Australian 1965 Frigidaire Deluxe Dishwasher

[jetcone]

What a nice machine !!

Wow we always love our solenoid drive machines the best !!

 

Chris , thanks for the explanation of Dandenong, I would guess they produced the washers there too?? 
I remember a big parts store in the center of Adelaide back in the 80's. All Frigidaire spares in the window. I found out GM had an interesting relationship with Holden. GM would supply parts and GM had to engineer improvements in their cars if Holden came up with something better. For cars that was Disc brakes, Holden had them before us and then GM introduced them on our domestic cars by agreement. 

 

 

 

[bajaespuma]

Oh yeah the speckled blue porcelain.

Am I right in thinking that the circular depression in the door is the detergent dispenser? So does that mean that the linear depression next to it is the rinse agent dispenser????

 

[mit634]

Thanks All !

@bajaespuma - the circular depression is the detergent dispenser, although it doesn't really dispense. It's just a place to put it before closing the door. This machine does not have a rinse aid dispenser.

 

[panthera]

So cool sounding!

I have always been fascinated by how little these machines have changed through the years. Modern ones made in the US use much less water and only in very recent years have the top of the line models begun to clean (in several hour cycles) half as well as the BOL GE/Hotpoint/Magic Chef models of the mid-80s did in less than an hour.

 

One reason GM wanted to hang on to German Opel during their bankruptcy was because Opel, like Holden, was a gigantic source of much of their more advanced technology.

 

Americans are so busy telling themselves they lead the world in everything they have trouble believing anyone else might be doing things better. GM, despite their many, many, many failings, at least has the sense to exploit better technologies when their 'foreign' holdings offer them.

 

[appnut]

Tim, thank you for providing us with a video. Yes, these dishwashers have a very soothing, calming sound when they're going through the spray/circulation portion of each cycle. Every family I know who had a Frigidaire spin tube dishwasher had the drained water eing sent through the side port of the garbage disposal. This was the only dishwasher that expelled water with such intense force that the water would bubble up to the top of the disposal by the time the drained water stopped. I knew it had to have produced a very forceful wash spray. I used to fantasize that Frigidaire would some how manage to simply ad a revolving spray arm at the bottom still maintain the rest of the washing action. Always thought it would have been a powerhouse of a dishwasher with unlimited loading flexibility.

 

[panthera]

Bob,

It's a bit like the bottom wash-arm only KitchenAids - you look at them and ask yourself how on earth they couldn't see the need for a top sprayer?

 

Or the first Frigidaire (Electrolux) dishwashers which had a little ball designed to gunk up within two washcycles and stop working, thus making an otherwise really clever system worse than useless.

 

Or...well, sometimes I think there is a level of middle-management involved who are the epitome of the Peter Principle.

 

[Chetlaham]

Wonderful Find!

So lucky!

 

I'd love to try this machine out on our 60 cycle system. I always celebrate anything made for 240 that comes my way. 

 

 

@panthera: I agree, those Potscrubbers knew how to clean in way less time. 

 

 

 

[vacerator]

Very nostalgic,

and a sensible design. We miss Holden here too believe it or not. They built that, and Flair ranges (cookers), ovens. Fridges too. Dandenong was a large plant. The rail transit stop was called General Motors. There is a Holden parts distrubution hub there now, as well as a logistics hauler co., and next door a Toyota parts wharehouse, and a heavy truck one, either Izuzu, or other. So was Fishermans Bend, in the Melbourne harbor area. The street is/was named Caprice avenue along the Holden main offices. Toyota was also there, and earlier AAM, which built ckd AMC cars. Then there was the Woodville plant in Sydney, which built Holden HQ through HZ cars. It's now a Westfield shopping mall. I'll have to look up whats been done with the Elizabeth South Australia plant which bult the final Commodore, Pontiac G8's, and
bow tie SS., then the Cruze.
Our police force still has some Holden badged Chevy Caprice's in it's fleet. After Ford dicontinued the Crown Vic interceptors, the fwd Explorers were frying front wheel hubs, cv joints, and turbo's left and right. So they were glad to get a rear drive car. I still see some Chevrolet SS's too, also V8 h.o. Commodore's rebadged. Some owners have even added Holden emblems. If they are military personell, they can get them, and many other things we can't. One had a U.S. Army served license plate.
Of course the rear driven American Caprice V8 interceptor ended production in 1996. The state troopers had many. Now Chargers, Challengers mainly, or Chevrolet Tahoe trucks, and a few Camaro's and Mustangs.
The local police also have a few new F 150 trucks unmarked. The Exploeres have mainly been shifted to light duty patrol work.

