(first posted 8/10/2018) I hope readers of the antipodean persuasion will not be offended when I confess, from the get go, that I’m way out of my depth here. Australian brand, GM alphabet-soup bodies, ‘80s metal – none of these would be one of my majors at the Niedermeyer Institute for Automotive Blogging. But when life throws you a J-Body – especially one you haven’t seen before – you just have to walk the walk until you step up to the plate, grasp the nettle by the horns and give it a whirl up the flagpole.
So here goes. I found this car at the Chaeng Watthana Government Complex, one of those dystopian administrative hellholes that occurs pretty much all countries. It’s a huge M.C. Escher-designed series of office blocks that houses all manner of government agencies, ministries and other mind-numbing bureaucracies. Going there, getting something stamped and getting back home can easily take a whole day. But huge isolated office blocks usually have a lot of parked cars, so I went on a post-prandial CC prowl.
I was not disappointed – there was enough CC fodder out there for a few posts. I was about to retire to the air-conditioned belly of the complex when I glimpsed a familiar shape in the underground section of the car park. The GM genes were evident, but that mug was not one I initially recognized. “Hold on, c’mere… Huh?”
The first series (1982-84) Camira FB – born in dire need of a restyle.
And so I got acquainted with the Holden Camira. I was only very dimly aware of its existence (chiefly thanks to this pair of CC posts by William Stopford) up to that point in my CCareer. Finally, some Aussie metal! And a J-Body wagon, to boot. The J-Bodies more familiar to me were Opels or Vauxhalls, but the Opel Ascona did not come as a wagon. Neither did the Isuzu Aska, the Cadillac Cimarron and the Brazilian Chevrolet Monza. Some J-Bodies are more equal than others.
Car O’ Nine Marques: 1986 Holden Camira JD and a few GM J-Body cousins
There have been many a number of CC posts on the venerable (but not quite likable?) GM J-Body, though we might still be missing a few flavours. Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Holden, Isuzu, Oldsmobile, Opel, Pontiac, Vauxhall – take your pick. There were even a Bertone-styled Daewoo version and a “Toyota Cavalier,” at some point in the ’90s. I won’t bother re-hashing this famous platform’s history or quibble about its places (namely here and here) in the GM Deadly Sins pantheon, but this whole thing started (badly) in 1982 and, in the US, Asia and Europe, lasted well into the ‘90s, which is relatively a long time. But it didn’t last that long in Australia.
This Camira business went through three series and our feature car is from the last of these, the 1987-89 JE series. Esthetically, it was a quick’n’cheap nip’n’tuck of the previous JD series (1984-87), which had pioneered these big (and almost Ford-like) headlamps. These really looked novel to my eyes. Compared to the other ‘80s J-bodies’ squared-off features, this Holden almost has an aero look to it.
The rear is not the most outstanding feature of the design, but it is much more GM – and Lego-like in its boxiness. I even started having memories of the paternal ’86 Pontiac 6000 wagon as I took these tail pictures. Ford in the front, Pontiac out back and Opel in the middle. The Camira was turning more into a chimera by the minute.
The other conundrum was the very presence of this car in Bangkok. How and why did this Holden wander out of its assigned hemisphere? I’ve probably seen half a dozen Holdens in my entire life – a few sightings in the UK, at least one in Burma and this Camira wagon in Thailand. The British ones make some sense and the Burmese one – a rather tired HK Brougham, which I did not catch on camera – may have been imported by the Australian embassy back in the day. But this one?
Who loved this wagon so much that they would take it to Thailand, where GM’s presence is not that great (except for Isuzu pick-ups and trucks), instead of buying an equivalent Mazda or Toyota? No idea. I really doubt these were ever officially imported though. First time I see a Holden here, though I’m just one pair of eyes in a city of millions. Now that I think about it, I reckon it’s also my first J-car in this country. Two birds with one post!
