This national car with 6.2L V8 engine was cornered by Japanese cars and SUVs.

Recently, in order to satisfy my little feelings, I spent a lot of money to buy a 6.2L? V8 engine car, but this car can't go on the road, not because it can't meet China's 6 emissions, but because it is a "car model".

Of course, I know that the car model you want to see is definitely not this 1: 18 kid, but I still want to take this opportunity to say why this brand that is not "glorious" and has been declared dead has indelible feelings for me.

My two dream lovers

Maybe you haven't seen what kind of car this is. It's holden, known as the Australian cannon. High-performance version of Brigadier Horton series -SSV? Red line.

Although Australia's recent little moves towards us make people feel disgusted with this "pseudo-Western country", as a person who has lived and studied in Australia for some time, I have to admit that their car culture is really enough to make any domestic car fans envy, and it is precisely because of the influence at that time that I decided to return to China to join the car media and contribute to the domestic car culture.

Speaking of their car culture, Horton brand is the best representative of Australian cars, in addition to attracting a large number of JDM players because they are both right-handed with Japan. This brand, which belongs to General Motors Group, will not only sell some general brand products locally, but more importantly, they will also produce "car brands" with local characteristics and "local guns" such as the above car models.

Horton mai Rui Bao

Unique "car card"

These "car" models have the front of a car and the back of a pickup truck. More importantly, their performance is often abnormal, such as the 6.2L mentioned above. The V8 engine seems to be the standard of this wonderful car. Although it took me several years to understand the meaning of this kind of car, just as I don't understand why they are targeting us everywhere now, I have to say that this kind of car, which is called Ute by the locals, is indeed a masterpiece of Australian automobile culture and a well-deserved "national car" in Australia.

My Horton feelings

Maybe now is really not a good time to express my feelings. I am ready to be sprayed, but as I mentioned earlier, this Australian brand, or Horton Commodore, still has special significance to me.

As a country on wheels, if there is no car in Australia, people will really die. In order to facilitate daily travel, not to be trampled to death by kangaroos or eaten by pythons when walking at night, I planned to buy a car when I first arrived in Australia. Just as we always buy local specialties when traveling, I chose a Horton Commodore without hesitation, but because I am not a rich second generation, I am too embarrassed to ask for money from my family, so I didn't buy my sun-dried car model. Two? Brigadier general, I just bought a brigadier general with several thousand Australian dollars. It was produced in 2004 and has already run 260,000 kilometers. The chassis code is VZ.

This is it.

Attractive big V6.

Although it's not a high-performance version of V8, V6 is attractive enough for me, but I hung up the battery in the shop the day I picked up the car, as if God was warning me that the old car was really not so easy to handle, but this episode was naturally ignored by me under the excitement of picking up the car.

N times of collapse, high-speed panic

Because I am introverted, I don't like taking pictures of my car on the road. After all, it is not a good car, so the clearest photos about this car were taken when it was lying in its nest.

As a car with American and Australian ancestry, it has many problems when it gets old. For example, it once failed in the basement of Melbourne's most prosperous shopping center because of the starter failure, and it also tried to mistake the owner for a car thief because of the mistake of the anti-theft system, leaving the friend who borrowed my car in the parking lot of the supermarket. I also tried that the power suddenly went out on the expressway and then returned to normal, which made me break out in a cold sweat.

At the same time, the two Japanese cars I helped my classmates find-a fifth-generation Toyota Camry in 2003 and an eighth-generation Honda Accord in 2008-have never lost any chains. Stop saying that Cantonese people are superstitious about Japanese people ... It's all from experience.

However, despite all the problems, as the first car registered in my name in my life, this grumpy "classic car" is still the only partner I can rely on. Because I have to drive to and from school every day and have nothing to do, I directly drive to the city center to buy a French fries, or drag a group of classmates to fly hundreds of kilometers late at night to see a meteor on a whim. The mileage of this car will soon exceed 300,000 kilometers.

Although unlike those rich second-generation people who can soak in bars and pick them up on Mercedes-Benz every day, a used car with thousands of dollars can also bring a lot of happiness.

Youth has gone with a car?

Just as my youth has gone, the brand Horton has gone from bad to worse during my stay in Australia. Due to poor sales, Horton officially closed the last production line in Australia in 20 17. Since then, as an Australian brand, Horton no longer has "domestic cars". Only those OEM cars of General Motors and even my favorite Commodore series have become OEM versions of Buick Regal.

That's not all. Just earlier this year, GM officially announced that it would directly close the Horton brand-Horton didn't even have a chance to sell branded cars in his own country.

In the final analysis, the decline of Horton brand has three major drivers: first, Japanese and Korean brands have successfully occupied the local mainstream market; Second, the rise of SUV has led to the decline of medium and large cars; Third, the wonderful policies of the Australian government.

Needless to say, Japanese brands headed by Toyota are the hottest car manufacturers in China, the United States and Australia. At that time, with an unprecedented seven-year vehicle warranty, Korean companies directly caught all Australian manufacturers off guard and successfully gained a foothold in the local market, together with Japanese companies and Horton.

However, the rise of SUV and Australia's tariff policy are the most direct reasons for Horton's death: because the tariff on imported cars entering Australia is extremely low or even zero, most brands choose to transfer the whole vehicle production line from Australia to Southeast Asia, where the labor force is cheaper, so the locally produced Horton models immediately lose their price advantage.

At the same time, because people are keen to buy SUVs with better passability and more space, the medium and large-sized cars of various brands headed by Commodore are in a downturn in Australia, and the sales volume is not enough to support their continuous upgrading, so this classic model can only be discontinued.

The last real brigadier general.

What a pity! As a former "car owner", I must feel pity, but is it pitiful? Not pitiful, because it is the best abbreviation of Australian manufacturing recession. In the case that the tuition fees of overseas students and the minerals left by their ancestors can support a country, this developed country has no intention of upward development, but has "indulged in depravity" and even acted as a "hatchet man" for a country now (sorry, I'm afraid a more appropriate word can't be tried).

Can feelings still land?

Let's not talk about things that make people angry, but say something interesting.

For me who is already in China, it is not impossible to let this car fall in love now. I have carefully considered three options:

1. Buy a Buick Boulevard or Royaum to change the bid. In Horton's heyday, in order to open the China market, GM once labeled Horton's Stateman model as Buick and imported it to China market, and this car was Buick's domain and later boulevard.

Did you see the real the Monkey King?

However, although I have feelings, I have experienced "orthodox Australian quality" and it takes a little courage to buy an old Australian car. Although the price of used cars on the avenue is generally low now, the maintenance cost in the later period is absolutely indispensable.

2. Buy a rich man in cash and change the bid. As I mentioned earlier, at the end of Horton's life, our Regal was sold under the brand name of Horton Commodore for a period of time, so it is not an "alternative modification" to buy a Regal and put on a full set of Horton logos. Anyway, the price of the new Regal is quite beautiful now.

But on second thought, this regal is not strictly orthodox Horton, so what if I change the bid? According to the concept of China people, "ancestral temples/graves are forbidden", so I also rejected this plan.

3, buy a car model, even if you have it. Yes, in the end, I chose this most economical scheme. After all, for a poor "migrant worker", it is a bit hard to raise a used car with many problems or a brand-new B-class car.

What's more, this kind of car model with full details has a much lower cost of ownership than those "car models" who can move and pose at the auto show.

Just like this circle of friends I posted-"Even if you round it up", there are too many compromises in the adult world. After all, feelings can't be eaten, so let it go and bury it in your heart forever.

Writing an article? /? Ethan

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.