Holden re-confirms Commodore nameplate

Holden will retain the Commodore nameplate in its next-generation large car. It's official... Again...

In a statement proffered today by Holden's new Executive Director of Sales, Peter Keley, the company stated the decision was in response to "direct customer feedback".

It comes just over 12 months to the day after Executive Vice President and President of GM International, Stefan Jacoby, confirmed that General Motors' local operation would retain the Commodore nameplate in Australia. This in turn was re-iterating what then Holden boss Mike Devereux stated in February 2013.

In 2013 Devereux told media assembled for a preview of the VF-series Commodore: "A lot of folks have been speculating about whether this is the last Commodore… Well, I can categorically tell you we have started work on the next Commodore that comes after this one."

He continued: "The interesting thing about the fascination with the Commodore name and the reason I wanted to lay that down today and end that speculation is that people love this nameplate and we are going to have another one of these..."

On January 14 last year, Jacoby said: "Yes we are planning to produce the Commodore and there will be a Commodore out of the portfolio of General Motors for the Australian market."

He said "it was too early to say" where the imported Commodore would be sourced, but said the options were "from Europe, Korea, the USA ... we have a lot of options actually."

Holden's latest new year confirmation of the Commodore comes after what company insiders say was "fierce internal debate" and a significant spend on market research.

The company disputes the view that international boss Jacoby was actually confirming that the Commodore nameplate would be retained when he spoke on the matter last year.

"He may have been talking generically about the large car," Holden's Senior Manager Corporate Communications, Sean Poppitt told motoring.com.au.

In the latest statement Holden confirmed it had selected the vehicle that would replace the Aussie-built Commodore.

"The next-generation large car we have selected from GM's global portfolio is worthy of the iconic Commodore nameplate," Mr Keley said via a media statement.

"When it arrives in 2018, our new large car will honour Commodore's heritage and support a long and successful future for Holden in Australia and New Zealand. Holden and Commodore aren't going anywhere, they will remain pillars of Australian motoring for many years to come," he stated.

Keley said feedback strongly supported the retention of the nameplate.

"Through the process of selecting the vehicle, we put to customers a number of possible criteria to better understand what they felt was important for the car to be competitive in the Australian market.

"And, of course, whether it deserved the Commodore nameplate... Ultimately, the overwhelming response from customers was that Holden should continue the Commodore nameplate into the future with our next-generation large car," he said.

Holden says 17 different customer research sessions were conducted with owners and non-Commodore owners participating.

The sales boss said the new vehicle will be "tuned and honed by Holden engineers and technicians" at the company's Lang Lang proving ground ahead of its release. He said that would ensure "it performs in Australian conditions and to Australian expectations".

"Right now, our Vehicle Performance team is helping shape the next-generation Commodore for Australian customers," he stated.

In the latest media statement Jacoby is also quoted – saying the decision to retain the Commodore nameplate for Holden's next generation large car "was not taken lightly".

"I cannot reveal full details of the next-generation vehicle, but I can say it will either compare very favourably or improve on the current Commodore's dynamic performance, acceleration, fuel economy, running costs and mass," Jacoby said.

The announcement is seen as a move to shore up confidence in Commodore lest uncertainty affect sales. It follows a similar move last week in which Holden confirmed a V8 sports car would join its line-up around the same time Australian production of Commodore and Cruze ceases.

The latter has been categorised in some quarters as a move to stop Aussie buyers defecting to Ford's Mustang which will go on sale late this year or very early in 2016.