√The Holden Gemini, a love letter

How GM’s world car provided some comfort and solace to a young German immigrant in Australia in the 1970s.

Our story last week about the return of the Gemini nameplate to Australian new car dealerships opened up a neural pathway to a time in my youth when the Holden Gemini was seemingly ubiquitous on our roads.

I clearly remember as a German immigrant living in outer suburban Melbourne in the late 1970s and into the early ’80s, the preponderance of what I always saw as Opel Kadetts on our roads. They weren’t Kadetts, of course.

Instead, GM’s local arm Holden, sold and marketed its ‘world car’ in as Australia as the Holden Gemini, a compact, four-cylinder car available as either a sedan or coupe and, in later generations, a station wagon as well as a panel van.

I didn’t know then what I know now – that some cars where global; that sometimes, the same car wore different badges; that Opel in Germany was owned by the same parent company as Holden in Australia, Vauxhall in Britain and Isuzu in Japan.

I didn’t know then that General Motors’ ‘world car’, born out of the oil crises of the 1970s, when the thirst for smaller more efficient cars grew in direct proportion to the public’s diminishing thirst for fuel-guzzling V8s.

All I saw where Opel Kadetts (pictured above) roaming the streets of this new country, a gentle familiarity amongst a sea of big cars from Ford and Holden and Valiant and a host of other car makers I had never seen before.

In the Gemini, I found a degree of comfort as I struggled to adapt to a new country, a new language, a new way of life. The Gemini became, my car-shaped security blanket.

I especially liked the sleek looking coupe with its liftback styling and pleasing proportions. Sure, it looked a little different to the Kadetts I knew from back home, but it was familiar territory for me.

The tribes roaming the streets of suburban Melbourne in those days could be split into two distinct groups.

In one corner of the carpark, there were the muscle car boys, those young and indestructible types who drove beaten up Falcons and Holden with Dragway mags – although Aunger’s Hotwire was a popular choice as well – and cruised the streets of our suburbs making as much noise as their straight sixes and sometimes V8s under the bonnet allowed, packets of smokes firmly held in place by the tight sleeves of their impossibly tight t-shirts.

Sometimes, a Valiant would join the cavalcade of Aussie muscle, but they were derided back then – unless it was a Charger – for not being cool enough, although in more colourful terms that today would not pass the PC sniff test.

In the other camp, the four-cylinder boys, and very rarely girls, drove Datsuns – the 1600 was popular – two-door Corollas, Ford Escorts and yes, Holden Geminis. And like their larger counterparts, they were sometimes shod in Dragway five-spoke mags or for those with a bit more cash to splash, Simmons B45s.

It was this camp that intrigued me most (although I did end up owning a series of Valiant hardtops – V8s of course – later in life), not least of all for the magnetic attraction of what I thought of then, and still do now, as the Opel Kadett.

The two-door looked like it could go much quicker than it actually could. Yet, what it lacked in power and straight-line speed, it made up for with, according to contemporary reports, a sweet handling package.

In 1975, the Holden Gemini became Australia’s best-selling car, while also picking up a ‘Car of the Year’ gong. By the time the early 1980s rolled around, the second-hand market for these pretty little Holdens was awash with one-owner examples, and that made them perfect fodder for the youngsters looking to cut their teeth in their first cars.

I wanted one, desperately, but my sensible parents put me into a well-maintained and sensible Datsun 1200 – the sedan, not the nice little coupe – instead. While I loved that little box on wheels, I always looked longingly at the Gemini when pulled up alongside one at traffic lights.

Like all good things, the Gemini evolved over the years, in the end becoming a shell of its former self. By the time the TE generation rolled around in 1979, Holden had homogenised the styling, so it now looked like a baby Commodore. Worse still, the two-door variant was axed from the line-up.

That corporate philosophy continued through subsequent generations – TF, TG and RB – each successive update mirroring the stylings of Holden’s flagship. Visually at least, the Gemini suffered for trying to look like its big brother in the Holden line-up.

Whether buyers agreed or not, or whether it was the rise of the hatchback (the RB Gemini was only available as a sedan) or simply a matter of the greater choice on offer when it came to the small car landscape, the Gemini trundled on until 1987 before it was killed by Holden, having produced just over 16,000 examples over its three-year production run, a far cry from the nameplate’s peak of 70,567 between 1979-82.

Today, Geminis are increasingly scarce on our roads, more so the early TX, TC and TD generations. Spotting an unmolested example is rare, thanks to a thriving ‘street machine’ scene for Geminis, underscoring just how revered the little Gem- Gem- Gemini remains today.

The soon-to-arrive-in-Oz Chery Gemini Tiggo will no doubt be a far superior car in almost every respect, but it won’t be held in the same esteem as our beloved Holden Gemini, a world car that became a best-seller in Australia.

I never did end up owning a Gemini, my tastes evolving, my budgets for hobby cars increasing. It’s a minor regret in my car-owning history.

But, for this now proudly Australian, in the late ’70s and into the early ’80s, the little Holden Gemini gave my younger self the familiar comfort of the home I’d left behind.

The post The Holden Gemini, a love letter appeared first on Drive.

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