You guys sure know how to...

[ls1mike]

build a car. I love this damn thing. Has been my favorite car ever.
I have had a bunch of the cars, but nothing like this.
First oil change today!

 

[figjam]

Please pass your opinions and thoughts on to the General. He seems to disagree.

Shame you can't get a proper Caprice interior to put into yours to make it like our Statesman / Caprice luxobarge.

 

[Commo Baba]

Yeah , I like mine too.

I've had a few different types of car in my time incl two old Holdens ('61 (my first car) & '55 (hand built hotrod thankyou)) but this is my first Commodore.

I've got the 5 metre l-o-n-g wagon on the LWB that they stopped making. Before I got it I was at a country clearance sale and a bloke put an alloy Dinghy inside his VN/VP wagon. I just stood there. "Oh yeah " . So I did some research and got the more recent version that had a couple of models worth of development and was this side of the 21st century.

We won't be seeing these here again and I'm very conscious of that. (Pisses me right off actually). Was just outside taking photos of fence posts and the like and took a few snaps of my car as I went past. Just cos I like it so much !

 

[Calaber]

build a car. I love this damn thing. Has been my favorite car ever.
I have had a bunch of the cars, but nothing like this.
First oil change today!

The shame is that in the early 2000's, Holden was the apple of GM's eye. It was the centre for RWD development for the entire GM company. The Statesman in production that time had more rear seat legroom than any other GM product. The Commodores built during that period spawned an incredible range of vehicles. We had short and long wheelbase 4 door sedans, 2 door coupe, 2 door utility, 4 door long wheelbase utility, one tonne cab chassis and a long wheelbase wagon. After a few years, using the same floorpan, a 4WD version of the wagon was released. Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) built their own high performance versions of the short and long wheebase sedans, a 4WD version of the coupe and worked over versions of both 2 and 4 door utilities, including a 4WD LWB utility called the Avalanche. Overall, the range was pretty staggering. Holden had opened up export markets in the Middle East, broke through with the Monaro going to the US as the GTO and also sold in the UK as the Vauxhall Monaro. As you would know, the VE Commdore became the short-lived Pontiac G8, and now the VF is a Chev. During its design phase, it was planned that the VE would become the basis of a range of cars including Buicks and various other GM brands. The only variant that got to production was the Camaro, which was developed (and I think designed) here and is pretty much VE underneath.

We've been very fortunate in this country for some years now that we had a really switched on design and development team that still knew how to build excitement into their cars. It all dies in around eighteen months.

 

[Commo Baba]

The shame is that in the early 2000's, Holden was the apple of GM's eye. It was the centre for RWD development for the entire GM company. The Statesman in production that time had more rear seat legroom than any other GM product. The Commodores built during that period spawned an incredible range of vehicles. We had short and long wheelbase 4 door sedans, 2 door coupe, 2 door utility, 4 door long wheelbase utility, one tonne cab chassis and a long wheelbase wagon. After a few years, using the same floorpan, a 4WD version of the wagon was released. Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) built their own high performance versions of the short and long wheebase sedans, a 4WD version of the coupe and worked over versions of both 2 and 4 door utilities, including a 4WD LWB utility called the Avalanche. Overall, the range was pretty staggering. Holden had opened up export markets in the Middle East, broke through with the Monaro going to the US as the GTO and also sold in the UK as the Vauxhall Monaro. As you would know, the VE Commdore became the short-lived Pontiac G8, and now the VF is a Chev. During its design phase, it was planned that the VE would become the basis of a range of cars including Buicks and various other GM brands. The only variant that got to production was the Camaro, which was developed (and I think designed) here and is pretty much VE underneath.

We've been very fortunate in this country for some years now that we had a really switched on design and development team that still knew how to build excitement into their cars. It all dies in around eighteen months.

Well put. You know more of the details than I do but we will all be mourning the passing. Thanks to GM it's all got flushed away; even though they claim to like the designs so much and claim to be somehow keeping the design team !!!??. I don't see how. "Well done, great cars. Now f@ck off". thanks.

Just BTW; I don't think de-badging them is a good idea. I'm quite happy to display my badge of honour.

