It was always going to be a tough call for Holden to decide what car to replace the iconic Aussie-built Commodore with.
If they chose the traditional route and rebadged a large RWD car from a foreign market, then the same people who continued to not buy it still wouldn’t buy it, because we simply don’t buy cars like that anymore.
And if they went for something modern and sophisticated from Europe, it would inevitably be front-wheel drive, thereby outraging the Commodore purists who only want RWD V8s, but never actually buy them new anyway, but are very vocal about their opinions on a car they only buy second hand.
Oh, and with that first overseas RWD large car choice, well, that isn’t really a choice at all, as, apart from trucks and cars based on the current Commodore’s architecture, there actually isn’t much of thing of that sort to choose from in GM’s global line up these days.
So while Holden did actually look at a number of alternatives when it came to replacing the Aussie-built Commodore, the decision to use the all-new E2 architecture that underpins the forthcoming European Opel Insignia was really the only reasonable path for the company to take.
So that means that the 2018 Next Generation Commodore (or NG Commodore as Holden are referring to it) is a large FWD and AWD liftback and wagon, with 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol and diesel engines for the FWD cars or an extensive reworking of the VF Commodore’s 3.6-litre V6 for the AWD.
That’s right; a four-cylinder entry level Commodore and no V8. I’ll just leave that to sink in for a while.
In what is no doubt an effort to get punters used to the idea of such a radically different Commodore Holden has taken a rather extraordinary step and has given a handful of Kiwi and Aussie journalists access to the car at a remarkably early stage of its development.
This saw us slip surreptitiously across the Tasman in a Top Secret trip to Holden’s proving grounds at Lang Lang outside Melbourne. Secrecy was high (as it usually is at Lang Lang), with no cameras allowed and even mobile phone camera lenses had to be covered over by official tape.
And the reason for this secrecy was that we were to be driving two pre-production “integration vehicles”, or “IVs” as they are known at Lang Lang.
The two cars had been sent over already heavily disguised from the factory in Russelsheim, Germany (where the final production cars will be built), the two cars were both 3.6-litre V6-powered AWD liftbacks, with one having 80kg of extra weight strategically added to specific spots at the rear to simulate the wagon.
The two cars are basically hand-built prototypes that will be used by Holden to develop local steering and chassis tuning for the AWD V6 variant in both wagon and liftback form and, as such, are essentially priceless. Needless to say the phrase “Please don’t bin them” was uttered a few times before we were unleashed in them…
The IV cars are referred to as “65 percent” cars, meaning that the development on the final product is 65 percent of the way through. To give you an idea of exactly how early in the process these cars are, 63 percent is actually the first time it exists as a car, as opposed to a collection of parts, plans and ideas.
So today were are proud to bring you a complete breakdown of what we actually know about the 2018 Commodore following our exclusive drive of it.
Check out the full gallery of 2018 Holden Commodore pics here!
Outside
That is something Holden are definitely not talking about yet and don’t want us to talk about yet either, so as a result the two IV cars were still wearing the heavy camouflage they left the factory with.
As well as the traditional camouflage tape covering the bodies, the NG Commodore IV cars also had fake plastic panels over every single body panel, apart from the roof, making it virtually impossible to get an accurate idea of what it might look like. Even Holden’s engineers say they have never seen a camouflage job so good, nor so useable, as everything is still easily accessible for them.
Check out the full gallery of 2018 Holden Commodore pics here!
Inside
Because we were driving the cars at such an early stage of their development, not everything has been finalised yet. This means that things like interior plastic textures haven’t all been settled on yet, so the IV cars both sported areas of matte, untextured interior fittings, which felt weirdly out of place in what otherwise looked like a production ready interior (well, the bits you could see through the fabric covers screwed onto every section to prevent giving too much away in here either).
Little things like the lettering for the automatic transmission being on the wrong side of the shifter and the electric park brake being over on the left were also not-so-subtle hints of the IV cars early stage of development.
Being based on the European Insignia, the next Commodore is slightly smaller than the current VF Commodore and this is most noticeable in the back seats, with rear shoulder room being generous, but not quite as generous as the VF.
While leg room was impressively large, rear headroom was slightly restricted by the liftback body shape, but apparently this was due to the rear seats not actually being the final specification. The production seats will have 30mm more foam on on the back rests and that will bring the rear passenger’s heads further forward and away from the roofline.
One other downside at the rear was access, with the doors not quite opening wide enough for totally effortless access. This will be most noticeable if you are ever a guest of the constabulary, as the police will very much be taking the NG Commodore when it arrives.
Up front, however, the NG certainly feels like it has as much space as the existing car, with shoulder room being particularly impressive.
Check out the full gallery of 2018 Holden Commodore pics here!
Equipment
Interestingly the two IV cars sported different dashboards, with the liftback getting an impressive “virtual” dash with a large 8-inch screen behind the steering wheel replacing traditional gauges with a configurable layout, while an 8-inch touchscreen dominated the centre of the dash. The liftback also packed shift paddles on the steering wheel for direct control over the nine-speed transmission.
The “wagon” (that is to say, the liftback with the extra weight added to simulate the wagon) had a lower-spec dash with traditional gauges, a smaller touchscreen and no paddles.
