The Ford BA XR6 was a better car than the ZB

[83C]

I drove 2 months and 100000miles around the UK and counted maybe 15 Insignias. Their drivers looking dull and sad.

Two types of Insignia driver here - grey salesmen (probably driving a mid-range diesel) who are bitter that their company won't let them choose a BMW and grey old people (higher-spec petrol) who think Vauxhall are still British. Can't remember the last time I saw an Insignia VXR, nobody bought them because anyone who could afford or had the option of something like that would spend more and get something from Germany.

 

[Immortality]

very true, lucky he never owned a commodore because he would be devastated to find out the commodore is originally an "opel"

Yes... but no.

Until the ZB no Commodore was built and then imported to Australia.

The original VB was based on 2 Opel models with Aussie drivelines and suspension improved to suit local conditions. No simple badge engineering like the ZB.

An uncle of mine actually had a Opel Senator in Europe and although they looked very similar there were differences.

Yes our Commodore started with Opel DNA but Holden made it into what we know as the Commodore.

 

[figjam]

Until the ZB no Commodore was built and then imported to Australia.
The original VB was based on 2 Opel models with Aussie drivelines and suspension improved to suit local conditions.

The conspiracy that Holden secretly imported Opels and put Holden badges on them.

Like the moon landing, myths will become legend, and legends become truths, but wiser old men will remember the reports of prototype Commodores breaking in half while testing in the Flinders Ranges.

 

[stooge]

Yes... but no.

Until the ZB no Commodore was built and then imported to Australia.

The original VB was based on 2 Opel models with Aussie drivelines and suspension improved to suit local conditions. No simple badge engineering like the ZB.

An uncle of mine actually had a Opel Senator in Europe and although they looked very similar there were differences.

Yes our Commodore started with Opel DNA but Holden made it into what we know as the Commodore.

well yes the vb was assembled here using the opel designs and platforms but modified for this country but it was still essentially an opel with a holden badge at the start and over the years it became much more unique to holden as they engineered it.
it does not change the fact that it was an opel to start with and the actual name "commodore" was sold as an opel for a decade before one was seen in australia and when someone is fully anti "opel" but owns a vehicle based on the v platform it is a bit funny imo

if holden did not close down the question would have been would they have done the same thing over like they did with the vb or just import it and tweak like they did with the zb.
if they used the designs and platform of the insignia and assembled it here and used a custom aussie driveline and suspension would the zb be a "real" commodore or an opel?

i think many would still be against it even if it was assembled here, it would still be that opel people dislike.

look at the cost of the ve design/zeta platform they claimed it cost a billion dollars so you can see why they recycled designs and platforms from other products in their global lineup.


i think the main reason the zb was a full import was because of the plant closures and they were attempting to do what they did with many other models they sold, just import them and add a badge.
its my guess they were attempting to turn themselves into a full import brand but most of the holdens they had at the time were boring and lacked features that many euro vehicles had so they thought they would drop a euro into the commodore slot and it failed because many people that have owned commodores over the years are not used to the euro styling.
they probably would have had better luck with an impala or cadillac ct5/6 in the commodore slot.

the insignia was wrong for the commodore slot and it should not be there but it is what it is and love it or hate it we are all cursed with it


this short article gives a summery of most of it

The Holden Commodore's German roots

Four decades ago Commodore began life as this Opel Senator

www.whichcar.com.au

 

[Fu Manchu]

The entire point of both Ford Falcons (take Grenada) and Holden's signature cars over all the years was not the name. It was how they were designed and built.

A bit like taking a frame work and doing somethinga bit more special with it. Like that V8 racing did. They took the cars Holden and Ford said they could do better with and better than that with them.

A bit like many on this forum and other forums that have taken what Holden did and gave us, then thought, "yeah nah, hold my beer."

 

[Fu Manchu]

It's not in the name, but the pedigree.

 

[figjam]

Vauxhall Vivas/Torana. I’d buy a Torana over a Viva. We had a Viva, actually Two. Engines were shite.
We made those things into far better cars.

The Torana A9X's grand-daddy, Vauxhall Viva, who had recently arrived in Australia from the Olde Country vs The Mountain in 1964 .........

 

[hademall]

The Torana A9X's grand-daddy, Vauxhall Viva, who had recently arrived in Australia from the Olde Country vs The Mountain in 1964 .........

My dad had an early seventies Vauxhall Viva. He wrote it off hitting the neighbours front wall across the road. We lived in a Cul-de-Sac with twenty houses in it, he was in reverse. Go figure

 

[vc commodore]

My dad had an early seventies Vauxhall Viva. He wrote it off hitting the neighbours front wall across the road. We lived in a Cul-de-Sac with twenty houses in it, he was in reverse. Go figure

Reminds me when my Mum was learning to drive.....(Yes she started late)....Reversed out the driveway and fortunately there were no hosues across the road, otherwise she would have ended up in the lounge room if a house was across the road...

 

[hademall]

Reminds me when my Mum was learning to drive.....(Yes she started late)....Reversed out the driveway and fortunately there were no hosues across the road, otherwise she would have ended up in the lounge room if a house was across the road...

After the Viva we got a mark two cortina, and my mum who hadn’t passed her test was out in it on her own and she pulled out of a side road in front of a double decker bus. The bus hit her so hard it spun the car bursting all four tyres. The car was a right off and my mum was barely injured. God knows how many people were on that bus and what effect it had on them. I do recall my mum never driving again. She was about 37 years old at the time.