Holden Commodore AWD wagon gets green light

Holden will have a jacked up all-wheel drive wagon version of the 2018 imported Holden Commodore, but no folks, it won’t be called Adventra.

Like the five-door hatch and wagon already confirmed for Australia, it will be based on the next generation Opel Insignia and use the same GKN Twinster-based AWD technology that will underpin the V6 version of the next Holden Commodore.

The lid was lifted on the third Commodore model this week when Opel announced its 2017 launch plans included three versions of the Insignia and revealed their names – Grand Sports for the hatch, Sports Tourer for the wagon and Country Tourer for its Volkswagen Passat Alltrack rival.

The Grand Sports and Sports Tourer will be unveiled at the Geneva motor show, while the Country Tourer will arrive in the second half of 2017, an Automotive News Europe report stated.

Holden sources admitted to Wheels the Opel announcement had caught them by surprise, but were prepared to indicate a Commodore version of the Country Tourer would be part of the line-up.

However, just what it will be called is something that won’t be made known for a while yet.

Adventra was the name applied to a locally-developed 2003-2009 all-wheel drive version of the VYII-VZ Commodore. But while Holden will keep the Commodore name going, it clearly sees little value in reviving the relatively short-lived Adventra badge.

“It’s an interesting concept but … but I wouldn’t be holding my breath to be honest,” said one Holden executive.

The arrival of the high-riding Commodore makes perfect sense in Australia where anything vaguely SUV-ish is now a hot item, while traditional large car sales sink to record lows.