Disconnected Ramblings

Still with 1947. Australia had its own oil refinery and retail fuel network called Commonwealth Oil Refinery, marketed as COR. Menzies sold it to BP. In 1947 all fuel was sold as Pool, unbranded.
In 1947 there was still severe petrol rationing which people hated. The garages hated the trouble of coupons and that they had to pay cash on delivery when the Pool fuel arrived.
The reason for rationing was the dollar shortage and the sterling dollar pool Australia shared with Britain. So despite full oil storage tanks Chifley announced fuel rationing would be tightened in 1947 to preserve dollars.
I suspect petrol rationing was a major factor in the defeat of the Chifley Government in 1949. People did not look forward to going into the 1950's with petrol rationing.
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The Stylemaster utes were stylesides.
This is a '47 Australian Stylemaster.

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I have saved some of my unused ration tickets. Chifley rationed all sorts of things including building materials at a time of a severe housing shortage. Having listened to my elders, I think that irked more than fuel rationing, as car ownership wasn't universal. It was part of a leftish dream which eventually destroyed him.
 
There was an odd situation where you could buy a rare RHD American car with Australian pounds by buying it through France. I've only read of one case, a Pontiac brought in for 1500 pounds, double the list price. I presume the French dealer had access because of a Marshall Plan type allocation. The Canada Cycle history says Alec Chapman was sent to France in 1948 to buy surplus new Dodge army trucks from the French army. But they would have been LHD and Victoria and NSW were moving against LHD vehicles. More likely he was investigating the possibility of ordering RHD trucks through France where Australian pounds were worth something.
 
Maybe you could order as just the front ( i.e. to A pillar ) for a cab etc., of local content buttercup other than Holden?
 
Probably came as a complete cab and you had to organise the rest. Quite a few bodyworks still around then. They had quite a space cab. The Chevrolet was seen as highly desirable and the Holden was assured success as a smaller Chevrolet. Sloane of GM was amazed at how expensive cars were in Australia. NS, if that's Victoria it's August 1949.
 
Maybe you could order as just the front ( i.e. to A pillar ) for a cab etc., of local content buttercup other than Holden?
The 1949 Chevrolet utility bodies were all factory made in Australia at the Holden Bodyworks plant using a Canadian cab. The 1949 sedans were all fully imported Fisher bodies, which would explain the ute being a fair bit cheaper.
I say that the ad is just letting the buyer know it is in the Stylemaster base model trim.
This excerpt is off the Australian Chevrolet Owner's website. Obviously once Holden finally started building the FX ute in 1951, there was no place for the Chevrolet version in the GMH line up.

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Where an American maker had a Canadian subsidiary their vehicles were usually imported to Australia from Canada to gain a lower tariff under Commonwealth Preference. This had been very important 1932-38 when the Commonwealth Ottawa tariff surchage was in place.
 
Peugeot had looked to America for styling inspiration during the 1930's. Note is made their designers were impressed by the pre-war Lincoln Zephyr. During the war Peugeot designers were cut off from the latest American styling trends. When the design for the 203 was begun in 1944 the Peugeot stylists were influenced by the American staff cars in evidence in Paris. One writer cites the 1940 Willys as having influence. I've always thought the front of the 1942 Hudson a possible influence.
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I've thought too: that after the avant-garde 02 series, the 203 looked 10 years older than it really was, even in 1948.
 
Canada isn’t as far from Detroit as us - Australia’s Own Humpy ( culture cringe ? ) was very pre-war , and we had more stuff like those Triumphs yet … then Minors and Javelins, and a flat windscreen and running boards didn’t stop VW. The FE Holden arguably looked more modern than anything before the Ponton Benz and the 403 …
 
America in the 1930's had an interest in streamlining. Such as in the Chrysler Airflow. The Fuseau Sochaux (Sochaux Rocket) Peugeots of the late 1930's were streamlined. That is to say they were designed to look sleek. Their aerodynamics were not particularly good. But the French began to take an interest in automotive aerodynamics. Wind tunnels were used to create genuinely wind cheating designs. Georges Paulin was the eminent French aerodynamicist. The postwar 2 litre Hotchkiss was probably the height of automotive aerodynamic design.
The Peugeot design team at Garenne led by Henri Thomas (who designed the 402) set about the creation of an aerodynamic design that was also practical. They ended up creating a car which to the eye of enthusiasts is sleek and beautiful even today and had an aerodynamic efficiency better than most production sedans of 1990. The front may owe much to American design of the 1940's but the flow of the line sweeping to the tail is a sleek and fluid aerodynamic achievement.
The problem was this. The car was ready for production in 1946 but delays meant it did not begin serial production until 1949. So Peugeot was going into the 1950's with a sleek and beautiful model that looked more to 1940 than 1950. Developments in America made their problem worse. The Raymond Loewy designed Studebaker set a new design trend that was soon seen in France. The mudguards were incorporated into the body and the passenger compartment was the full width of the body. Sit in a 203 with the door open and the design difference to say the 403 is obvious.
This caused great angst with Peugeot management. Jean Pierre Peugeot had saved the company from bankruptcy in 1928 and always took a gloomy view of what could happen. Crowds were lining up to buy the 203 with a two year waiting list but when Simca brought out a modern bodied Aronde the worst was feared. Peugeot management were so worried they were prepared to put the new 1500cc 403 engine into the 203 to keep sales up. Hence the rumors at the Paris Show in 1951 of a 1.5 litre 303 model. They need not have worried. The waiting lists remained long and demand solid and the car sold until 1960 (with some body modernization).
The credibility of the Peugeot design team had been affected. Their design for the 403 was rejected and the design outsourced to Batitsa Farina.
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I'm aware of that. But the design is always referred to in English as the Sochaux Rocket not the Sochaux Spindle. Which makes no sense in English.
 
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