From the 1970s to the 1990s, you couldn't go anywhere in Australia without seeing louvres fitted to the back of anything with four wheels – wagons, sedans, and even hatchbacks.
But the Aussie ‘car-mullet’ seemingly disappeared overnight from cars, catalogues, and even the aftermarket.
Still, seeing a few fitted to classic cars has triggered us to ask, what happened to the car louvres? It turns out there's a good reason why Australians loved this modification due to its true-blue heritage.
What are car window louvres?
In its simplest form, window louvres are blinds for the rear windscreen and rear quarter windows.
The word originated from the Middle Ages, and in modern English, it basically means: “a door or window with flat, sloping pieces of wood, metal, or glass across it”.
They are fitted to houses and buildings to allow air and light to travel through without letting in rain or direct light, instead bouncing the sunlight off the slats to brighten the room without getting in your eyes.
During the mid-20th century, car owners began fitting them to the rear windows of vehicles, and surprisingly, no brand claimed the invention as its own.
It’s safe to assume that car design began to become more streamlined in the 1960s, and the introduction of sloped rear windows allowed for significantly more light to enter. This theory aligns with the early 1965 Ford Mustang and 1966 Lamborghini Miura being fitted with them (albeit the Miura had it for cooling properties due to its rear-engine design).
Some suggest that it also dates back to the first-generation Volkswagen Beetle, where slats were used as cooling fins for the engine, rather than a rear window guard.
However, it’s entirely likely that the idea of window louvres were first seen on the early enclosed cars of the 1900s, as they drew inspiration from the designs of horse-drawn coaches.
Domestically, the window louvre trend hit Australia hard was arguably first popularised locally by the brand Aunger. Aunger already had a grip on the Australian car enthusiast, and that's all down to one Australian man in the 1960s.
Kim Aunger, a young man from Adelaide with experience in plastic-injection moulding, noticed that louvres were becoming a popular modification option, with people removing them from other cars and fitting them to their own.
Eager to get in on the ground level, he designed and patented his own external louvres. Aunger managed to capture a significant portion of the market immediately and founded his own aftermarket business under his surname.
You may recognise the name if you own any early Australian Ford with aftermarket parts, or are a racing history buff, as he ran a Falcon XW GTHO Phase II in the 1970 Bathurst 500, and a Ford Mustang in Touring Cars throughout the 1970s, sponsored by his own brand.
The most iconic advert from Aunger is the “Put a bit of Lamborghini style on your fastback” campaign, with the brand stating, “Louvres aren't exactly new. They've been around for some time on cars like Lamborghini, [the Mustang] Mach 1 and other European performance machines. Now, thanks to Aunger Accessories, you can dress your Fastback with the style of the world's most expensive cars.”
As one of the founders of the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA), Aunger laid the foundation for a flourishing industry in Australia, which helps answer the question of why louvres were so popular here.
Yet, after his death in 1989, the louvres remained popular, even being offered as a dealer-fit option on cars as late as the VS-generation Holden Commodore and ED-generation Ford Falcon, until one day they just disappeared from cars.
What happened to car louvres?
Like all good trends, they died hard. As much as it would make for a good story to say they suddenly became illegal or were discovered to be unsafe, it is simply not the case.
Car shapes changed, and suddenly, having a big plastic thing on the rear window simply didn’t suit the design of modern cars. Window tint also became more refined and affordable, making it less of a luxury and more of a necessity for all new-car owners.
Aunger went into liquidation in 1999 and was acquired by Car Craft in 2000, and later by CoolDrive in 2017.
Yet, car owners often still look for these parts for older cars, and we have seen them modified to fit car models as late as the VF-gen Holden Commodore. Not only this, but high-end brands like Ferrari and Lamborghini still use this design for their rear-engined supercars as a nod to classic models.
But, as the saying goes, “trends repeat every 20 years”, and the current owners of the Aunger brand said, “CoolDrive is also keen to locate the original moulds for Aunger’s legendary rear window louvre, confident that there would be a strong market for this iconic accessory.”
The mullet haircut is already back in fashion, why not a return of the car mullet?
Zane Dobie comes from a background of motorcycle journalism, working for notable titles such as Australian Motorcycle News Magazine, Just Bikes and BikeReview. Despite his fresh age, Zane brings a lifetime of racing and hands-on experience. His passion now resides on four wheels as an avid car collector, restorer, drift car pilot and weekend go-kart racer.
