Team-BHP - End of an icon : Holden to retire the Commodore

Holden has finally drawn the curtains on the acclaimed Commodore brand from their lineup, a casualty of the ever-increasing customer preference towards cars riding on jacked up suspensions or pseudo-SUVs. The Commodore will no longer be available from the end of 2020, along with the Astra brand.

This ends a 42 year run for the Commodore tag, one that symbolized the Aussie car scene along with the likes of the Ford Falcon. At its peak in 1998, the Commodore sold 94,642 units.

More details at this link : Link
Image Source : CarAdvice.com.au

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajmat (Post 4709958)

A sad day for Australia. The Commodore was an honest versatile car, spanning from Ute, to beater to hotrod.

Completely agree. In all her time here, there is only one car that my daughter has so far said she wants to own when she grows up, and that is the Commodore ute, similar to one as below:

These will now be collector's items.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajmat (Post 4709958)

Fantasised doing an Australian Road Trip in a V8 but am sure my itchy right foot would fall foul of regulations.

Without a doubt. Speed related policing is only getting tougher with each passing day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shankar.balan (Post 4710016)

HOLDEN. Always one of those desirable brands.
And the Commodores which I’ve seen on various trips to Oz are really good to look at. Truly the end of one more era.

Always loved them for the smooth lines, symbolizing the true essence of what RWD sedans are about. Alas.

Image Source : Google Images

Truly the end of an era. One of my first trips outside India was to Australia back in 1999 - and we drove from Brisbane to Mackay in a Holden Commodore. I didn’t get a chance to drive myself - but I was amazed at how smooth the car was, and at how it cruised at over 100 kph with the rev counter below 1600 rpm. I can understand why Indians love crossovers - they are great for our lousy, flood prone roads. But Aussies off road in pickups- so I wonder why their other car can’t be a sedan.

The real Holden Commodore died in 2017.

Link: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-...-today/9061854

What's now laid to rest is Opel's imposter, the Insignia. Rebranding the FWD Insignia as the Commodore will be ranked high in the Dumbest Automotive Decisions Hall-of-shame.

I liked the following comment from a reader in Jalopnik, "Just sell Holden to FCA and launch the Dodge Charger as the new Holden Commodore. Fixed.".

GM has squandered the Holden and Commodore brands. They might as well shut down the Holden brand considering how bad they are performing now.

Link: https://www.caradvice.com.au/797541/...es-since-1948/

My profile picture still has me and my holden from 10 years ago! I owned 2 Holdens between 2007-10. The earlier was a 1996 Commodore with 248K kms on it. Was a hoot to drive and was the most affordable Holden to buy in 08 ( I think I paid around 4k for it, sold it 3700$ to a dealer after a year).

I then bought a 2003 Metallic Green Holden Commodore (One in the picture) with almost 90k on the ODO for around 14k. Did many long drives and have some amazing memories.

Commodore will be missed.

Attached are some pictures from the bygone era with both my cars. :)

Apologies in advance for the picture quality. They were from a phone camera 10 years ago.

Always used to drool over the Falcons and Commodores (over internet ofcourse), and loved the front styling of the WM Caprice/Statesman/stretched Commodore, maybe even better than the look alike w204 c class.

Come 2018, the company I worked in Qatar had a company Caprice LTZ. Like a typical hand down model, it was not in the best condition, especially the interiors. Liked the way how they cleverly designed the interiors to be both RHD and LHD without much change.

But the best thing was the 6.0l V8. It used to idle badly, guess the cylinder management gone kaput, but boy was it a good cruiser. Just a little touch of the accelerator, and you would reach the 120km/h warning chime easily. Only problem, the extra long wheelbase and low ground clearance meant it would scrape along even the most modest speedhump if there are more than two passengers. Again, guess it must be the lack of maintenance or something.

One of the few cars, where I could sit with my legs crossed in the rear seat.

Used it for 100km+ commute daily for almost a month, and was so enamoured I started browsing OLX to see how much the cheapest S500 was going for...stupid: (can't even foot the bills of my Etios D.)

This just proves that there are fools sitting in the management of GM and Ford.:Frustrati Not everyone wants an SUV. Many still prefer a good old sedan like in the case of Australia, where the Commodore and Falcon are cult favourites. Mind you, producing them was still profitable. I do hope that whoever's took this monstrosity of a decision to "align" the product lineup gets fired. The only thing that they will get out of this is that prospective Commodore/Falcon buyers move to other brands, leading to a decline in brand loyalty.

I grew up in Hyderabad long before it became Cyberabad. It was still the city of Nizams & there was one institution on the outskirts called ICRISAT. It was a Crop Research Institute set up I believe in collab with USAID.

My first glimpses of imported cars were the Peugeots, Datsuns, Renaults & of course the Holden's which were part of ICRISAT's fleet. I don't know which Holden models they were but for a kid that long low hood, wide stance and growling engine are sights & sounds I will never forget.

Holden cars were driven by their senior guys & when one passed you on the road you almost stood to attention. It's sad another Auto icon is being laid to rest. To quote Iacocca "The Bean Counters got this".

Quote:

Originally Posted by BZ25 (Post 4711665)

I hope you read this and get the right facts :)

https://www.caradvice.com.au/813963/...ore-1978-2020/

The last version of Falcon was a relic when compared to the competition.
The current version of the Commodore wasn't a Commodore at all in the real sense.

The Falcon and Commodore weren't selling well. Ford and GM were draining tax payer money and it was good riddance in that sense. It once again proves that market forces determine long term success and protectionistic practices can't stand the test of time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BZ25 (Post 4711665)

The only thing that they will get out of this is that prospective Commodore/Falcon buyers move to other brands, leading to a decline in brand loyalty.

As Kiku007 mentioned in his post, the love for the Commodore ended the moment local production stopped, and the Opel import was rebadged a Commodore.

Here is a follow-up article which explains a lot more in detail on how the Holden Commodore lost love with the Australian public.

Excerpt from the article, which just makes a whole lot of sense.

Quote:

Even the most diehard followers found themselves choosing vehicles that better suited their lifestyles – and the buyers who did stay faithful often bought used cars, which did little to help the local Holden and Ford factories churning out new cars.
Marketing experts likened the hypocrisy to the way many people view religion.

“It's a bit like when people fill out their religion on a Census form. They tick the box and say they’re religious but the last time they went to church was when they were baptised,” said David Chalke, the principal of Strategy Planning Group, a market research firm that monitors changing consumer attitudes.

In other words, they cheered for Holden or Ford but drove something else – and felt no guilt about it.