Holden Commodore 1997 News

With Australia's automotive manufacturing industry poised to close forever within a couple of years, we look at Australia's changing taste in cars.

Toyota HiLux tops the list of Australia’s most stolen cars

Holden has confirmed the imported car that will replace the Australian-made Commodore will inherit the iconic badge – even though it is widely speculated to be a front-wheel-drive car like a Toyota Camry, not a rear-wheel-drive car like every Commodore since 1978 and all homegrown Holden sedans dating back to the original in 1948.The decision has divided diehard Holden fans who believe the Commodore badge should be retired gracefully, just as Ford will assign the Falcon badge to the history books when it reaches the end of the production line next year.Holden says it interviewed 110 people and "70 per cent" voted in favour of keeping the Commodore badge once the Holden factory in Elizabeth falls silent in late 2017, ending 39 years of Commodore production, comfortably outlasting the iconic Kingwood badge which was dropped after 16 years.We will continue with the Commodore nameplateMarketing experts say a minimum of 1000 people need to be surveyed to get an accurate sample, but Holden says the study of 110 people were "in-depth customer focus groups conducted over a couple of hours to drill right down, not just a phone call"."We will continue with the Commodore nameplate," said the head of General Motors' international operations Stefan Jacoby."Commodore is very much embedded into Holden, it's part of the Holden history, it's part of what Australian customers want to have and we listened to our customers."Mr Jacoby said Holden is already testing the new model at its top secret test track in Lang Lang on the south-eastern outskirts of Melbourne. Holden is yet to confirm which engines will power the next Commodore but insiders have confirmed the vehicle will be available with four-cylinder and V6 power globally and there will be no V8.Holden said it is prepared for a possible backlashMr Jacoby also defended the mooted switch to front-wheel-drive."I'm coming from a front-wheel drive group – the VW-Audi Group – with this company we don't believe there is a true disadvantage between a front-wheel drive … towards a rear-wheel drive."Holden said it is prepared for a possible backlash but believes it has made the right move."We know the decision to retain or retire the Commodore nameplate will stir passionate responses among Holden fans and customers," said Holden sales director Peter Keley."That's why we'll ensure the next-generation car drives like a Commodore should. The vehicle will be tuned and honed by Holden engineers and technicians … ensuring it performs in Australian conditions and to Australian expectations."The next 'Commodore' will be the new version of the Opel Insignia, a German sedan that is also sold in the US and China as a Buick, but Holden will have input into design and engineering."Right now, our vehicle performance team is helping shape the next-generation Commodore for Australian customers," said Mr Keley.Once the 2018 version arrives it means the Holden Commodore will have come full circle; the original 1978 model shared its DNA with the Opel family and fleet sedan of the time.Retaining the Commodore nameplate is the right decision for HoldenHolden engineers modified the vehicle to suit Australian conditions. Over the next 30 years the Commodore shared less Opel DNA and eventually became a bespoke Australian design.But Holden insists the 2018 Commodore will find favour among local buyers."The next-generation large car we have selected from GM's global portfolio is worthy of the iconic Commodore nameplate," said Mr Keley."When it arrives in 2018, our new large car will honour Commodore's heritage and support a long and successful future for Holden in Australia.""Customers have confirmed that retaining the Commodore nameplate is the right decision for Holden."Have your say on our Facebook page: Should Holden call the imported front-wheel-drive sedan a Commodore? 

Holden Commodore recalled because the LPG system may cut out or catch fire.

