The Holden Commodore and Holden Astra have been discontinued for the 2020 model year, with General Motors Australia choosing to move away from passenger cars and focus on its truck and SUV business instead.
The discontinuation of these cars isn’t surprising, with both using platforms that were developed by Opel while it was still owned by GM. Now that Opel is owned and operated by France’s Groupe PSA, GM is moving away from these cars, which it has to pay Opel to produce. The ZB Holden Commodore shares a platform with the Opel Insignia, while the BK Holden Astra is based on the Opel Astra.
In addition, GM recently announced it would discontinue the Buick Regal in the U.S. after the 2020 model year, which shares a platform with the Opel Insignia and ZB Commodore.
In a statement, Holden managing director Kristian Aquilina said the company “is taking this decisive action to ensure a sharp focus on the largest and most buoyant market segments.” The company’s SUV and Ute businesses have accounted for 76 percent of its sales so far this year, and Aquilina says this is a trend that the automaker believes will continue for the foreseeable future.
Holden says the large car segment in Australia was at its peak in 1998, when it accounted for 217,882 sales. By comparison, it is projected to come in at about 8,700 units total for this year. Meanwhile, the SUV segment will approach half a million units in the country this year, while trucks will account for about 200,000 sales in total.
“That’s where the action is and that’s where we are going to play,” Aquilina said of the truck and SUV segments.
The Commodore is an iconic Australian nameplate that was once synonymous with the Holden brand. The sedan lost much of its character and appeal when it switched from a rear-wheel-drive platform to a front-wheel-drive platform for the ZB generation, though the nameplate will still be missed by Holden enthusiasts once it departs.
“The decision to retire the Commodore nameplate has not been taken lightly by those who understand and acknowledge its proud heritage,” Aquilina explained. “The large sedan was the cornerstone of Australian and New Zealand roads for decades. But now with more choice than ever before, customers are displaying a strong preference for the high driving position, functionality and versatility of SUVs and Utes.”
Sales and deliveries of the Commodore and Astra will continue throughout 2020, though Holden warns that model availability will diminish throughout the year, as it won’t be stocking new vehicles. Holden will of course continue to back warranty and roadside assistance commitments for existing Commodore and Astra buyers.
The automaker is also offering seven-year free scheduled servicing on all 2019 model-year ZB Commodore and BK Astra vehicles ordered from December 9th onwards in an attempt to help shuffle out remaining stock.
Holden sales are down 26.6 percent in the first nine months of 2019, significantly outpacing the Australian market’s slowdown of eight percent. September was also the first time its monthly sales results have dipped below 3,000 units, with the brand moving just 2,863 vehicles throughout the month.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more Holden news and 24/7 GM news coverage.
Comments
Oh I’m so shocked…….
When we get an worldwide VSS-R replacement?.
General Motors- the swiss cheese of automakers. With product holes you can fit an Escalade through!
Europe, India, Australia… Korea is the next one?
So GM focused on the american market. And gave us the T1 Silverado. LOL
Nope, the nations mention other than Australia gets GEM vehicles, CUV/T1 or a mix of both.
Yes I’d hate to see the affordable GM sedan go for now. I’m hopeful will see the VSS cars for 1st world nations soon.
Nobody said that GM Holden is giving up completely, they only working “to transition Holden to an SUV and ute brand.” (from December 02, 2019 press statement by GM Holden.
Check out www dot holden dot com dot au/cars for the remaining “car” offering: the Astra and Commodore.
Yes, SUVs and UTEs for Holden. Then the consumers discovers they can pay less money for a good korean Kia or Hyundai product. It’s market share grows, GM loses again. Then GM argues it will stay only in lucrative markets. We’ve seen it before many times.
The next will be Thailand and Colombia. They are already importing SGMW vehicles to those countries.
Let’s just be honest, they are ending production of these cars sooner than expected because PSA is merging with FCA and their lawsuit against direct rival FCA isn’t gonna stick. Isn’t it amazing how fiat, opel, and psa deals never work with gm, but they work with Chrysler? Guess the problem was GM all along. And lastly, if all these GM brands are the same nowdays and Barra wants to cut costs, why not just export Chevy to Australia and sell the Chinese Buicks as Chinese only Chevrolets/Cadillacs?
Because China loves Buick. Because Cadillac has great margins. Because Chevrolet does only so so in China.
It wouldn’t save GM money anyway. China will always require unique marketing. Anyway China is the only region where all GM brands actually sell.
Holden is done. A rwd Cadillac should have been Commodore. The brand is too sick to sell.
The reason Chevrolet sells so so is because even the Chinese know they are fugly. If Chevrolets were Buicks with Chevrolet badges, they would sell. Why does GM put the brand badges with unrespected identity on the best looking cars they make and put the legendary brand badges on fugly cars? How freakin’ hard is it to put Chevrolet badges on Buick sedans and GMC trucks and eliminate the Buick, GMC, and Holden names? It’s all the same at this point.
…except that the decision appears to have been made some time ago.
It makes sense in north america, because selling two vehicles (Malibu and Regal) which are essentially the same doesn’t make financial sense.
GMH would not be able to sell the V6 model, since that is not sold by PSA, this would make the model too marginal to sell. The Astra is switching to three cylinder only, which would be hard to sell as well.
Didn’t say it wasn’t gonna happen, i said it happened soonet than planned. They weren’t supposed to end untill like 2022 or 2024.
The ZB Holden Commodore and Buick Regal do not »share a platform with the Opel Insignia«, but are simply badge engineered versions of it, or of each other. They were developed in Rüsselsheim, Germany as one type of car bearing several different GM brands.
They do share the platform with the Chevrolet Malibu, the GM Epsilon II.
We are watching the slow painful death of GM Holden. The brand is no longer relevant in Australia and it appears there is no coming back. Holden has experienced it’s worst sales in 70 years. I place this debacle clearly with the senior management of GM. I would recommend GM reinvents Holden into Chevrolet and Cadillac or close the Australian business.
If the only thing that changes on a car is a badge how can they not love it? China is the king of rip offs, don’tcha know? Plus putting a Cadillac badge on a buick moves it up market, then when the Buicks die the Chinese will be forced into buying real Cadillacs, therefore moving them upmarket and improving gms profit margin. Trust me china will buy a buick with a Cadillac symbol.