Australia may still have a strong automotive engineering industry but the fact we no longer create cars from initial concept all the way through to final production is still a profound loss. 

Right until the very end – in fact, especially at the very end – Australia was producing excellent vehicles that were perfectly suited to our unique roads and conditions, usually on a fraction of the budgets enjoyed globally. 

To celebrate this feat, below you’ll find our top 10 greatest Australian cars. With any list like this it’s important to establish the ground rules. This is a ‘greatest’ list rather than a ‘best’. The difference? Greatness requires the car to have had a lasting impact on the industry at large, a game changer if you will.  

We’re also talking complete ranges, so some iconic cars that were otherwise part of relatively forgettable ranges (step forward Charger R/T E49) are absent – that’s a list you’ll find here.

10. Bolwell Nagari 

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Full disclosure, the Bolwell Nagari wasn’t on the first draft of this list, but when you run it by Peter Robinson and he says the Nagari should be on it, you put the Nagari on it. The closest Australia has come to producing a European-style sports car, it used the engineering nous of brothers Campbell and Graeme Bolwell to create a compact, lightweight (915kg) and powerful (164kW/407Nm) machine capable of easily dusting a contemporary Falcon GT. 

9. Holden Monaro 

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In 1967 the Ford XR Falcon GT kicked off Australia’s muscle car era (more on this later) but it still looked, well, like a sedan. The Holden Monaro added show to the go with a shapely two-door body that predated Valiant’s Charger by three years and Ford’s XA Coupe by five. You could have the show without the go, the base engine being a 161ci (2.6-litre) straight-six, but every Monaro buyer wanted one of the V8s whether they could afford it or not. It was more than a pretty face, too, capturing the 1968 Wheels’ Car of the Year award and locking out the podium at that year’s Bathurst 500. An icon was born, one that was successfully reinvented in the early 21st century.  

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8. Mitsubishi TM Magna 

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You could make a case for the Sigma to sit here, as it really established Mitsubishi as a major player in Australia, but it was the Magna that gave Aussie buyers a genuine alternative to the Falcon and Commodore. As is typically the case, ingenuity played a key role. Mitsubishi Australia couldn’t afford to develop a full-size car yet knew the narrow-body Japanese market Galant wouldn’t cut it locally. The solution was to add 65mm in the middle which, combined with the front-drive layout, gave it exceptional interior space for its size. The segment-straddling dimensions meant it cleverly nabbed sales from mid-size competitors as well as traditional Ford and Holden big car buyers. 

7. Holden VB Commodore

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The VB Commodore was up against it. Replacing the beloved Kingswood (“not the Kingswood!”), it looked like an Opel and it looked small. The latter meant plenty of buyers – especially fleets – turned to the full-size Falcon, but they didn’t reckon on the Holden’s clever packaging that gave it far more interior space than the exterior dimensions suggested. Nor did they get to enjoy the excellent comfort and dynamics and substantial re-engineering that ensured the Commodore’s Opel DNA could withstand Australia’s brutal roads. A 1-2-3 in the Repco Round Australia trial was Holden’s reward for its local engineering efforts. 

6. Ford BA Falcon 

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At the time of the millennium, Holden was kicking Ford’s butt. The VT et al Commodores were easily winning the sales race, the Gen III V8 was winning the power race and the Monaro was winning the fashion race. But an enemy that appears to be in retreat may merely be biding its time and Ford was working away feverishly on a car that would banish any memories of the AU. The BA may have had AU bones but a new engine – the mighty Barra – a new independent rear end and stiffer bodyshell gave it talents an equivalent Commodore couldn’t match. And in the XR6 Turbo, a new performance hero was born, giving the traditional V8s a boosted battering. 

5. Ford Ute  

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Sometimes the greatest ideas come from solving a personal need. The famous Gippsland farmer’s wife wasn’t looking to create a new vehicle genre that would become an integral part of Australian culture, she just needed something that could carry passengers in comfort and produce to market. At the behest of Ford Australia general manager Hubert French, designer Lewis Bandt created the coupe utility, which would evolve into a uniquely Australian machine with a third string to its bow – shredding rear tyres with V8 grunt. While our beloved Falcon and Commodore utes are no more, you can draw a straight line from that original request to the nation’s current dual-cab love affair. 

4. Ford XR Falcon 

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It would be incorrect to call the Ford XR Falcon GT Australia’s first performance car. There was the Harry Firth-fettled Cortina GT, though perhaps the Holden EH S4 has a greater claim. What the XR GT did do, however, was establish the template that would dominate the local performance scene for the next five decades: ample interior space, rear-wheel drive and stonking great V8 under the bonnet. Oh, and a trophy at Bathurst in October. It was the opening salvo in the arms race that would ensue between Ford and General Motors leading to the creation of some of this country’s most treasured vehicles. 

3. Holden VE Commodore 

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Throughout virtually its entire existence, the Australian automotive industry – almost regardless of manufacturer – became synonymous with punching above its weight, achieving remarkable results with a fraction of international budgets. Many of the vehicles on this list attest to that. With the VE Commodore – Holden’s ‘Billion Dollar Baby’ – General Motors’ antipodean arm finally had a chance to flex its muscles and delivered in spades. The crisp exterior design, penned by Michael Simcoe and Peter Hughes, the ride, handling and steering that was the equal of anything from Europe and unprecedented refinement for a local car. General Motors’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy would stifle its export potential, but the VE’s excellence would stand the Commodore in good stead all the way to the VF II and end of production. 

2. Ford Territory 

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The Territory is the true measure of the quality of Australia’s car industry. It knew how to do sedans, had been doing them successfully for 50 years, but when the Territory became a glint in Ford’s eye the term SUV had barely entered the automotive lexicon. It not only carried over the excellent ride and handling from the Falcon on which it was based, easily setting a new standard for the segment, it improved passenger space and refinement and offered a supremely clever interior, full of storage and flexibility with seating for seven. It was an outstanding family car, fuel economy its only real demerit, a situation made worse by Ford’s decision to prioritize a high-performance Turbo variant over a diesel early in its lifespan. How would it fare in today’s SUV-obsessed market?  

1. Holden 48-215 

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Even the mightiest tree needs a seed to grow from and every vehicle on this list owes its existence to some degree to the 48-215, or as it was simply known at the time, the ‘Holden’. Australians fell over themselves to own the first locally engineered and manufactured car, resulting in extensive wait lists. Happily, they also bought themselves a fine vehicle. It was undoubtedly simple but occupied a unique niche in size while offering full-blooded performance by the standards of the day. As Holden design guru Richard Ferlazzo put it in Wheels’ feature drive of the first and last locally made Holdens, “It was an A-size car with a B-size engine”. The success of the 48-215 is best illustrated by the fact its layout – a four-door sedan with room for a family and luggage, powered by a six-cylinder engine driving the rear wheels – would continue unchanged until the very last VF II Commodore rolled off the line in 2017.