Holden to ‘retarget’ Opels, including Commodore

OPEL boss Karl-Thomas Neumann has all but confirmed the 2018 Commodore will be based on the Opel Insignia that was recently sprung undergoing development testing.

Neumann said at the 2015 Frankfurt motor show that Holden would have an input into the car, which he said “would very nicely fit in the Australian market”.

Without explicitly confirming that the first ever imported Commodore would be a rebadged version of the all new Insignia recently caught undergoing development testing, Neumann hinted that designers and engineers would ensure it looked and felt like a Commodore.

“You can be sure we are very proud if an Opel car is elected – and we don’t do that, Holden does that – to become a Holden car,” said Neumann.

“We give Holden the flexibility, we are not telling them ‘keep it like it is and put a badge on it’. We are supporting them, we are working with them … to make this a car which becomes a Holden car.”

Neumann said future Opels would use “group technologies”, such as electrical architectures, platforms and engines, but that Australian engineers would tune cars to Australian tastes.

Speaking broadly about Opel models going to Australia, he said: “It will be retargeted for the Australian market. There will be engineering work done on them to fulfil the specific expectations which the Australian customers have and which fits to the Holden brand, so we will fine tune the drive and feel of the car … and the feature selection of the car.”

Holden announced it would cease local manufacturing of the Commodore by the end of 2017 but that it would continue the nameplate that first appeared in 1978 on an imported car.

That car will be front-wheel drive and/or four-wheel drive with the option of a four-cylinder or V6 engine. There will be no V8 option, making it the only Commodore not to be offered with the iconic engine layout lauded for its performance and character.

The final update to the locally produced Commodore, the VF Series II, was revealed this week – complete with the most powerful V8 engine ever fitted to a regular Holden Commodore.