Commodore axing was a mercy killing
Holden’s axing of the Commodore badge on Tuesday had the quality of a mercy killing.
The Adelaide-based maker was the last of the three locals to shut its factory here and the slowest to face up to the new reality.
There was simply too much wishful thinking in the decision to continue the Commodore name on a completely different, imported car.
READ MORE: Commodore axed after 41 years
It was as though Holden believed the Commodore badge had magic powers to persuade enthusiasts that rear-wheel drive and a V8 didn’t matter. That a front-wheel drive car would feel the same.
Brand loyalists were never going to fall for that.
Or perhaps Holden thought its Commodore-for-a-New Age would overturn the exodus by fleets, which had been doing the sums on running costs and moving away from large sedans for years. With four-cylinder engines, surely it would add up?
However, fleets also have an eye on resale values and if no-one wants the cars in three years, that’s a problem.
Many company cars double as family vehicles and Aussie households have been switching to SUVs for years. Demand for traditional sedans has fallen through the floor over the past two decades and never looked remotely like stopping.
So in some respects it didn’t matter a jot what the imported Commodore was called. It was always going to struggle.
In a quirk of fate, one of its chief selling points – German manufacture – also worked against it too. When General Motors sold Opel shortly before Holden closed Adelaide, it immediately put a question mark over long-term supplies of the imported car.
It’s no surprise that yesterday’s decision also deletes the Astra hatchback – another Holden mainstay from the past and its only other Opel-built model.
If GM could have found a buyer, it would have offloaded Holden as well.
There’s precious little logic in retaining its Australian outpost when its global strategy has been to retreat from markets where margins are tight to focus on the two that between them buy most of the vehicles on the planet: China and the US.
How long Holden can continue with SUVs becomes a moot point now. GM must engineer them for right-hand drive almost solely for Australia.
And Australians aren’t buying. The Trax, Equinox, Trailblazer and Acadia attract only tiny shares in each of their segments.
The Colorado ute, the only other car still wearing the Lion badge, is now easily its bestseller.
To everyone but Holden insiders, it looked as though an ignominious exit for Commodore was simply a matter of time.
Now the question becomes, how long can Holden itself keep going?
The five most expensive cars ever sold (at auction)
How much would you pay for a used car if you really wanted it? To see if you qualify as a buyer of the world’s most expensive vehicles, first answer these five questions.
‘If engines could have orgasms, they would sound like this’
The 718 Spyder RS is a two-seater slice of Porsche history: the last ever mid-engined, naturally aspirated convertible masterpiece it will ever make.