These were, British Leyland/BMC, Datsun/Nissan, Holden, Ford, Chrysler/Mitsubishi and Toyota. The halcyon days of the Australian motor industry.

Well when did they all start to die?

Chrysler producers of the iconic Valiant Charger ceased production in 1981, even though the factory remained open producing Mitsubishi products until 2002, the last being the very good Mitsubishi 380.

British Leyland, the makers of such iconic cars as Morris Mini, Austin 1800 and swansong P76 left us in March 1983.

Datsun/Nissan left us in 1992. At their best they built the great little Datsun 1600 and popular 180B then the flop 200B.

Ford shut the doors for the last time in 2016. Who’ll ever forget the GTHO or awful Capri?

The world's biggest car company, Toyota, builders of the world's biggest selling car the Corolla said goodbye in 2016.

Holden, the last man standing finally gave up the ghost late last year. Their highlight vehicles, the FJ, 60s Monaro and the very last Commodore, arguably the best car ever built in Oz.

So there you have it in a nutshell, the very sad decline and loss of Australia’s car manufacturing industry never to be seen again. But they can’t take the memories.

Road ramblings heard on radio throughout Australia, brings you all your motoring news locally every Saturday at 5am on 101.5 Great Lakes FM and 10am on 106.5 Rhema FM.

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