# Whoa! I Always Thought Aussie's Had Cool Cars **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 1, 2006, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585 "2006-03-01T06:23:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585/1 "2006-03-01T06:23:31Z")
When I first saw _Mad Max_, I thought that there were a lot of cool looking cars Down Under. Now, I find [this](http://www.drive.com.au/editorial/article.aspx?id=10484) Holden prototype, and I gotta say, I’d _love_ to have one! Wow, just wow. ---
**Author:** ![MessyPaint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@MessyPaint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MessyPaint)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585/2 "2006-03-01T06:31:41Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s all about quality and craftsmenship, says Laird hehe. they spelled craftsmanship wrong :rolleyes: thats a neat design, funny they say they had a corvette “laying around” i wish i had stuff like that laying around ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585/3 "2006-03-01T15:51:38Z")
It’s stylish in a show car/noir/comic book kind of way. But will Australians embrace the Prowler/PT Cruiser/Retro T-Bird thing? I haven’t seen a Prowler in years. I seldom see T-Birds. (Of course, I’m not in L.A. anymore.) ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585/4 "2006-03-01T17:22:22Z")
> [@MessyPaint](#): > > funny they say they had a corvette “laying around” Well, Holden _is_ a GM brand. “Lying around” probably means a different thing to those guys. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585/5 "2006-03-01T17:47:00Z")
Seeing designs (works of art, really) like this makes me appreciate how difficult it is to design an attractive and original mass market car. I guess that’s why there are so few truly beautiful cars on the roads these days. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585/6 "2006-03-01T17:55:25Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > When I first saw _Mad Max_, I thought that there were a lot of cool looking cars Down Under. Now, I find [this](http://www.drive.com.au/editorial/article.aspx?id=10484) Holden prototype, and I gotta say, I’d _love_ to have one! Wow, just wow. man, this car is UBERCOOL! I’d buy one in a heartbeat-looks a lot like a 1953 Buick! man, i didn’t know australia had such neat car designs! Holden is GM-any chance a few of these will be imported into the USA? ---
**Author:** ![Encinitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Encinitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Encinitas)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585/7 "2006-03-01T17:59:06Z")
But the steering wheel is on the wrong side. What? ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585/8 "2006-03-02T00:46:01Z")
> [@Encinitas](#): > > But the steering wheel is on the wrong side. > > What? Well, maybe. But if you’re a lefty, the gearshift is on exactly the proper side for speed shifting. So when are they gonna offer the supercharge that goes thru the hood? Yeah, I want me one of these! ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585/9 "2006-03-02T06:26:40Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > man, this car is UBERCOOL! I’d buy one in a heartbeat-looks a lot like a 1953 Buick! man, i didn’t know australia had such neat car designs! Holden is GM-any chance a few of these will be imported into the USA? Well, seeing as how it’s GM and that they’ve got the “Midas touch” at the moment (everything they handle turns to shit), I’d say no. **Johnny** , the problem with the Prowler and the T-Bird is that they were more show than go. Plus, they were only made for a short period of time, so people would rather keep them in their garage (to help hold their value) than drive them. I _did_ see a Prowler the other day at work, but then again, I see a 1948 Tucker almost every day, so. . . . ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585/10 "2006-03-02T07:08:40Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > man, this car is UBERCOOL! I’d buy one in a heartbeat-looks a lot like a 1953 Buick! For the non-Aussies who may have missed the reference in the article, i’ll point out that the concept car’s name, Efijy, is a homage to the FJ, which was the second model of car that Holden produced in Australia (after the 48-215, or FX). [Here](http://home.austarnet.com.au/jamieson/myFJ.jpg) is a picture of a 1955 FJ. Some info, and more pictures [here](http://www.earlyholdens.com/main/fj.html). The Holden company was actually formed in the nineteenth century as a saddlery. In the 1910s they began making motorbike sidecars, and then car bodies, continuing as a local supplier of bodies for GM cars. After WWII, they began to produce Australia’s first fully home-grown cars. > [@ralph124c](#): > > man, i didn’t know australia had such neat car designs! Holden is GM-any chance a few of these will be imported into the USA? Well, as it’s currently only a one-off concept valued at over a million bucks, i think the question is still open as to whether anything like this will even see production in Australia, let alone for export. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-always-thought-aussies-had-cool-cars/346585/11 "2006-03-02T16:50:22Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > man, this car is UBERCOOL! I’d buy one in a heartbeat-looks a lot like a 1953 Buick! man, i didn’t know australia had such neat car designs! Holden is GM-any chance a few of these will be imported into the USA? Assuming that this ever makes it beyond show car stage (a big, big if), there will probably be institutional reluctance to import it as GM is still smarting from the failure of the recent Pontiac GTO, a rebadged Holden Monaro.