One swallow doesn't make a summer, as one bumper month for Commodore does not mean it's basking in sales sunshine. With 3315 buyers last month, the Commodore recorded its best month since September 2011 and came third in the sales table. It's a surprisingly good result against a headwind of a 3.1 per cent decline in the market overall, as the expected rebound from a change of government failed to show. At least so far. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries believes changes to the fringe-benefits tax announced by Labor in July are still confusing potential buyers, despite being overturned by the Coalition. That suggests the market can recover from its stall. The problem is, Commodore will need an extended heatwave to reverse the chill, much less give Holden a chance of retaining a viable manufacturing operation. Since 2002, Commodore demand has slid by two-thirds. The decision to add the Cruze small car to the Adelaide plant was an admission that two models were needed to generate the volume that used to come from one. The assumption is this will mean producing 65,000 cars a year after 2016, all for domestic consumption. This is a climbdown from Holden's previous position that annual output of 90,000-100,000 was needed to keep Adelaide viable. Neither target is a money-making proposition and with increasing fragmentation of the market, a more realistic target would be two cars in the top five. Even the low goal is wildly optimistic. Cruze has failed to excite the market, peaking in its debut year as a local then tumbling 14 per cent last year and another 16 per cent this year. Commodore sales are down 14 per cent this year and last month's result needs some context -- as recently as 2011, it would have been one of the worst months, not the best. Between them, they will be lucky to achieve 60,000 this year. Exports -- let's be generous and assume 15,000 -- will keep this year's production total respectable. Now subtract exports and swap the Commodore with the Malibu, its scheduled replacement in 2016, and a car that has been ignored by buyers since its introduction as an import in June. If Commodore and Cruze can't cut it, then Malibu and Cruze are destined for the deep-freeze.  

The Holden V8 is set to disappear from showrooms for the first time since 1968, and the new Commodore — if it gets built — will be a front-wheel-drive car with about as much pizzazz as a Toyota Camry. The confidential SA Government report into Holden’s manufacturing future — leaked to the Adelaide Advertiser — makes grim reading for Holden fans. It says the company is not likely to have a rear-wheel-drive car — and therefore a V8 — beyond 2016, or 2018 at a stretch. "The true impact of not retaining this offering is not clear. However GMH is likely to experience some sales erosion sand migration to other brands," said the report prepared by University of Adelaide Professor Goran Roos for the SA Government. When the Falcon and its performance models bow out in 2016, Ford will import the Mustang coupe from the US to appeal to the enthusiast market. "The next gen model mix also excludes the ute variant," the report said, confirming a News Corp Australia exclusive from a fortnight ago. If Holden keeps making cars in Australia from 2016 to 2022 it will be the first time since the first ever Holden — the 1948 48-215 "FX" — that its flagship model will be front-wheel-drive. The front-wheel-drive car that Holden says it will call the "Commodore" will be made with mostly imported parts, the report says, putting further pressure on local parts suppliers. That in turn is expected to force Toyota Australia’s hand with a factory closure in 2017, a year after Holden and when the Camry model cycle is due to come to an end. This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling  

Aussie motorsport heritage flexed its muscles last weekend with a spectacular show of local racing champions and their cars. Held at Sydney Motorsport Park, the ninth annual Australian Muscle Car Masters once again included a gathering of our most famous racing cars and drivers from the past half-century. This rolling history spanned several categories and eras of Australian motorsport, including Group N, S, A, and C, V8 Supercar, Formula 5000, plus a variety of current historic racers.  Notable examples included the 1986 Bathurst 1000-winning Grice/Bailey Chickadee Commodore, the 1992-winning Richards/Skaife Winfield Skyline GTR, and the Perkins/Ingall Castrol Commodore driven to victory in 1997.Legendary drivers in attendance included Allan Moffat, Fred Gibson, Harry Firth, John Goss, Leo Geoghegan, Jim and Steve Richards, Kevin Bartlett, Allan Grice and Neil Crompton.The highlight of the event was easily the ‘Bathurst Grid Spectacular’ held on the Sunday, where 60-odd previous Bathurst entries lined up on the grid for an hour of high-speed parade laps, and the variety of machinery and sounds proved that Australian motorsport runs far deeper than just Ford and Holden-badged racers.There were hundreds of classic road cars also on display, plus nearly 30 individual races held over the two days.This reporter is on Twitter: @Mal_Flynn

