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Three car names unique to Australia for decades have been quietly axed as sale numbers continue to plunge
- The Holden Commodore wasn’t the only uniquely Australian car model moniker
- The last Holden was sold in December with General Motors axing brand in 2021
- The Toyota Tarago, named after a small NSW town, is also unique to Australia
- So is the Subaru Liberty, renamed after war veterans objected to Legacy name
Three car names unique to Australia have quietly been axed as sales slowed to a trickle in 2021.
The classic Holden Commodore, the obscurely named Toyota Tarago people-mover and the Subaru Liberty – which was pressured into a name change – have all been consigned to history.
The once commonplace Commodore has disappeared from showrooms, with the last new Commodore having been sold in December, making 2021 the first year without sales of the once-popular sedan since 1978.
General Motors is liquidating the Holden brand in 2021, ending a badge heritage dating back to November 1948 when the first Australian-made Holden 48-215 rolled off the production line at Fisherman’s Bend in Melbourne.
While Holden was also sold in New Zealand, there were Japanese cars with names that only bizarrely existed in Australia.
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Three car names unique to Australia have quietly been axed with a trickle of sales in 2021. The last brand-new Holden Commodore was sold in December with none sold at all this year for the first time since the large family car debuted in 1978
The Toyota Tarago was the Australian name for the Toyota TownAce van and later the Toyota Previa people mover.
The seven-seater van with a sliding door on the left and an engine under the front seats was named after a small New South Wales town near Lake George, an hour’s drive north of Canberra.
So unique was the Tarago name, dating back to 1983, that it didn’t exist even in New Zealand or neighbouring Papua New Guinea.
Toyota in 2019 announced the Tarago would be discontinued and replaced in the model line-up by the Granvia, a larger luxury people mover based on the HiAce commercial van.
Despite that, two new Taragos were sold in February 2021 – exactly twice the number of Volkswagen Caravelles leaving showrooms last month – as dealers did their best to clear remaining stock.
The Subaru Liberty name, dating back to 1989, was also an Australia-only anomaly.
The Toyota Tarago was the Australian name for the Toyota TownAce van and later the Toyota Previa people mover. The Tarago model name, dating back to 1983, was so unique it didn’t even exist in New Zealand or neighbouring Papua New Guinea
In every other market, the medium-sized sedan and wagon was sold as the Subaru Legacy.
But the Returned and Services League (RSL) representing war veterans, objected because Legacy was also the name of a well-known Australian charity raising money for former soldiers.
They were not about to cede the rights to that name to a car company whose parent Fuji Heavy Industries manufactured the planes the Japanese had deployed in February 1942 to bomb Darwin.
Subaru’s corporate roots could be traced back to the Nakajima Aircraft Company.
The Subaru Liberty name, dating back to 1989, was also an Australia-only anomaly. In every other market, the medium-sized sedan and wagon has been sold as the Subaru Legacy
Keen to avoid controversy, during an era of 45 per cent car import tariffs, Subaru was happy to comply.
In September 2020, Subaru announced it would stop selling the Liberty in Australia, with medium-sized cars finding few buyers in a market dominated by SUVs.
Last month, 37 Subaru Liberties were sold, compared with 1,001 fully-imported Toyota Camrys and 101 Mazda6s.
Subaru however will continue selling the Liberty-based Outback – itself a global model name since 1994 inspired by the Australian term for very remote arid areas.
During the late 1990s, Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan even featured in American market TV commercials for Subaru Outback to market its Australian bush persona.
In February 2021, 608 Outbacks were sold, Australia’s third most popular large SUV under $70,000 in a crowded market.
But the RSL, the Returned and Services League representing war veterans, objected on the grounds Subaru’s parent company Fuji Heavy Industries manufactured the planes the Japanese had deployed in February 1942 to bomb Darwin
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