Scottish Statesman

In its 60-plus year export history, not once has Holden marketed its cars in the mother country. It sold a drip-feed of Monaro coupes in the UK in 2005/2006 and from 2008 onwards a hand-full of HSV sedans and utes, but they were all badged as Vauxhalls.

That hasn’t stopped a number of Holdens ending up on British roads though. Aside from the Australian government shipping Holdens to the UK for consulate use up to the 1970s, there seem to be plenty of individuals who couldn’t part with their Holdens when leaving Oz for a stint in England. As of July this year, there were 162 Holdens registered in the UK.

So much so that the UK even has one of the few Holden car clubs outside Australia. Called The UK Holden Register, the club was formed in 1988 and has about 50 members who own Holdens ranging from a FJ Holden Special to a VF Commodore Ute.

The club is registered with the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licence Agency to provide age verification certificates for Holdens, so that owners can get them registered in the UK.

One member is Glasgow-based Gavin Smith, who owns a 2002 WHII Statesman V8.

This WHII was a relatively late arrival to the UK – it was exported from Australia with its previous owner in 2014.

Smith, who is a fan of large GM Europe products (he also owns a 2002 Vauxhall Omega V6), saw the Statesman come up for sale on the register’s website about two years ago.

“It was being sold by the owner, who’d brought it with him. I think his wife told him he had to get rid of it. But while it was listed for sale, it got rear-ended down in London,” said Smith.

It wasn’t economic for the insurance company to repair the car, according to Smith, and so it ended up in the salvage system.

“I went to look at it down in York, and it looked OK – it’s a big, strong car. The towbar took most of the hit, the damage was mostly cosmetic. The garnish and both tail-lights were damaged and it had a crack in the bumper, but the frame of the car was fine.”

Smith had the damage fixed and since then the only major repair was for a leaking steering rack. The Statesman was already fitted with 17-inch VZ Calais wheels, but Smith had to source a spare as the car had none.

He also had an instrument specialist make up a new instrument cluster backing to read both miles per hour and km/h. Smith reckons the law is a bit vague on the matter of whether a UK-registered car should have a mph readout, but he wanted to be sure his Statesman was 100 per cent legit in case he was ever pulled up.

It’s not surprising that the Statesman doesn’t get heads turning in the UK.

“It's a bit of a street-sleeper. I think most of the time it's mistaken as a Vauxhall Omega (1994-99) because it looks similar at the front. In the two years I've had it, I've only been asked about it three or four times and (usually) people don't know what it is.

“One exception was someone visiting from Australia who walked past it and almost fell over – he knew exactly what it was but just couldn't believe it was here.”

Smith says the Statesman is a car well worth having so far from its home.

“I like unusual and interesting cars. I suppose it’s a liability having this [with no spare parts support in the UK] but I really like it.”

He plans to enter the Statesman in the Enfield Pageant of Motoring in Middlesex next year.

“After the distance it's come and all the TLC it's had, I think it deserves an appreciative audience. It's just one of the great Australian cars.”