Even though every market has very particular preferences when it comes to cars, some result even more interesting to observe than the others. Australia and Brazil, for example, have very different cars but coincide in some aspects, such as creating their own categories (and turning them very successful) and receiving almost as many foreign projects as having domestic ones being exported. So before this sedan appears as North American Chevrolet’s new full-size, how about knowing what its homeland has just revealed?
Just like Ford with Falcon, GM’s Australian division has been selling Commodore with great numbers for many years. Holden has taken inspiration some times from Chevrolet and others from Opel, but always resulting at an excellent car which could easily be sold anywhere else – the last two generations, for example, went to Brazil as Chevrolet Omega. But if the Europeans are used to reduce the cars’ updates only to half-life facelifts and new generations, and North Americans receive several tiny updates between the bigger changes, the Australians extend a car lifecycle by creating some partial restylings each two or three years; the third Commodore, alone, had three of them in about ten years. The current phase debuted in 2006, but the bigger time lapse until its first update is probably explained by the very big initial budget spent on attending the public’s very high expectations. The codename VF, comes as a more important facelift because it might be the only one: GM is planning to create a whole new Commodore for 2016 underpinned by a whole new global platform. However, since this will take a long time to happen, for now it’s possible to to appreciate what is certainly this car’s best moment ever. The excellent first impression was guaranteed by starting with Calais, which is this car’s upmarket version. That’s Holden’s way of showing everything its sedan is capable of.
The external pictures start to show that Holden managed to refresh this sedan making it so attractive that could easily be mistaken for a new generation. The overall impression is that it abandoned the 2000s style trends in favor of a more European inspiration, giving away the sharp cuts and creases in exchange of smoother volumes and much more classy elements. In fact, there’s no wonder why this car has been exported as Opel Omega’s equivalent: VF really resembles Insignia, not a direct competitor but as a bigger brother, because it’s more opulent. But the many similarities are there, specially related to the implicit sportiness given by the irregularly-shaped lights and the very discreet creases. Entering the car reveals a whole new cabin, with seats, doors and console matched in a very elegant two-toned decoration. But the even better news are located at the items list: like every true luxury version, Calais can bring heads-up display, GM MyLink infotainment system, parallel and 90-degree parking assistance, electric steering and several safety systems, to prevent front and rear collisions at low speed, involuntary lane changing and to improve external visibility. Engine data wasn’t revealed so far, but it’s expected that Commodore’s biggest changes will be efficiency improvements, rather than engine changes. This new phase will also generate the other versions, such as Berlina, Omega, HSV, SSV, SV6 and Z-Series.