The Holden VF Commodore is nearly dead, and the Holden ZB Commodore will soon arrive to take its place. The brand’s first imported Commodore has earned its official generation code after it showed up in official Australian Design Rule certification approval documents, according to Motoring.
Since the 2018 Holden Commodore was revealed, Holden has referred to the car as the “NG” Commodore, which is short for “new generation.” It was unclear if that NG name would stick or if a proper code would be assigned—now we know it’s the latter case.
Immediately, many pointed to possible nods to “Zeta” or the original VB Commodore, but that’s actually not the case. Holden claims the code comes directly from Opel. The second-generation Opel Insignia (B) has long been called “ZB” internally. Holden merely picked the name up. We wish there was a fun nod to the past, but that’s not the case here.
The 2018 Holden ZB Commodore does harken back to the past in a different manner, though. Ford actually used the ZB code for its Fairlane, which was sold in Australian until 2007. The nameplate was killed off in the United States way back in 1970.
So, from here on out, the 2018 Commodore shall be known as the ZB Commodore, which marks an end to the series of “V” branded codenames used for decades during local production. The current VF Series II Commodore will exit production this October and the ZB Commodore will arrive in early 2018.
Comments
GM is the only car company in the world that would put in a black plastic fake window in anything above a base economy model in 2018.
Toyota did it. The last generation Camry did it for the same reason the Insignia/Regal does it, styling. There’s nothing wrong with doing this but GM is not the only company to do it.
Great, give it the model designation of an old Ford Fairlane why don’t you