTF thought 4.2 L engines were normal? What planet were those idiots on.
It wasnt for reliability because the pieces of shit broke down all the time.
Sorry guys, it had to be said.
The VP Commodore of 1991 was the first to have IRS. The VH Commodore of 1983 was the last to offer the 4,2 L V8. I think your dates are a little mixed up.
John Gibson
Probably mate. One badge Holden loved slapping on the back of a car was RTS - radial tuned suspension.
Radial tyres had arrived in Europe in the 70s....
@@rosshilton
Yeah i know what you mean. My father bought a 1969 Alfa Romeo Berlina 1750.
It had fuel injection, IRS, four wheel discs, 5 speed manual, carpet, standard radio and heater/demister, tacho........compare that with our own Holden or Ford from that time.
John Gibson
They lobbied Senator Button to protect the industry and he introduced the “luxury car tax” which had a stage gate so low that almost any imported car attracted 40% EXTRA duty.
The scumbag car manufacturers loved it - car prices shot through the roof.
The government loved it - they got easy money.
All cars are now imported.
THE LUXURY CAR TAX STILL APPLIES!!!!!
Bastards.
@@rosshilton
Exactly! Anything to get our money.
someone tell shane that Bathurst is pronounced 'Bathist' not 'Bath hurst'
This what globalisation is doings.
This is the best the Baby Boomers could do in the 80s ...lol
.
Sad story. Cars getting more and more bland design. Can't tell one from another other than by their different grilles or lack thereof. In Europe I think Ford's Sierra started it.
Ford v Holden, what a yawnfest 🙄🙄🙄
Well, why are you bothering to watch this series for then, knob head!!
Hiluxes, ranger's, corollas and Mazda 3s don't set my world on fire🔥🤔
You're a drongo mate. Jog on
Who could forget those 4 and 6 pot FWD bum draggers with their shocking torque steer followed by horrible understeer. Worst came from Toyota with the TuRD supercharged Aurion. Driving success was measured by going in a straight line.
The VN had no performance it was a high first and second gear
Fukken female friendly. Men were done by then. Oh well.
Oh well, I just squeaked in as a boomer. Different times.
But we teach our children well.