Start with what the Holden HJ is: a 4-door sedan / 5-door wagon / 2-door coupé / 2-door coupé utility / 2-door panel van / 2-door cab chassis, built from 1974 to 1976, as the oil crises and the first emissions rules rewired the industry. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Leo Pruneau and Peter Nankervis under Joe Schemansky. 176,202 were built.
The story
The Holden HJ is a series of automobiles which were produced by Holden in Australia from 1974 to 1976. The HJ series was released on 4 October 1974 and was an improved and facelifted version of the superseded Holden HQ series which had been in production since 1971.
Under the skin
The record carries the shape — a 4-door sedan / 5-door wagon / 2-door coupé / 2-door coupé utility / 2-door panel van / 2-door cab chassis — and the layout: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The engine, output and weight have not yet reached the open record, and MotorJury does not guess at them.
Its place in the line
In the Holden line-up the Holden HJ has a clear place: it replaced the Holden HQ; it handed the line to the Holden HX; the factory was Dandenong. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Lamborghini Countach, the Volkswagen Golf, the Jeep Cherokee. Nearby in the Holden catalogue sit the Holden 48-215 and the Holden Adventra.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Holden HJ has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.