Holden’s Commodore joins a long list of landmark models which will depart this year

Holden’s Commodore and Astra will disappear from showrooms this year, joining the growing exodus of much-loved sedans.

2020 marks the end of the road for the Holden Commodore.

When the final Holden Commodore drives out of a dealership late this year, it will bring an end to one of our longest running nameplates — more than four decades — but also more than that. Despite years in decline, sales of sedans have yet to find bottom and Commodore is the highest profile casualty.

Somehow, Ford remains in lock-step with its longtime rival and will delete its imported Mondeo liftback/wagon range in the second half. Mondeo has been an on-again, off-again part of Ford Australia’s line-up for a quarter of a century and — with its Falcon long gone — it means the Blue Oval will soon have nothing for those wanting a large, low-slung four-door.

Together, these moves draw a line under the sedan era and confirm the SUV as the conveyance for our times. As SUVs multiply, expect fewer large sedan offerings from other brands too.

The line-up of smaller mainstream cars is also shrinking. The Holden Astra faces extinction alongside Commodore, with both sourced from GM’s former European subsidiary, Opel. Mitsubishi’s Lancer was discontinued last year, while this year the Honda City small sedan will not be refreshed even though a new generation will be available overseas.

The impact of a lower Australian dollar is proving critical and has yet to play out. The business case for small cars is becoming more and more difficult.

Among premium brands, Infiniti joins a list of wannabes that have failed to expand into territory dom­inated by the Germans. The luxury arm of Nissan, which began its bid for global relevance almost a decade ago, has retreated from Europe and will depart Australia this year.

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Some dealerships closed as soon as the announcement was made in September last year, while its outlets in Melbourne and Sydney will trade out. Infiniti’s six-model line-up leaves little impact, with sales of only 4200 across eight years.

Other segments are suffering from rollercoaster long-term trends. In particular, sports coupes and convertibles are goodtime cars and when the going gets tough, they disappear without being renewed. Demand has shrunk dramatically in the past five years, from almost 24,000 buyers to fewer than 15,000 last year, and it has become increasingly focused on a few star cars.

Ford’s Mustang has taken the lion’s share of the most accessible sub-$80k category since it arrived in late 2015. Without it, demand would have slipped a lot further.

In the next tier up, the Mercedes C-Class coupe and convertible dominate, while above $200k, it’s the Porsche 911. Between them, these three models account for 45 per cent of sports-car buyers, leaving the 50 or so other contenders to pick up the crumbs.

So it’s no surprise that even long-established nameplates are dropping out. Chief among them is the Mercedes-Benz SLC, the convertible formerly known as SLK, which broke fresh ground when it introduced a folding hardtop roof to the category in 1996.

Since then, Mercedes has delivered 710,000 of them worldwide, and although sales here have slowed to a dozen a month, it continues with three models starting from $86,700 for the SLC 200 with a 135kW turbo-four.

From the second quarter, it will add a final edition model with special yellow duco also available in the SLC 300 variant.

graphic for Inquirer on discontinued car models

Another casualty will be Audi’s TT, which will not continue when the current model’s life cycle ends in two years. The first TT from the late 1990s remains a classic, with geometric curves echoing the famous Bauhaus design school. Australia ceased offering the Roadster variant when it brought in a facelifted Coupe late last year.

The hardtop gains a go-fast RS version this year, taking the line-up to three starting from $79,900 for a 169kW turbo-four.

Another Audi with a question mark over its future is the R8 ­supercar — a joint effort with Lamborghini — with the company saying that its prospects are “under discussion”.

In future, hero cars are likelier to have electric drivelines, although even here there’s an early casualty in BMW’s radical plug-in hybrid i8 — one of the first supercars to embrace a combination driveline, with a 1.5-litre three-cylinder boosted by an electric motor at the front axle. Production ceases in February. This will be a very collectable car in years to come with 150 delivered Down Under in five years, and only a handful of those being the Roadster model.

Roadsters are often the first variant to be dropped because in Australia they sell at much lower volumes than coupes. So it is with Nissan’s 370Z Roadster, which has accounted for just 5 per cent of 370Z sales in the past few years. It enters run-out with the local outfit hoping special edition variants of the 370Z Coupe will keep buyers coming. Given Nissan’s difficulties at a global level, it’s unlikely a replacement is in the pipeline and the Z car lineage could end here.

When it comes to orphans, Alfa Romeo’s 4C carbon fibre sports car remains a rarity on our roads with just 300 delivered in the past four years. Sales have slowed to a trickle and while it has yet to be killed off officially, it will not continue beyond the end of this year.

That’s partly because it’s built at Modena, in Maserati’s historic factory, which is being revamped to make a replacement for that brand’s Granturismo-Grancabrio twins, production of which has ­already ceased. This large coupe and convertible has been around for 12 years and has retained its appeal thanks to its Coke-bottle shape and charismatic Ferrari-built V8. After 40,000 have been sold globally, a final edition Granturismo Edizione V8 Aspirato marks the sign-off for this 338kW 4.7-litre engine. Just 23 examples are coming to Australia, with final deliveries this quarter.

As convertibles thin out, those powered by a V8 will become very rare indeed. With Jaguar no longer offering one here in its F-type Roadster, the options dwindle even further this year.

For so many nameplates, 2020 marks the end of the road.