If I was to get an older car, and I may well do it one day, it'd most likely be an FC Holden sedan. In my eyes, they just look good. It would remain at original spec too - no 454 Chev with blower and bonnet scoop for my car. It'd more likely get venetian blinds, extra chrome, Kent sealed beam fog lights and the chrome wire guards for the headlights like I used to have on my last Torana.

I did a bad thing! Post deleted.

Pat I think I know who you mean.
I was asked to look at a "old English car" about 10 years ago by the Widow via the local Church.
It was a long story and involved a purchaser who would not remove the vehicle(s) and held up estate proceedings.
I respectfully withdrew, the Lady has passed on and the house is of course now gone and a multi story flat chock full of happy Indians is now there. Another Church member said one day it was all there the next day the site was cleared and the block o flats was on the way up.
That's how it goes sometimes you just have to advise, walk away and don't look back.
Fred.

Brad I agree re the FC.
The humpy holdens look like prewar chevs which is exactly what they were.
And are shockers.
The FC was like the first series of Majors.
Neat, compact, good looker, plenty of chrome well sorted and just a good family car.
Once Holden moved to the EK and so on they got fatter and bigger and wallowed around like whales.
I know I had a EK..
Same with the Morris Elite, complete piece of wallowing under/oversteering rubbish.
The race guys knew exactly how to fix a Major so it handled well (er for a 1960 design).
My Elite got sway bars, tube dampers, wide rims, camber fix and so on and stopped plough under steer that turned to tank slapping oversteer on gentle corners! The FC has none of those problems with a suspension designed from the 1960's not the 1860's like the Morris.
Anyway that should anger a few humpy lovers.
Fred.

"wallowed around like whales"

I learnt to drive in the mid '60s in an EK, and it did wallow. Anything over 50 mph and it would start to wander.
My father sold the car to a relative and it is still on the road with its second short engine after the original, and reset rear leaf springs, travelling on excursions on vintage plates in the local vintage car club. The car was fish-oiled when new (stank for years), but it did the job.

While it has had a few incidents in its life, it largely still has the original acrylic paint which still takes a shine, not like the modern paints with clearcoat which don't last like that.

EK's were the best looking Holdens. A cross between Henrys and Chevs.

My first car was an EH. Complete with "spats" covering the back wheels, sun visor, and a strange switch mounted below the handbrake
on an aluminium bracket, home made job. Didn't seem to do anything.

I finally discovered what it did. It disabled the brake lamps. Reason unknown. Why anybody would want that is beyond me.

Marcc,

About the pet. Did you actually get it from a pet shop or did it just come in from the bush (gulp!) and decide to stay?

Yes Brad I agree the FC has a very stylish and compact look, especially in two tone, with just a nice amount of chrome. Venetian blinds a must!

Yep, FC was my first car at 18 .... two tone blue .....front bench seat .... saw one in a museum recently ..... wtf .... my wife didn't help by saying that I belonged in a museum also ...

In retaliation, I just smiled and said "oh, the memories" ... that certainly didn't go down well .....

Vene ... veneti ...venetian ..... no way .... definitely not!!!!

A few years back I was invited to read a short story to kids in Year 1. The teacher sent a questionnaire to each "mystery reader" asking us to provide 5 not-so-obvious facts about ourselves to see if the kids could guess who the week's mystery reader was. One of my facts was that when I was in Year 1 Mum used to drive me to school in our FC Holden.

So, came my day to attend school (nobody in the class had guessed it was me) I showed the kids a photo of an FC and one of the boys shouted out "That's not a real car!" Made me laugh. I replied that not only is it a real car, you can still find them on the road today. He still didn't believe me.

In some sad news today, it looks like GM has made a pig's ear of yet another of its divisions. Holden will soon join Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saturn and Saab as former companies. It is a disgrace that these idiots in Detroit seem to have learned nothing of the mistakes that lead to GM going backrupt some years ago.

We have far too many brands in Australia and this is one of several reasons why we no longer have local factories. Why does a country with 25m people have more than 60 companies importing cars which are made in subsidised factories overseas? I still own a Holden - a real one and not the junk they've been selling in the last two years and it is one of the few cars anywhere in the world that hasn't been affected by the Takata airbag saga. Some cars are being recalled for a second time to have their second Takata airbag replaced with one of a different make.

All the media seem to be worried about at the moment is what will become of Holden's motor racing commitments? To that I say, who cares? I haven't watched a singe motor race in years, despite once seeing myself glued to the telly each time there was a battle between Holden and Ford. What is more important is the loss of another local brand, even if it was foreign owned, the loss of even more jobs and the loss of the bragging rights that included Australia being one of the 42 countries that made cars up until October 2017.

Following that, our motor industry went up in a puff of smoke similar to what happened to radio and television manufacturing about thirty years ago.

Bring Back Menzies!

That's the only solution. (I'm serious)

Sir Bob would be bashing on the lid of his coffin at the disaster GM has created under its own hand. Australia has become a warehouse for everyone else's crap to be dumped in.

these idiots in Detroit seem to have learned nothing of the mistakes that lead to GM going bankrupt some years ago.

Well, of course they haven't -- the US government bailed GM out. In the USA GM stands for Government Motors. In Oz, GM has always been happy to take Government Money, as have the other car makers.

In the 1970s the senior management of car companies began to be taken over by bean counters and MBAs, and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

And Boeing is going the same way! "Outsourcing" their IP, design and production.
Trying to hack a 1959 design to compete with Airbus!

There was a sadly prophetic movie released some 20 years back - "Idiocracy".