Chevrolet drivers Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart were on track to score a one-two-finish after dominating the last 20 laps of a 75-lap, 300km race – until Stewart slipped to fourth place on the final lap. Instead, Harvick held off two hard-charging Ford drivers Greg Biffle and Joey Logano to take out the preliminary, non-championship warm-up race to the 2013 series. Harvick’s narrow win will come as a relief to the 16 Chevrolet teams who hadn’t raced the Commodore Nascar until tonight – and bodes well for the season opener and biggest Nascar round of the year, next weekend’s Daytona 500. Harvick won the Daytona 500 in 2007 but finished eighth in last year’s championship. Stewart is a three-times Nascar champion but has never won the Daytona 500. Chevrolet is the most successful car maker in Nascar, with 702 race victories to its credit, more than any other manufacturer. It will line up against teams from Ford and Toyota for this year’s series after Dodge withdrew from the sport. Meanwhile, the new Holden Commodore V8 Supercar was fastest in the category’s pre-season test sessions at Sydney’s Eastern Creek yesterday. Jason Bright, driving for Brad Jones Racing, upset the big budget teams by outpacing former champions Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes and the Holden Racing Team pairing of Garth Tander and James Courtney. Rick Kelly was the fastest Nissan Altima driver, with the fifth best time, David Reynolds was the fastest Ford driver in eighth and the highest placed Mercedes driver Maro Engel was 14th quickest. This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling  

The Holden Commodore is not dead – but it may never be the same again. The boss of Holden threw a smoke grenade during a secret preview of the new Commodore inside the company’s top-secret design bunker this afternoon – by claiming the Commodore name will continue beyond the 2016 horizon of the new model. Australian and New Zealand journalists had been invited to see the new Commodore – the first in seven years – before the public unveiling on Sunday and its showroom arrival in June. The event was just about to wrap up when in his closing remarks Holden boss Mike Devereux said: “A lot of folks have been speculating about whether this is the last Commodore … well I can categorically tell you we have already begun working on the Commodore that comes after this one.” After the speech, Devereux told the frazzled media scrum: “This will run through to the end of 2016. After that time we are going to be putting two global architectures into the plant, one of them will underpin the next Commodore.” To make sure he wasn’t misunderstood, Devereux repeated: “There is another Commodore coming after this one. We’re going to build it in Adelaide on a architecture.” Until this point, Holden had not revealed the second car to be built alongside the Cruze through to 2022 in return for $275 million in Federal Government funding. Devereux’s statement was news to other senior Holden executives and staff in attendance, who watched-on gob-smacked that the attention had shifted from the new car just months away from showrooms and onto the next model that is still three years away. Devereux’s comments were likely designed to reverse the perception that the 2013 Commodore is the last – after he told journalists in Detroit the Commodore would be phased out in 2016. But the reality is that what Devereux has called “the next Commodore” will not be a Commodore as Australians have grown to know it over the past 35 years, 15 of them as the nation’s top-seller. News Limited understands the second vehicle to be built alongside the Cruze will be a front-drive car, similar in size to the Toyota Camry and to be sold in other countries as a Buick. “You can ask me twenty times about the next , maybe three years from now we’ll have that conversation,” Devereux said before he was shut down by his public affairs minder, Matt Hobbs,  formerly of the crisis-riddled Tiger Airways. Devereux’s bombshell took the attention away from the new Commodore that has been seven years in the making and is less than 48 hours away from being unveiled on Sunday morning. The new Commodore promises to the best yet but the boss of Holden Mike Devereux stopped short of declaring whether or not it would ever again be Australia’s top-selling car. “We’re back, better than ever, it’s game on,” he said earlier, before adding: “The time for any one vehicle … to sell one tenth the cars in any country is an illogical assumption to make.” At its peak 15 years ago Holden sold more than 94,000 Commodores, last year it sold 30,000 – in an all-time record market. This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling  

The Holden Commodore could be replaced by a four-cylinder front-drive sedan similar to the Toyota Camry beyond 2017 – putting the jobs of 320 workers that make the Commodore’s V6 engine in jeopardy.