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: Holden Camira – The Short-Lived Australian J-Car, by William Stopford
Curbside Classic: 1982-89 Holden Camira – The Thrill Of Writing About J-Cars, by William Stopford
I laughed out loud with your first sentence: “antipodean persuasion” seems straight out of a Discworld novel.
Mi only contribution here: Opel, Vauxhall and Brazilian Chevrolet J-bodies shared door handles (and most or all of the rest of the body). There were no wagons or 5 door hatchbacks in Brazil. This Camira, I don’t know why, looks more like an Aska wagon.
GMB, (as we use to refer to GM do Brasil) made some studies for a 2 doors Chevrolet Monza Caravan in Brazil, however for some reasons (almost all due to the local economy instability in the 80’s) the project was gone until some prototypes, using the first half of the Brazilian 2 doors hatch and the Holden Camira’s bumbum.
I like the overall style of the Camira and Vauxhall Cavalier SW, however the rear design with separated reverse lights and non-ribbed tail lights is kinda out of place for a non-American J-Car. Chevrolet do Brasil, Daewoo and Holden in almost all the cases tried hard to follow the same family feeling of Opel when creating local products.
I had a Monza pic for that J-car clusterfest pic, but there are just too many Js…
This three-door wagon would have been quite a ’60s throwback. I’m surprised they did a full-size mock-up.
Yes, they’ve made two cars, one could escape from destruction being purchased by an employer as it were a production car (in Brazil it was possible at one time).
About the Camira, I really like this front end, it’s interesting how the J-car Daewoo Espero looks like an evolution of the Camira design style. It also happened with the Daewoo Prince Ace, if you see it near to a VT Commodore, it can pass by a supposed previous generation, even the lens of the tail lights are at the same place and the overall front style looks an evolution in the Holden model. It seems all of them came from the same mind!
The engines for those Daewoo were built by GMH in Australia more than just the engine made its way there then the completed cars came back.
Vauxhall imported panels from Holden to produce a Cavalier estate, the most notable feature being that the centre part of the rear bumper rose up with the tailgate giving very good access to the floor space. From the side the rear looks very like the US version except for that thicker, ribbed C pillar, but that had a conventional rear tailgate.
The front styling changed to mirror the new facelifted for 87 VL Commodore so they had a family resemblance, I had an identical model as an el cheapo hired car for a week ensuring that I’d never buy one, The Aska version was sold inNew Zealand and lacked any of the praised roadholding of the previous Australian model, my father clean swapped his 1600cc 83 Camira for a 2.0 Aska Camira and found its shortcomings by going ene for end down a 60ft bank, solidly made cars though he was unhurt but the car was toast. Ant Camira is a very rare car in NZ nowdays good find.
The Aska version was sold inNew Zealand and lacked any of the praised roadholding of the previous Australian model.
So given that they’re fundamentally identical, how would one account for the diversity of opinion as regards certain J-cars vs others? What I have read on this site and elsewhere about the US-built models doesn’t chime with the reputation of the Opel or Vauxhall models.
Was it because of localized chassis / suspension / transmission / engine tweaks? Emissions controls? Local parts suppliers? Production methods? All or some combination of the above, plus something else?
(Not putting you on the spot, Bryce… this question is addressed to CC in general and to connoisseurs of the J in particular).
It seems the Holden and Isuzu versions also had their weak points — from what you say and from everything I’ve read elsewhere, the Isuzu was a pretty poor product (quality control issues?) and according to Wikipedia, only 108,000 units were made from 1983 to 1989. That’s 50,000 less than the Holden, but with a much bigger domestic market.
So the Aska was probably the biggest big J-bomb. There must be a couple left in Bangkok. They’re called Isuzu JJ here, I think. Hope I find one…
From what I can understand the suspension tune or tyres didnt suit our road conditions, the swap was financially prudent my dad changed cars regularly always at a profit and his insurance pay out after he totalled the Aska Camira was for a 20k car not the 13k car he swapped straight for it, plus his company gave him the new Commodore he’d ordered as a redundancy package so he actually did ok out of his misadventure, The Aska/Camira on the Wiki page is my dads actual car. We arent the only ones who surf the cohort!
