Holden Commodore Tourer

Holden

has announced a third variant for the 2018 NG Commodore range, which goes on sale early next year. A light off-roading Tourer version built around the wagon body, with raised ground clearance and mode-selectable all-wheeldrive will be offered alongside the Commodore sedan and Sportwagon.

An extra 20mm of ground clearance with a skid plate and protective body cladding form the basis of a Tourer, which recalls the VZ Commodore-based early noughties Holden Adventra crossover.

The AWD system, which can send a high proportion of drive to individual wheels, provides driver selectable modes, including a ‘sports’ setting that also introduces specific steering and transmission calibrations.

The model should give Holden an ace in an SUV-focussed market, alongside the traditional sedan and wagon variants.

Meanwhile, as the Commodore’s Opel Insignia basis hits European roads, local development of the Australian market-only V6 AWD and 2.0-litre turbo Commodore continues, Holden’s engineers having covered 30,000km to date.

“We recently put the Australian tuned V6 all-wheel-drive and 2.0-litre turbo Commodores to test on Victoria’s challenging alpine roads,” Holden’s executive director of engineering, Brett Vivian said. “We have been working to tune to the specific tastes of Aussie buyers who like responsive steering and sporty suspension, yet composed ride quality when cruising. These are the hallmarks of Commodore and we are going to deliver again with the next-gen car.”

As well as on these challenging high country roads, which form part of Holden’s engineering development and validation ‘rides’ for each new model, the new Commodore has covered countless kilometres at the brand’s Lang Lang proving ground in Victoria.

In related news, Holden says it has started recruiting engineers and drivetrain calibration specialists to work at its Lang Lang proving ground on future Cadillac and Buick-badged products. This represents the next step in the expansion of General Motors’ engineering and development foothold in Australia, following the announcement in October last year that the proving ground would receive an extra $8.7 million from its US parent to upgrade its emissions labs.

Meantime, Holden outsold Ford by only two units in April 2017. Holden sold 5804 vehicles nationally for the month, compared with Ford’s 5802. Both brands’ sales were down sharply on the same month last year, with Ford falling more than 15 percent and Holden 13.5 percent. The pair sat fourth and fifth respectively on sales charts in April, behind market leader Toyota, Mazda and Hyundai.