I drove a 1974 (or was it 1975?) Holden HQ Kingswood from 1986 until 2002 when I stupidly left it behind in Australia. Last time I cried in public. Really.
Holden Kingswood HQ 1974

Most of you don't have a clue what an HQ is, but if I tell you it had a three-seater vinyl bench seat in the front (that I fitted with wooden-bead seat covers) and three-on-the-tree column gearshift, you'll get the idea.

I drove that car so long I could parallel park it in its own length or double-declutch it into first taking the Hoddle Street hill while changing lanes in peak hour traffic. It took six people, all their gear and their beer, and Cold Chisel [you foreigners download some] on the stereo sounded like a train smash in heaven. It's cruising speed was 30kph over the legal limit, it had more go than a burnt cat, and it could get many places that a 4WD could (they were designed as "farmer's cars" with enough room for a bale of hay in the boot/trunk).

It cost next to nothing for service and parts. Of course it drank petrol but not as badly as a V8 - it had what was reportedly a reworked 1950s Chev 202 cu.in. straight-six truck motor in it that was virtually unbreakable. It took the fireroads of the Blue Mountains and the four lanes of the Hume Highway in equal comfort (admittedly not much of that: the only "aircon" was the manual window-winder handle in the door. But with all the windows down in the Aussie heat and shirts off listening to Midnight Oil [download them too] nobody cared much. In winter the heater rocked).

It had no airbags, and the seatbelts only recoiled because I fitted new ones. But in a collision it was the other car that needed the airbags. There were reportedly a quarter of a million Holdens running around Australia (they are much rarer in NZ - the sea air kills everything). Every mechanic learned on them. Every back-blocks service station had parts. They don't die unless you shoot them.

Now Holden make huge tin boys-toys with as many computers as a Jumbo jet and electric everything. They still guzzle gas and they still take off like a bee bit them, but they regularly score next-to-bottom of the heap on reliability surveys, just ahead of Fords. The Japanese piss all over them.

I want that Kingswood back.