Faithful servant since 2006

Welcoming the Holden Acadia to New Zealand roads also means a farewell for the Captiva.

The South Korea-built SUV has been a faithful servant for Holden since it launched in New Zealand in late 2006.

It’s been through upgrades, facelifts and and even minor name changes — including Captiva 5, 7 and MaXX designations — but has remained fundamentally the same for a dozen years.

The Captiva arrived as part of a 2006 Holden new model launch blitz that also delivered the VE Commodore. It started life with a 3.2-litre V6 petrol engine and later gained a diesel option and the smaller MaXX bodystyle.

The Captiva was initially Holden’s answer to the success of the Ford Territory and has been a consistent performer for Holden New Zealand achieving cumulative sales of just over 21,000 vehicles from its 2006 launch to September 2018.

Captiva’s strongest year was 2012 when 2502 were registered and it ranked as New Zealand’s third most popular passenger car model and led the SUV segment.

Every year since its peak performance Captiva sales remained strong at more than 2000 units annually.

With the run-out of the nameplate now in full swing, the 2018 tally was 1514 units in the first nine months with an expectation to top 2000 units again.

Holden’s final shipment of Captiva stock is currently on run-out with the base model LS available from $27,990 and the top grade LTZ — with 3.0-litre V6 petrol or 2.2-litre fourcylinder turbo diesel engine choices — being specialled at $36,990.