
Think of Australian cars and the first name that comes to mind is “Holden”. The company is named after Englishman James Holden, who emigrated to Australia in 1852 and established a saddlery business. Many years later this evolved into a bodywork company and part of General Motors Australia. The first car to be built was in 1948 – the type 48/215 – and this established the new company’s reputation becoming Australia’s best-seller. A great variety of vehicles were then manufactured over several decades and cars with 6 & 8 cylinder engines became Australia’s top-selling vehicles. Projects were later shared with Nissan, Suzuki and other companies, but in 2017 production of Holdens stopped in Australia with cars being imported from Opel and GM factories. General Motors later stated that the brand name “Holden” would not be used after 2021.
































