Holden 48-215 Review

When you drive Number One, the original 48-215 Holden, it's hard to appreciate the impact it must have had in Australia in the 1950s.

It's very basic, very slow, and about as roomy as a Kia Rio. I've driven it twice now and it's emotionally brilliant but functionally - by 2012 standards - about as impressive as Fred Flintstone's pedal car.

But the first Holden really put Austalians on the road and that means it has to top any list of the most significant cars in our motoring history.

The rest of the best are a strange mix that reflect changing times and needs, from the muscle cars of the 1960s to the breakthrough front-wheel drive Mitsubishi Magna, the first compact Commodore and now the Territory - a Falcon wagon re-wrapped as an SUV - and the latest locally-made compact, the Cruze.

I have not driven a Leyland P76, although it's on my personal Bucket List, but I know it's a car that was well conceived, and should have topped all its rivals on performance and comfort, but was very very very badly built.

A pair of retrospectacles always makes it easier to assess a car, and see how it fits into Australia's motoring history, but the really big breakthroughs are obvious from the start. 

I can still remember clearly my first sight of a Charger, watching Allan Moffat winning Bathurst in a Falcon GTHO, and then driving the VB Commodore as a young motoring journalist.

There have been thousands of test drives over 30 years since then and my personal Aussie favourites include everything from the XD Falcon 351 to the locally-tweaked Nissan R32 GT-R, as well as some obvious Falcons and Commodores. 

But the best car is always the next one, because there are always new technologies and improvements to comfort, quality, fuel economy and safety.

Right now I cannot wait to see what Ford has done with the first four-cylinder Falcon, and if the downsized engine and EcoBoost efficiency improvement are enough to save the homegrown Ford.