Holden lifer Stephen's memories live on in his EH - despite what GM decides

A lifelong dedication, or life membership of a club; a life sentence if you will.

The Wollongong dad - formerly known for his Unanderra camping store - remembers when he bought his beloved EH station wagon, getting a lift up to Peakhurst to make the purchase when he was 13.

"It popped third gear all the way home, I still remember it today," he said.

"I was at school, so on weekends I'd go to swap meets and Holden gatherings and buy all sorts of parts. Eventually I pulled it apart and redid the interior, fully rebuilt it. It was ready by the time I got my Ps."

The EH had been a wildly popular model, selling more than 256,000 cars in less than two years between 1963 and 1965. Stephen, 42, plans to gift the beauty to his son Logan, and he's on the lookout for a Kingswood to do up for his second child.

For the thousands of Holden 'lifers' across Australia, this is a dedication they'll have to sustain on their own after US parent company General Motors announced the once-beloved and still-kind-of-treasured car brand will be completely ditched after this year.

"There's heaps - from V8 supercar lovers to muscle car lovers and old car lovers," Stephen said.

"If I see something Holden at a garage sale I'm onto it. They just increase in value.

"Even the new models, for us to lose all those models, why they'd let an Australian company go like that, I just don't know. It mustn't be worth anything to them."

Stephen's talking about a kind of value that goes beyond sales figures - a place in the culture.

Holden had already left, of course, closing down Australian production in October 2017, and even retiring the Commodore but promising there would at least be imported Opels bearing the Holden badge.

Until this week. Holden the marque will be about a lifetime old when Detroit pulls the plug on its life support system - almost 73 years.

But cars aren't frail like humans, they're meant to last through several generations - maybe not an individual but the maker.

Perhaps someone with a bit of dedication and imagination like Stephen could have saved the Lion badge.

"I still think they should get off this new modelling and go back to the old school looks - and pull the modern gear in it," he said. "What's wrong with driving around in an awesome HZ panel van in today's market, brand new, with all the good gear?

"They had attitude, they were crazy, they were great. There were Fords, there were Valiants, there was a bit of a rivalry. But that's out the window; no-one even talks about that anymore."

Illawarra Mercury