VN COMMODORE 30 YEARS

HOLDEN ANNOUNCED IT WAS BACK IN THE BIG CAR GAME, AND THE GAMBLE HAD TO WORK.

Is that the time already? A V N Commodore is now eligible for historic or club plates in most parts of t he countr y! For Holden this was potentia lly a make or brea k model t hat, if t hey got it wrong, could ef fectively surrender complete market dominance to the Ford Falcon.

Glenn Torrens tells us: By early 1983, over four years after the launch of the Commodore and three years after the Kingswood had been k illed, Holden was in a bit of strife… and it k new it. A big f uel crisis had, a decade before, spurred Holden into building a smaller family car for Austra lia… But larger cars were now cool again, leav ing Holden’s family car in the shadow of the Ford Falcon with which it competed for t he Aussie f leet and family car buyers’ bucks.

As it had done for the V B Commodore, Holden could have co-developed the Opel Senator that was under development for a 1987 launch but it wanted to return to a bigger, Kingswood (and Ford Falcon) sized family car by the late 1980s. So Holden went a lone with the development of t he V N, ta k ing just t he side-body architecture of t he Opel (t he doors and f lush-f itting window frames) and splicing it to a widened version of t he V L f loor and suspension to create a uniquely Austra lian car.

This prov ided t he required interior size – t hree bums across t he back seat. This v irtually new body a lso a llowed Holden to vastly improve the performance of t he ventilation and air-conditioning systems for V N. The higher aero-st yled body line a lso a llowed a bigger boot.

Essentia l for the success of the V N was an improvement in qualit y. Three decades later, it’s easy to laugh but it rea lly was a step for ward at the time. The V N was intended to be built in just one assembly plant, rat her t han t he four Aussie factories that the f irst-gen V B-V L Commodores were variously assembled in (wit h k it-packs to NZ) – enabling Holden to work on the assembly techniques and qualit y of V N.