<VV> Fwd: Holden sales in Japan; Dave Newell responds

[David Newell]

Hi Seth,
Thanks for the Japanese metric date and your memories of Corvairs overseas. Yep, you sure have been around :o) I wish you'd gotten a photo of that late model Navy sedan!

You're absolutely right about GM not having facilities in Japan during the Corvair days. Taiyo, Yanase & Seibu were distributors who had deals with GM's Foreign Distributors Division (FDD). FDD handled exports to all countries in which GM didn't have their own assembly plant or a GM owned distributor. Yanase was also the authorized distributor in Japan for VW and Mercedes in the '60s. 

FDD also operated a program through which US servicemen could purchase cars, have them delivered anywhere in the world and shipped home. Those cars were US spec. The local GM distributors and plants usually got a kickback and sometimes ran ads on their own soliciting sales to US personnel, like GM Continental did when Germany was added to their territory in 1963. But according to the owner of the Corvair with the Taiyo ID plate, that car was purchased used in Japan by a serviceman who had it shipped home by Uncle Sam. 

FDD was a division of GMOO (GM Overseas Operations: say Guh-MOO). GMOO administered all the GM operated assembly plants and GM-owned distributors directly. Before WWII there was a GM Japan and in 2002 a new GM Japan completely took over import and distribution from Yanase, which had long before become the sole GM distributor in Japan.

Export options were available to all GM plants and distributors, whether GM owned or not, as RPOs (Regular Production Options). Those options included the metric speedos, low compression engines, headlight options to meet local requirements, export suspension etc.)  

Oh, and thanks again for that GM Continental ID plate...I still have it on display!

Dave
 
 From: Sethracer <Sethracer at aol.com>
 
 To: wrsssatty <wrsssatty at aol.com>; virtualvairs
 <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
 
 Sent: Thu, Aug 21, 2014 12:26 am
 
 Subject: Re: <VV> Holden sales in Japan; Dave Newell
 responds
 
Japan went Metric in 1924 - All home market cars had
 Metric speedos. My 
 point was not that there were no imports into Japan. My
 point was that GM didn't 
 import cars. Japanese companies did. I guess those companies
 (like 
 Taiyo) made a business of bringing in cars from around
 the world. It 
 appears that the "Japanese tag" car was one of
 those. My second guess is that a 
 serviceman buying a car for delivery would get an American
 car shipped over (but 
 that is just a guess.) in the possibility that the car might
 be shipped 
 home. In may depend on the deal that GM had with Taiyo!
 
 
 
  
 
 
 I saw three Corvairs in Belgium in 1976. At least two
 of the three had 
 Metric Speedos. I sent home a 67 Corvair Monza Metric
 Speedo - It read 
 from 0-200KPH, and I looked at an early 4-door, parked
 behind a Bus company 
 repair facility, the speedo read 0 to 160 KPH. The
 third Corvair was 
 an early 4-door that was turning onto the Belgian Freeway as
 I was turning off. 
 There was no way to catch it. (Speedometer unknown). I
 visited the factory in 
 Antwerp where the Corvair CKD kits were assembled. In 1976,
 they were building 
 various Chevette equivalents for Opel and Vauxhall.
 Nobody knew anything 
 about the Corvairs that were built there. I sent the VIN
 plate for the 67 to 
 Dave Newell. He has it in his collection. 
 
 
  
 
 
 One other strange note. In october, 1969, I saw a
 US Navy painted 
 (dark blue, small white letters on the front door)
 late-model 4-door 
 Corvair parked in front of the USO facility in
 Saigon, Vietnam. (Yeah 
 - I've been around.) 
 
 
  
 
 
 - Seth Emerson  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 In a message dated 8/20/2014 4:22:30 P.M. Pacific
 Daylight Time, 
 virtualvairs at corvair.org
 writes:
 
 From 
   Dave Newell:
 
 
 
 
 
 <will send pix of Japanese Holden ads & 
   
 
 literature 61-64 tonight. Holden had begun exports in the
 Pacific rim area 
   in 
 
 the late 1950s (give me time and I can probably find the
 dates & 
   locations). I 
 
 believe by '64 they had even shipped some cars to India.
 The 
   plate on this '64 
 
 definitely states Taiyo as being Chevrolet & Holden 
   distributors. 
 
 
 
 That's great...thanks to Carl for the metric answer. I 
   hadn't researched it and 
 
 was wondering if cars sold there had metric 
   speedos that early. But most of the 
 
 specs in Japanese Chevy brochures were 
   always in metric...the '64 Vair was 
 
 listed at 2688 
   cc.
 
 
 
 Dave>
 
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