I have a memory, T87, that there were different suspensions in different cars. The Camira had a u-shaped twist beam axle of some sort, which could be set up for some toe-out under load, thus a bit of rear-steering. I don’t think the US or Izuzu J’s had this (but I may be well wrong).The Camira steering was a local design, a variation of many that came along to avoid fitting power steering to cars, called Bishop variable ratio (was meant to be light yet accurate), which worked moderately well. There was also a lot of development work here by a GM outpost that was by then consistently dedicated to making good handling cars, under the influence of a previous German suspension boss, Peter Hanenberger (later to be boss of Holden then Opel itself). Japanese cars of the time, designed for the billiard-table roads there, often had very different shock and spring settings to those of outside markets. A Japanese-market “good handling” car often enough meant fairly hard springing but bad damping.
In total, I recall that (steering apart) the Camira had a set-up very close to the Ascona, which was well-respected in Europe.
Between all these variables, the poor handling of the Aska Bryce describes might better be understood.
Thank you very much for all this info, Justy & Bryce!
Persuasive and detailed, in the best Antipodean tradition.
Speaking from a U.S. perspective, what always catches my eye about J-bodies from elsewhere in the world is the doors and side windows. Even if the rest of the car looks somewhat different, that center section of the body almost always bears a family resemblance.
From past discussion here on CC, the rear part of the Camira wagons (the actual “wagon” part) is not the same as the American J-body wagons, even though it doesn’t look all that different from the outside. The Camira uses a homegrown Holden design, with a lower load floor. Vauxhall’s wagons were adapted from the Holden design.
Even though the design is only slightly altered from the US J-car wagons, it makes a huge difference. From the rear angles, I really wouldn’t have pegged this as a J-car at all — to me the combination of the lower floor and (what appears to be) larger glass area makes the car seem bigger than a Cavalier — at least in pictures.
Even though the design is only slightly altered from the US J-car wagons, it makes a huge difference.
So true. As I said before, J wagons were rare where I grew up, so the difference between the Holden / Vauxhall J wagon and the US-brand variants was not something I noticed on the spot. I doubtless saw many US-made ones when I lived there as a boy from 1987 to 1990, but hardly any since then.
And yet, the large glass area is something that struck me too, even as I approached the car. I remembered enough of the American wagons to know this was quite different. It’s funny how a car you saw everyday when you were 10 years old stays with you for decades.
Curious find. Never had a soft spot for the Camira, and this gen looked sort of cross-eyed trying to fit the VL face on a much narrower body.
What are the odds? I love the look of this wagon, even the rims! Thanks for the shoutout, by the way. Oddly, I actually seem to see more Camiras around than I do the theoretically more reliable, Mazda-626 based Ford Telstar of the same era. Of course, they tend to be the later JD and JE series which had some of the Camira’s issues ironed out.
I happened to buy an intriguing Camira-related item a few months ago… The website Redbubble, which lets you share your designs and have them printed on shirts and the like, had a shirt someone created using an ’82 publicity photo for the Camira. Gotta love the ’80s typeface!
Very cool shirt! That ’80s futurist script is a nightmare to read in thumbnail size, though. Almost looks like Thai.
What an unexpected find in Thailand! They were sold new here, but I haven’t seen one in probably years! With the tints, aftermarket wheels and super-shiny paint, someone loves that wagon; good on them.
Oh dear me. The antipodean persuasion involved with these was convincing owners not to nuke GM. They were not kind to those who purchased them.
They smoked, they leaked, the firewalls rusted, they had unuseable gearbags or undriveably slow autos, the dashboards would macerate and fly out through the vents if the fan was put on high (alright, maybe not, but they sure were self-disassembling), the body was so, er, athletic n’ flexible the interior light would flicker over big bumps (true!), the steering knuckles failed causing accidents and that very clever Citroen GS tailgate invented right here was brilliant until you drove at highways speeds in the rain and found it sucked water into the first two inches of carpet.
