It is a very sad day for Australia's once booming motor industry. For over 100 years, Australia has been manufacturing motor vehicles that have served the buying public very well, even before the big three established themselves in Australia, our motor industry was flourishing.
Ford opened their manufacturing plant in 1925. General Motors took over Holden's Motor Body Builders in 1931. Chrysler Australia was established in June 1951. These three companies were subsidiaries of the parent companies in the USA and were just three of the car manufacturers in Australia, all vying for sales.
Starting in the sixties, competition really heated up with General Motors Holden manufacturing the Holden (the first Holdens were produced in 1948), Ford Australia started manufacturing the Falcon and Chrysler Australia had the Valiant. While the first Falcons and Valiants were close copies of the ones sold in the USA, they gradually became fully Australian designed and built. Each had their own fan base and loyal followers. Chrysler departed the Australian market in 1981 when it sold the remainder of it's shareholding in Chrysler Australia to the Mitsubishi Motors Corporation of Japan. The last Australian built Valiant rolled off the production line on August 1981. During the first decade of 2000's, sales of "big" (if you call the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore big) began to decline. Sales further declined in the second decade. With sales of the Falcon hitting an all-time low, the management of Ford decided that the last day of production of the Ford Falcon would be October 17, 2016. For the last 12 months, the Holden Commodore has been the only vehicle from the "big three" that has been manufactured. However, today, October 20, 2017, the last Holden Commodore will roll off the assembly line, thus ending what has been an Australian institution for so long. Just for the record, the Chevrolet SS, which was sold in the USA up until recently, was actually a Holden Commodore in disguise. During these years, Australia has produced some very interesting and unique vehicles. We invented the Coupe Ute, and all three manufacturers offered Slopers during the thirties. It is a very sad day for Australian manufacturing. In future all vehicles will be imported from around the world, including the next model Holden Commodore. Toyota stopped producing the Toyota Camry on October 3, 2017. Thousands of loyal workers have lost their jobs, as well as workers in companies supplying components, tyres, upholstery and the list goes on. It is a sad day all around.