In the 1950s there were more car companies than we could shake a stick at with nearly every high-level engineer or designer trying to branch off and create their own company to build a better car and offer something new that they hoped would grow into something special. Most of these car companies petered out before they really got going and ended up defunct before the end of the decade, never to be heard from again. That’s not the story we’re looking at today for Holden GM though, we’re looking at a story that’s been around much longer than these brands were during this decade.
The Holden GM plant in Australia has been building vehicles since 1948 and they have been the place where many models were put together and shipped to the US to be part of the lineup we’ve enjoyed from two of our own most popular and successful brands. Holden has built a large number of vehicles and has been a staple of the Australian automotive industry to provide many of the models that are on the road today, but this company has recently been shut down after the number of years it’s been in business.
After Sixty-Nine Years the Doors Shut
Ford was the first of the two brand to stop building cars at Holden with the last seven being four cars for charity and three that were built to be put in a museum. This was what it meant to have the division done building cars and end the story that started for Ford in 1959. The team had kept on building cars at Holden, but recently their time at Holden GM came to an end as well with the final car that came off the line at this factory.
Over the time in business, Holden built 7,687,675 vehicles for the different areas they serve. These models offered included some excellent utility vehicles that were sold locally for the ride around the outback and the wild areas of the country. Others were for Ford and Chevy with the most famous model built at this plant being the Chevrolet SS that came with a manual transmission and a powerful V8 engine that you would love to have for the drive on the road and for some fun at the track. Now that the Zeta platform is done, the production at Holden has also ended.
The Last Ride Off the Holden GM Production Line
The final car to come off the production line at this plant, after 69 years of continued production, was a red Holden VFII Commodore Redline, which is the car that shared a platform with the Chevrolet SS for many years. This car came with the LS3 engine that offered up 408 horsepower and a set of Brembo brakes. It’s a sad day to know this car was the last one built at this plant and the team at Holden would no longer build cars, but the story had been coming to an end for the last couple of years; now, it’s a reality.