Whether this means the V6 AWD will be available in several levels of spec, or simply that one of them was fitted with a FWD car’s dash was not clear, nor commented on, so we will see.
The NG Commodore will also get a suite of advanced safety, driver assistance and infotainment technology, none of which Holden are talking about yet, apart from the fact it will have Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
Check out the full gallery of 2018 Holden Commodore pics here!
Engine and transmission
While this early peek at the NG Commodore was all about the V6 AWD model, the lower level Commodores will be that most controversial of things – a FWD 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder car.
Holden isn’t talking about those yet, except to confirm that there will be a petrol and a diesel, they will be automatic only and that the petrol will be “the most powerful base engine ever seen in a Commodore.”
The V6 engine, however, was something they were more than happy to talk about.
Basically an exensive development of the VF Commodore’s 3.6-litre unit, the NG’s V6 also gets the Active Fuel Management (AFM) cylinder deactivation system previously seen on the Commodore’s V8.
This allows the engine to shut down two cylinders when cruising to save fuel. It is an utterly seamless system, that gives almost no sign when it is active, with even Holden’s engineers admitting that they had to hook up a diagnostic computer to see when it was actually activating, as you really can’t tell otherwise.
While Holden engineers have achieved power and torque figures of 230kW and 370Nm from the 3.6 on the dyno, they admit that the IV cars aren’t quite up to those levels yet.
Holden’s vehicle development manager, Jeremy Tassone, says that the V6 Commodore will have a zero to 100km/h time of around 6 seconds and while the cars we drove didn’t feel quite that quick, they were not all that far from it and it won’t take too much work for Holden to get them down to that.
The new nine-speed automatic transmission is a beautifully smooth and fast unit and one that uses all of its ratios at local speeds, as opposed to only slipping into ninth at stratospheric autobahn speeds, which was something that Holden insisted on.
Its shifts are impressively smooth and fast, almost reminiscent of a dual clutch shifter, while dropping it into ninth gear at open road speeds (and well beyond on the test track) saw it tick over at some seriously low, fuel-saving revs.
Kick-down was equally quick, smooth and responsive, meaning that its ability to cruise at high speeds with low revs didn’t mean it was slow to respond to throttle inputs.
Check out the full gallery of 2018 Holden Commodore pics here!
Ride and handling
Despite that “early stage” thing, the two IV cars were impressively complete and generally felt production ready. Only a few tiny things like the small “clunk” that the AWD system emitted after the stop/start system restarted the engine after a pause were immediately obvious to the non-engineer.
This was something that was apparently caused by the stop/start system allowing hydraulic pressure to drop in the AWD system when it activated. Holden’s engineers were well aware of it and it is exactly the sort of thing these IV cars are built to discover.
As no suspension adjustments have actually been made on the IV cars yet, the ride has a distinctly European feel, with a controlled firmness that gave the NG Commodore a confident, planted feel. While it felt firm, it never felt flustered or harsh over the sometimes savage surfaces on Lang Lang’s ride and handling circuit.
This also goes for the steering which was beautifully weighted, nicely sharp and accurate, and possessing of a remarkably tight turning circle for a large car. In fact, although Holden weren’t talking about any numbers for it, we reckon we wouldn’t be too wrong in saying it will have the best turning circle of any recent Commodore. Quite possibly the best steering too…
Holden have been involved with the development of the car from the start, with the V6 AWD version being developed specifically at the Australian company’s request (although other markets have since put their hands up for it), so it makes sense that the IV cars should arrive here fairly well sorted for local conditions, but the level they have arrived at has even surprised Holden’s engineers.
Because the NG Commodore will be slightly smaller than the VF, it is also considerably lighter, with a weight saving of between 200 and 300kg depending on the model. This weight reduction is immediately obvious when driving the NG, which feels a far more lively and responsive thing to chuck into a corner.
As mentioned earlier, the steering is particularly well weighted and accurate, while the lower weight makes the AWD Commodore quite the nimble beast on Holden’s various ride and handling tracks.
While the IV cars were AWD, they didn’t have the torque vectoring system active, as the software was still being worked on. Still, as it was the AWD system provided plenty of added traction off the line, but it will be interesting to try it further down the line when the clever torque vectoring system is active.
Check out the full gallery of 2018 Holden Commodore pics here!
Initial Impressions
Regardless of your opinions of a FWD four-cylinder Commodore, the V6 AWD, even at 65 percent complete, is a genuinely impressive car so far and we can’t wait to see what Holden’s engineers do with it.
For such an early development car, the NG Commodore’s we drove at Lang Lang were remarkably complete and impressively refined.
The lower weight and excellent AWD system (even though it didn’t yet offer up all its tricks) meant that the NG rarely betrayed its FWD origins.
While Holden engineers say that the 3.6-litre V6 doesn’t quite sound how they want it to, it still sounds pretty good, with a deep, satisfying growl under acceleration, albeit with a bit of a flat drone at steady speeds.
The NG represents something of a full circle for the Commodore, after all the first Commodore started life as a rebadged Opel and was considerably smaller than the Kingswood it replaced, outraging Holden fans at the time.
And that didn’t turn out too bad in the end, did it?
Check out the full gallery of 2018 Holden Commodore pics here!
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