 

[vacerator]

I meant the Pagewood

plant is a mall now. Woodville was the first plant. It built Chevrolet, Pontiac, and some Olds ckd cars, then the first Holden 48/15 FE. which was conceptualized as a compact Buick.

 

[gizmo]

vacerator

Interesting about some folks in the USA putting Holden and Commodore badges on their Chevrolet and Pontiac versions of the Commodore. The opposite is quite common here - more commonly putting Chevrolet badges on a Holden Commodore, or occasionally the Pontiac G8 nose on a Commodore. I have even seen a couple of Holden Commodore Utes (Think El Camino) with the Pontiac front.

I don't think the Pontiac nose was ever officially sold on a Holden here, though it might have been used on a special edition "boy racer" Commodore. They would have a bit of spare inventory of Pontiac snouts after the plug was pulled on Pontiac so suddenly, it would have been a very Australian thing to do to make a "Special Edition" Commodore to use up the left over parts.

Ford did it in the 1970s. The Falcon XB Coupe (the basis of Mad Max's car) sold OK but tastes changed suddenly and the facelifted XC version stopped selling overnight. Ford Australia copied a strategy used in the USA (I think it was on Mustang IIs) and made a Falcon Cobra "Limited Edition" with white paintwork with fat blue stripes down the bonnet (hood), roof and boot (trunk). The Llmited Edition" run was just enough to use up the last of the coupe body shells. No more Falcon Coupes after that. They sold out in no time and are worth a fortune today.

just found the Pontiac nose was indeed used on a Special Commodore Ute. Link below.

Holden Commodore Ute SS V-Series Special Edition Car Review

The Holden Commodore Ute – Australian motoring icon and a favourite with tradies, recreationalists and those on the land. With the Holden Commodore Ute SS V-Series Special Edition, you can add performance car enthusiasts to the list. With a front end borrowed from GM brand Pontiac and in-your...

www.carshowroom.com.au

 

[vacerator]

Gizmo,

yeah, it's cool looking too! The first Holden sourced Pontiac was the GTO of the generation before the final one, your Monaro. I think Holden used Pontiac styling cues as early as the HQ Satesman's split grille. Vauxhall did as well on the Viva.
The Elcamino was always larger than your utes. In 1960, it was a full size car, based on the Impala. None for '61 through '63. It was re introduced for 1964 as a mid size Chevelle based car, and remained such until it's demise in 1985. When every other GM A body car was downsized in 1978, it grew in wheelbase from 112 to 118 inches, while sharing the same width as the rest. There was no point in having a car based truck with a 108 inch wheelbase when buyers had a choice of a short box full size 1/2 ton truck. The A specials, Monte Carlo, and Grand Prix went from a 116 inche to a 108 inch wheelbase. Full size B body cars were on a 116 inch w.b. from 1977. your HQ through HZ cars had more in common with our Nova rear drive X body cars of the 70's. Those were compact cars here. Unibody with a front sub preimeter frame. The A bodies retained a full perimeter frame.
It seems whatever GM did well, they managed to ruin. The bean counters faults no doubt. It upset John Z Delorean so that he left GM after they revealed the 1980 fwd X car program. The Olds Cutlass was our best selling car in 1976 period, not a Honda. I think taht was also Holden's highest unit production run.
So today Opel survives under ownership of the Puegot Citroen group. At least you still have the new Insignia based Commodore from Russelsheim design and engineering. We have it here as the Buick Regal. Even the touring wagon.

 

[gizmo]

At least you still have the new Insignia based Commodore

Not any more.

GM have shut down Holden altogether. The Holden brand is now dead.

They are still selling off the last few cars.

Their future in Australia is as "GM Special Vehicles" where they will sell a really tiny selection of US GM models. I understand it will start with just Silverado, later Camaro and maybe Corvette, plus a Cadillac of some sort. At least some will be imported Left Hand Drive and be converted by an independent licensed contractor to RHD. Dealers are furious and I understand they are getting a class action together to sue GM. They say GM convinced them to invest millions to upgrade their dealerships only to have their supply of cars stopped at very short notice.

Such a shame. GM made bad decision after bad decision here.

the Opel-based smaller Holdens were popular as they were appealing to look at and lovely to drive, but some proved unreliable and they developed a terrible reputation. Though some owners loved them - my partner had a 1998 Holden Barina SB, the local badged version of the Opel Corsa B, made in Spain, you got a good one or a dud, it was a lottery. We got a great one, had it 280000 km + and it was like new when we traded it in, only replaced to get better safety gear. It was so cute you could kiss it.

Holden replaced them with Daewoo-sourced junk but still badged as Holden Barina. The beginning of the downfall IMHO. All the Korean sourced Holdens were like stepping back 10 years from the Opel sourced cars they replaced and were even less reliable.

