A mate of mine bought back around 8 wb caprices all silver and some sle vb and vc commodores, from hong kong in the early nineties. They where all delivered to Avis rent a car in australia when new with the mph/kph speedo and then exported by them to hong kong. We only had to change the speedo to register them back here in australia as they where australian delivered cars to start with. As for price there all over the place at the moment.

looking for an ex ambulance based on the hj/x/z 2 tonner see photo

and collector of all things ambulance police fire and the odd hq to wb parts

Thats interesting about the Avis cars. Holden had an agent in HK called Far East Motors (until Jan 81 at least, when I left) so I guess Avis did a fleet deal with Holden directly rather than through the HK agent. Did you notice anything unusual in the spec aside from the speedo? I first saw a WB on display in HK in Jan 81, and still have the price sheet. It was def sold there though the local agent.

When I was there 78-81 Holden officially sold Kingswood SL 3.3 six-seat wagon, Premier 3.3 T-bar sedan and Statesman DeVille. In around 1979 the VB Commodore arrived, in an optioned up SL 3.3 trim only. The Kingswood and Prem were fairly std spec from memory but the Stato had polycast wheels vinyl roof and a few other bits and pieces as the HK spec model. All were Tuff Kote Dynol rustproofed in HK.

Holdens I saw in that period included a VB SL/E driving up my street only months after introduction in Australia - I had all the Aussie mags so I knew exactly what I was looking at, even though I had no idea what it was doing there; a red VB SL 4.2 manual an Aussie builder had shipped over from Oz while he worked on a project in HK and on a few HJs and HQs I saw the taillights that were frosted white instead of amber for reversing lights, and red for indicator, stop and parking lights. This I guess marked them as export models

The WB Im interested in isnt my fave colour but it looks very straight, is currently registered in Oz but the change to NSW will probably be a bit of a hassle; I expect the wont like the imperial speedo for starters.

I could buy any WB I guess but like a lot of people its a mixture of both my history (having lived in HK as a kid and obsessed with Holdens) and the cars that interests me. Plus I just love the HQ-WB, my favourite series of Holdens. I bought a little run-about only a few months ago and that soaked up a fair bit of time so another change wont go down well with the finance minister. So I may not buy it, but it wont be for want of trying.

Yeah the metric speedo swap was exactly what I was thinking. The imperial speedo has km/h increments on the inner circumference, and I grew up with mph changing to km/h and am pretty familiar with the conversion anyway. This car wouldnt be a daily driver either, so it wouldnt really matter with an mph speedo. Geez Im talking about it as if Ive already bought it... not there yet.

The Australian Commission cars in HK were Holdens, but they were Aust govt fleet purchases and not HK spec cars. So they were Aussie cars, like the HZ Kingswood (not SL) 5.0 column auto with bench seats that I still have the owners manual and (blank) warranty book for, except for one HZ Statesman DeVille that the Commission bought from the local agent cos it was a cheap deal, I think. It became the office car and I remember there was a bit of a stink about it cos a few months later the High Commissioner got his Statesman direct from Oz - but it wasnt as well specified as the HK DeVille office car my dad and others used. I dont remember the HK DeVille having a mph speedo, so I think it might have been a WB export thing.

Hey Terry, yep thats right - and its funny how we talked about the export cars and I then found one. I must get your new book - do you talk much in it about the exports? Cheers, Phil.

a lot if not all the msm forums have closed
re Avis car difference Nil apart from speedo as they were australian delivered
speedo had kmh and mph on face odometer was in kmh


looking for an ex ambulance based on the hj/x/z 2 tonner see photo

and collector of all things ambulance police fire and the odd hq to wb parts

Hi Mr ExportHolden

Sounds to me like chasing a Hong Kong holden is going to be a royal pain, especially if at the end of the day you end up with a car that has travelled around the world, lived in a place that is not very car friendly and has a speedo in mile increments. I know it would be something a little different to the norm, but is this type of thing really what you are after? I have a WB Caprice and i guarantee if it had miles instead of km, i would be looking to change it!

My advice is that if you are after a WB Caprice, dont settle for a DeVille, even if it does have Caprice rims. As Coca Cola said, "You cant beat the real thing"

I looked for about six months, and ended up driving 800km to look at mine before i handed over the cash, but im glad i did because i found one needing minimal money spent to bring it to the condition i was after.

Good clean WBs are out there, just be patient.