 

[Forg]

The reality is that GM is a business, businesses will always chase max profit; which means minimising cost.
Building cars in a first-world country without lots of gumbyment assistance is always going to be less profitable than building in less affluent countries; especially when the gumbyments of those less affluent countries think it's worth having industry there, and offer incentives.

You have to build cars to a world market these days; given that there's been no such thing as an Australian car company since nineteen thirty something, there was never going to be any 'head office' directive for any company to stay here.

 

[ls1mike]

Please pass your opinions and thoughts on to the General. He seems to disagree.

Shame you can't get a proper Caprice interior to put into yours to make it like our Statesman / Caprice luxobarge.

Yeah blows my mind they are ending production by you. Sad really.

I can get the G8 interior on Ebay, but the front seats are pretty comfy. For a big fat car it certainly is pretty nimble!

 

[ls1mike]

The shame is that in the early 2000's, Holden was the apple of GM's eye. It was the centre for RWD development for the entire GM company. The Statesman in production that time had more rear seat legroom than any other GM product. The Commodores built during that period spawned an incredible range of vehicles. We had short and long wheelbase 4 door sedans, 2 door coupe, 2 door utility, 4 door long wheelbase utility, one tonne cab chassis and a long wheelbase wagon. After a few years, using the same floorpan, a 4WD version of the wagon was released. Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) built their own high performance versions of the short and long wheebase sedans, a 4WD version of the coupe and worked over versions of both 2 and 4 door utilities, including a 4WD LWB utility called the Avalanche. Overall, the range was pretty staggering. Holden had opened up export markets in the Middle East, broke through with the Monaro going to the US as the GTO and also sold in the UK as the Vauxhall Monaro. As you would know, the VE Commdore became the short-lived Pontiac G8, and now the VF is a Chev. During its design phase, it was planned that the VE would become the basis of a range of cars including Buicks and various other GM brands. The only variant that got to production was the Camaro, which was developed (and I think designed) here and is pretty much VE underneath.

We've been very fortunate in this country for some years now that we had a really switched on design and development team that still knew how to build excitement into their cars. It all dies in around eighteen months.

That sucks. I have always been a GM guy, in the past 10 years they have made some really good stuff. They have also made some piss poor decisions. Killing production off in Australia is one of them.

 

[Calaber]

That sucks. I have always been a GM guy, in the past 10 years they have made some really good stuff. They have also made some piss poor decisions. Killing production off in Australia is one of them.

Mike

I wouldn't bother chasing up any VE interior parts (I assume the seats in the G8 were the same as fitted to sports model Commodores here), because overall, the interior quality of the VE (which is what the G8 was) was really low-rent. Poor quality, hard plastics, brittle fittings around the seat adjusters and centre consoles that were poorly designed. The Statesman was better obviously but still had a lot of cheap 'n' nasty VE bits in there.

Your Statesman/PPV is a VF, which had a hugely improved interior over the VE. I seem to recall that, when the VF was released, it was claimed that only one interior component was carried over from the VE (the console lid), so that tells you that even Holden realised the VE interior had to go. If you ever decide to upgrade your car, make sure you only chase up VF components for the interior.

The Statesman from WM onwards (ie the LWB version of the VE) was always a good handler. Years ago, Holdens handled like the average Yank tank, sloppy, understeering barges that preferred boulevards to corners. That changed from the late 1970's and since then, Holdens have always had good handling as an essential pre-requisite. The Zeta platform used in the VE/WM onwards was engineered to raise the bar even further and those cars have always been recognised as outstandingly good vehicles with safe, competent handling, and particularly suited to the generally poorer standard of Australian roads. Certainly, the US motoring press seemed to rate the VE highly and the VF is better.

 

[CoffeeMonster]

Top gear always liked the commos as well, it's a shame the government always made it easier for imports without negotiating any new export opportunities. I feel like GM wanted it to fail as well so they can focus on their core brands, they never gave a genuine attempt at establishing export markets. The AUD has dropped lots against the USD from previous highs but without overseas markets for the commodore it doesn't make australian production more attractive.

Holden doesn't have much of a future post commodore. The rest of the cars sold under the badge tend to be garbage, i would never trust one. I'd take a hyundai i30 or ford fiesta over a cruze any day.