 

I am a big Peugeot / Citroen / Renault fan and I would have liked to see Peugeots wearing Holden badges but I doubt if the rest of Australia agrees with me. People stayed away from the Opel Insignia "Commodore" in droves ("It isn't a proper Commodore, just a European front drive 4 cylinder with Commodore badges, how dumb do Holden think we are?"... etc) so I imagine if they came from Peugeot they would be shunned even more. (Though Peugeot have a long history in Australia, they have always been a niche product.)

Articles

 

[vacerator]

Wow Gizmo!

I drive a Ford Edge awd V6. If I were going to drive a sedan again, it would be european. Ford doesn't even sell one here anymore. Only car is the Mustang. There are some leftover Fusions (Mondeo) still at dealers. The Fiesta, then Foucus was cancelled first.
I knew all the Aussie auto plants closed when Canberra cancelled the govt. subsidies, but I didn't know Holden dealers were also going defunct. I thought they would continue selling a Commodore from Asia, a Malibu, an Equinox from Canada, and trucks. The Cruze plant in Ohio also closed. It is now from Mexico. The Buick Encore Daewoo based small suv is assembled in Flint. The Vision suv is from China.
Has Ford done the same marketing wise? Toyota, Mitsubishi, etc?
The GM Oshawa Ontario plant has also closed. Only Ingersol still open for the Equinox, and GMC Terrain suv's. The Silverado and GMC Sierra are assembled in Fort Wayne Indiana, and Arlington Texas, along with the large suv's, the Chevrolet swb. Tahoe, lwb. Suburban, GMC Yukon swb., xl, and Cadillac Escalade swb., and xl.
Oh, there was GMC badged Elcamino in the 1980's, the Cabilero.

 

[jamiel]

That was the original plan with the 2016 product plan to stop assembling in AU and bring in the Commodore from Germany, the Cruze from Korea or Thailand, the Acadia from Spring Hill, the Equinox from CAMI (or Mexico) and the pickup trucks from Thailand...then the plan to sell Opel made the FWD Commodore non-viable long term; but they still had hope that they could short term the Commodore and then do a de-contented CT6 as the "new Commodore". Then the Commodore/Insignia bombed in the AU market (did much better in NZ, actually), and the Equinox didn't appeal at all (these were expected to be the two volume sellers). With these two market failures, they entered a RHD death spin (where without UK business volume, without a South Africa plant, with essentially no Japan market, and a very underutilized Thailand plant the business in AU/NZ became unviable. I was at OnStar during this period--we were anticipating launching down there in AU/NZ (had staffed up planning/public safety outreach) down there because OnStar was finally a viable worldwide product (with 4GLTE you could use a single type hardware worldwide). I've got lots of details, actually, as I was very involved in the AU launch, but unfortunately when the Commodore/Equinox bombed the expansion was placed on hold, then killed off.

 

[luxflairguy]

I thought this thread was about Australian Frigidaire dishwashers NOT about cars? Am I wrong? Trust it to Mike (Vaceartor) to re-direct the thread!

 

[eronie]

Ok how does the spin tube work?
Spin on it's own? Pix and vids please!

 

[appliguy]

Trust it to Mike (Vaceartor) to re-direct the thread!

in post # 29 he also got wrong two pieces of information regarding the ElCamino. First off it the 1959 and 1960 models were NOT based on the Impala they were based on the BOL 2 door Chevrolet station wagon and second, production of the ElCamino stopped after the 1988 model year NOT 1985. PATRICK COFFEY

 

[vacerator]

Oh, forgive me!

LuxFlair Greg is the elder, with likely more insurance?! Yes leave it to me to draw relative parities to products manufactured by GM, etc. I find most subjects relative to many others, either in reactive, or colaborative aspects.
So a 1959-60 Chevrolet Impala, Bel Air, Biscayne, b.o.l. wagon are all B bodies. I'll work on exact word details. 1985, '88, so close in the time era. I forgot while writing that post that the rear drive A bodies continued through '88. Did the Malibu though? The Celebrity came out for 1983.
My ex was a GM employee, so after we split in 1993, I didn't get to see all the publications that coroprate sent in the mail. I still have the GM 1993 Financial report. Those listed production unit numbers for each division and subsidiary.

 

[panthera]

Theme Drift

Dahlings, we've always wandered all over the place in these threads and somebody has always been upset about it...and yet, we still all wander.

It's not that big of a deal. Really - that Holden and Frigidaire both belong to a now dead era of GM's Mark of Excellence is relevant.

That Frigidaire today is...well, we don't use those words on Imperial and GM can't seem to produce anything which doesn't have at least 17 recalls is tragic enough. 

I, for one, welcome references to that wonderful past.

 

 

[vacerator]

Thank You

Panthera! for not turning me into a goat, or pigeon.