Just like that, yesterday General Motors Holden killed off the Commodore. And we're all outraged, right? We didn't see this day coming at all? But we did, even if you weren't a Holden person, you could see this from a million miles away. The ZB Commodore was never going to be a Commodore like we had in the past, and it was never going to live up to the real Australian made Commodore that was in production for 39 years.

Technically the Holden Commodore has been extinct since the Port Elizabeth Holden factory in South Australia was closed on the 20th of October 2017, with the last Australian Made Commodore rolling off the production line.

**This SSV Redline Commodore was the last Holden to be made.**

**Australian Jobs lost to overseas factories**

Back in October 2017, I wrote about the last day of operations at Port Elizabeth. At the time, I made some suggestion to help sedan sales moving forward for Holden because the ZB commodore wasn't going to cut the mustard after the VF Commodore was no more. For example, one suggestion was selling right-hand drive Cadillac's like the CTS-V and ATC sedans. These Cadillac sedans were just like the VF Commodore. They had V8's and V6's and were rear-wheel-drive, and they looked fantastic.

Read more: HOLDEN'S LAST DAY AS A MANUFACTURER

However, General Motors/Holden's chose to move forward with an imported ZB Commodore (aka Opel Insignia), but everyone could see it wasn't going to work due to it being an inferior sedan/car to the VF Commodore. However, if Holden had said from the get-go, they would be selling the ZB until a right-hand drive Cadillac was available say in 2 to 3 year’s time, we could have all lived with that scenario. Since 2017 Cadillac has replaced the CTS and ATC sedans with the CT4, CT5, CTS, XTS, CT6 and CT6-V. These six different sedan models from Cadillac are just what Aussies want, that’s if they were sold at a reasonable price, but the chances of that happening are pretty slim.

Cadillac Website: Cadillac Sedan Range

**CT6-V Cadillac with a 4.2L Twin Turbo V8**

But back to yesterday’s announcement from Holden's Interim Chairman and Managing Director, Kristian Aquilina. He has advised Holden will now focus on the SUV and Ute segments after they stop selling the ZB Commodore at the end of 2019. Kristian said in his statement that "Holden is taking this decisive action to ensure a sharp focus on the largest and most buoyant market segments". He also said, "So far this year SUVs and Utes have increased to 76 per cent of Holden sales, a trend we only see continuing".

**SUV’s built in America on offer from Holden**

My personal opinion after reading that statement, I predict General Motors will kill off the Holden brand towards the end of 2020. It's a shame that it's come to this, I've never seen an Australia household icon, like the Holden brand, be run into the ground. This sad story could've been avoided, but mismanagement from General Motors as well as politicians in Canberra have lead us to this point.

Holdens logo history

Back in 2013, the Australian Government should've nationalised Holden by buying the Holden Brand off General Motors, as well as taking ownership of the Port Elizabeth Holden facility and its Lang Lang proving ground. Then Holden could start making Holden’s that Aussie's want, and at the same time also value add to the Holden brand by selling Holden’s in foreign markets like North America and Europe and the Middle East. And lastly, the Federal Government should’ve reinstated import tariffs on all foreign-made cars. This would protect the local industry and most importantly, local jobs. But unfortunately, that is never going to happen.

John Cadogan from AutoExpert does a great video on yesterdays Commodore announcement. I highly recommend you all watch it.

References:

http://media.gm.com/media/au/en/holden/news.html

http://media.cadillac.com/media/us/en/cadillac/news.html

https://1000logos.net/holden-logo/

Holden to stop selling the Commodore