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A substantial car industry was created in Australia in the 20th century through the opening of Australian plants by international manufacturers. The first major carmaker was Ford Australia and the first Australian-designed mass production car was manufactured by Holden in 1948. Australian manufacture of cars rose to a maximum of almost half a ...
Colonel Harley Tarrant built his first car in 1901. After a small number of motor vehicles were built, it became apparent that it was uneconomic to build indigenous vehicles, in the face of overseas technology. Tarrant assumed the responsibility for distribution of Ford automobiles in Victoria in 1908, and production of Tarrants ceased. The ...
The first New Zealand designed and constructed automobile known to have run was made by Frederick Dennison. It was a motor tricycle reported in the local newspaper on 8 May 1900. [25] The article stated that Dennison intended to convert the tricycle to a four-wheel motor-car. He did so and drove it from Christchurch to Oamaru in July 1900. [26]
Ford Australia was the first company to produce an Australian Coupe ute, which was released in 1934. [13] This was the result of a 1932 letter from the unnamed wife of a farmer in Australia asking for "a vehicle to go to church in on a Sunday and which can carry our pigs to market on Mondays". [13]
Ford Australia's first products were Model T cars assembled from complete knock-down (CKD) kits provided by Ford of Canada. Of the many models that followed, the best known was the Falcon produced from 1972 to 2016, originally a US model introduced in Australia in 1960 and eventually adapted to Australian requirements and road conditions.
For instance, it was not until July, 1937 that the 1937 Model 78 V8 was released in New Zealand. In September, 1937 the British Model C was replaced by the Ford Ten 7W, a revised version of which was known as the E93A, released in New Zealand in March, 1939. This was the first car that Ford gave a name to - it was the Prefect.
Passenger vehicle sales show 729 locally assembled Mercedes-Benz cars were sold between July 1959 and June 1960. By 1960, Mercedes-Benz had increased passenger car sales in Australia by ten-fold annually, selling as many cars per year as in the first fifty years.
On 30 May 1963, Chrysler Australia produced the first fully Australian manufactured Valiant, the AP5. In February of that year, [5] Chrysler Australia had begun work on its new $36 million Tonsley Park facility in South Australia, [6] where it could boost annual production to 50 thousand cars. The new plant produced its first Valiants on 31 ...