All this was if you got a good one. The bad ones weren’t nice at all.
However, the same-sized competition then was so dreary that these seemed flash on a test drive. They handled excellently, rode well, had good seats, were roomy, and quiet. (Often very quiet indeed, but I’ve been there). They made a great cheap second-hander, in fact. I may have breifly owned one, used it mainly in the country where it could be wound up to good speeds without backing off (thus avoiding the Gear Lottery) and quite liked it, or I may not. I admit nothing.
The 2.0 litre injected JE here was respectably quick and still handled well, though suffered other maladies as they aged. I like the styling and the flat-roof breadvan look, though I liked the style of the original JB best. The interim JD, with Dame Edna spectacles and no grill, was universally referred to by your enlightened Antipodeans as the “Chinese Camira”, often more, um, earthily. (To sort-of explain, the country had only got rid the White Australia Policy – which was as bad as it sounds – 16 years prior to the release of this model. We’ve come a long way since).
These vehicles are simply never seen here any more, and this would be quite the find, albeit a PTSD-inducing shock for any former owners. Most unusual catch, Mr Tatra. Even if I do suspect it’s really just one Mr Stopfords Underground This Week In Brisbane shots with some mocked-up Thai plates. (I won’t tell).
Why some poor Thai soul has chosen to love and cherish a remnant of a pestilence long since eradicated from the roads of its homeland is a mystery that passeth understanding, and my thoughts are with them.
They will recover, and survive. Many thousands of the formerly-afflicted here, now all driving Toyotas, are testament to that.
I mean, Tatra and I could have photoshopped this… I don’t see anything in the background that you wouldn’t also see in a Brisbane car park (except for maybe that black sedan I can’t make out by the entrance).
You sum these up well, Justy. It was a bit of a grim choice at this price point: a fun-to-drive Camira that rattled itself to pieces or a dreary, deathly dull Corona or Bluebird that might sadly last forever…
Fun to drive? A mate of mine killed three cars one year commuting Bathurst to Pitt Town return five days a week one of them was a JE Camira automatic which came to a smoking stop on mt victoria, the weekly 1000km trek had finally got the better of it, he was back to a $400 VB Commodore six the following day, Owen hated that Camira it wasnt good of fuel good to drive or particularly comfortable to ride in, he would turn up in the mornings and do stretching routine to ease his bones after his 200+ trip.
Almost but not quite a Cavalier. It amazes me that GM made so many variations of the same basic platform sold worldwide. This must have cost a fortune! Is this one reason why GM went down the tubes a few short years back?
Hello from Thailand, There’re quite a lot of GM J-car here. Opel Ascona, Isuzu Aska. especially the Camira. It’s has a good bargain compare to Japanese in 80’s.
Just to add to what others have said, these cars weren’t very long-lived in Australia, as a harsh environment doesn’t go well with poor build quality. And these never seemed to be as well put-together as the Commodores which pretty much defined Holden. Or, indeed, as well engineered.
Holden expected great things of the Camira, but it was always an ‘also-ran’ in sales. Aussies expected a 2.0 in this size car, but the initial JB was only a 1.6 which needed to be revved to an un-Australian degree to access the power. We’re used to torque; lack of same gave the impression the Camira was gutless. The 1.8 was much better, until our antipollution laws kicked in and GMH did a nasty detune for compliance which pretty much castrated the poor thing; Wheels headed its roadtest “From Slingshot to Slug”. With the 2.0 in this JE it finally got the engine it should’ve had all along, but by now the Camira had such a poor reputation that nobody cared.
And Holden replaced it with a rebadged Camry, and buyers still didn’t care. The bloom was well and truly gone from the rose, not that the Camira was ever a rose. More of a self-inflicted thorn in Holden’s side.
When I returned to college in the late eighties, a fellow student had a JB Camira wagon. I remember being surprised to see it. It would have been four years old at most, but JBs were already a rarity in eastern suburban Melbourne.