It is interesting to break down the figures into sales per month, to see which was in fact the most popular Holden series. As you can see gross sales are irrelevant if the car was on sale for a longer or shorter period of time.
I did some figures recently on average sales per month for FE to HZ. To achieve these numbers, I simply divided the total sales for that model series by the number of months it was on sale. Some of the numbers are surprising but there are several anomalies.
FE - 7,388
FC - 9,586
FB - 10,921
EK - 10,014
EJ - 11,908
EH - 14,275
HD - 12,780
HR - 11,737
HK - 12,440
HT - 13,100
HG - 12,984
HQ - 12,452
HJ - 8,390
HX - 7,377
HZ - 5,315
These figures are distorted slightly by the fact that in some model series the utes & vans ran into the next model by a few months, most notably EK into EJ (5 months), EH into HD (5 months), HR into HK (1 month) & HG into HQ (4 months). Also I counted months, rounded off to the closest whole number. If I counted weeks it would be more accurate.
What I find most interesting is that the supposedly unpopular HD easily outsold, not only HR but also EJ & HK. The myth that the HD was unpopular back then, was established in the 70s & 80s by motoring journalists with very keen hindsight. If you read the various motoring reviews (magazines & newspapers) of the time, it was no less popular than many other model series during the 60s. Other than styling criticism by some, over the pointy front guards, most liked its modern styling, more roomy interior & performance of both the Powerglide & the X2 engine. They whinged about the brakes, which they had been doing for decades (rightly so!!), but this was tempered by the fact that they were no worse than the oppositions' brakes & they also knew that the front discs were coming soon. The plain fact is the HD was not unpopular in its day & buyers were not eagerly awaiting its replacement, the HR series.
The best period of sales generally was the mid 60s, in fact the highest grossing sales month in GM-H's history was May 1965 when the Aust. economy was going gangbusters, the HD was selling up a storm & the EH utes & vans were in runout. The low FE/FC numbers were due to slow (but growing) post-war economic times, but even at these figures Holden had 45-50% of the total market. FB & EK plateaued due to the 1960 'credit squeeze'. HR saw the first strong competition from Ford & Chrysler (XR & VC) & was also on the market for too long. HT onwards would have been eroded due to Holden own Torana models, which gradually ate into the larger car's sales. By 1975 they also had Gemini & by 1979 they had Commodore. For several months in 1975 the large Holden was knocked off its no. 1 sales spot for the first time (by the XB Ford). 70s sales numbers were also eroded by the high inflationary price spiral of that time.
The period of late 1990s & early 2000s was also very strong for Holden with the VT selling 303,895 units in 35 months (8,682) & the VX selling 211,125 units in 23 months (9180) & the VY selling 241,909 units in 23 months (10,517). The VT & VX figures are very impressive given that these series consisted only of sedans & wagons. Statesmans, utes & Monaros had their own series names & Holden also had many other cars selling well in their own categories.
To my knowledge the longest selling vehicle of any model series (for an Australian built Holden) would be the VS ute. These sold from April 1995 until they were replaced by the VU ute in December 2000, 68 months in total, which even eclipses the 48-215's run of 59 months.
Dr Terry
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