Absolutely agree 100% with what Luke had said in his post, that Australia back in post war times were mostly 1 car families that did everything like was said. I even remember carpenters and plumbers and so forth, hooking up a trailer with all their work gear as that was the only car they had (just like the guy that owned the only complianced Phase 4 back in the early 80s) Ford did try the 2 door in the mid 60s with the XM, XP and cortinas but they proved not to be a popular option. In 65 Bill Bourke came up with the idea of putting Mustangs in every Ford dealer in the country, not to sell Mustangs, but to get people into the dealerships as the 289 was now in the XR range, the same drivetrain as in the Mustang. A performance version was also being developed for the XR for the police. The police were so impressed with these cars they had to have them, so Ford sold these 4 barrel 4 speed cars to the police for pursuit duties. He thought that this would be a winner, although the top brass in Detroit thought this was crazy to have high performance car in a 4 door body and it would not sell, but Bill Bourke knew what the market wanted in Australia and was a home grown high performance car (as the cost of an American performance car plus importing and RHD conversion was way beyond most people in Australia)and in 67 the 4 door Falcon GT was born. In 68 Holden responded with the 2 door Monaro, the car was an instant hit, but it's main market was the youth and older people with children that had grown up and wanted to recapture their youth. By the end of the first design of the Monaro in 71 with the HG it was basically over. In 69 Ford Australia competitions boss Al Turner imported a 2 door falcon as his personal car and made it into an XT/XW GT look. It was shown at the Melbourne motor show to rave reviews, instead of importing 2 door bodies to Australia, the decision was made to make a 2 door version in coming Australian designed XA series. As stated earlier by the time the 2 door XA came along in 72, Australia's love with the 2 door was just about over. I personally think by that time the youth market were all starting to settle down, getting married and having families. And so the older market were also having to change their ways too as getting grand kids in and of 2 door cars is a real hassle. In 69 Chrysler had its finger on the pulse by introducing the Pacer. The VF model were all 4 doors and sold like hot cakes. They were a cheap sporty car that a lot of younger people could really afford. Even when a 2 door version was available in VG range, the 4 door still outsold the 2 door by plenty. In 71 they released the Charger, everyone went crazy for them, but they still made the 4 door Pacer which was still a very popular car, but within a couple of years they were in same situation as Ford and Holden with the 2 door market. By the mid 70s all 3 manufacturers were struggling to sell their 2 doors. Holden made the HX LE with the last 580 2 doors they had left. Ford made the XC Cobras with their last 400 2 door shells. Chrysler were just about giving the CL Chargers away and optioning them up to the hilt just to get rid of their 2 door shells. The big 3 continued to sell 4 door cars in droves, even Chrysler were still selling well and make profits in Australia, but only sold out to Mitsubishi because the parent company in the US was in big trouble. Holden were still making 4 door performance cars in the 70s with Monaro GTS, HZ GTS, SL/R, SL/R 5000, A9X. Even with the A9X they made 305 4 doors compared to 100 2 door hatchbacks and could hardly even sell them. As we know Ford were the king of performance cars in Australia and they were all 4 door cars. The phase 1,2,3 and even the phase 4 was to be a 4 door but the politicians spoilt everything here as well, like they did in the US but in different ways though. So Ford after building these great homologation specials were making mere shadows of the cars we once knew, with the 4V engine gone by early 74 and even the top loader gone. The once great GT was nothing more than a family car with nice trim and GT 351 decals and Ford sold more of the XB GT's to themselves than they did to the public and dropped the GT name after the XB. So here in Australia the 4 door is a car all about convenience as has been said before, drive dad to work, drop kids at school, shopping, Saturday morning sport, take crap to the dump, old mans and his mates taxi on Friday nights, hook up a van and go on holiday. There you are the 4 door car was a bit of everything here in Australia, work vehicle, shopping trolley, taxi, off-roader (the roads here when I was a kid were like goat tracks and they were the bitumen ones) dump truck, holiday tourer and some were part time race cars. One car for all situations.