ZB Commodore: first-year report
How has Holden’s controversial Commodore ZB shaped up after a year on sale? David Linklater reports.
Holden New Zealand celebrated the first anniversary of the ZB Commodore this month. Quite literally celebrated. From a staff and media point of view, a party at the Pukekohe racing circuit featuring a fleet of cars for lap work and two special guests: motor racing icon/Holden hero Greg Murphy and the vehicle dynamics engineer Rob Trubiani from Australia (who, among car people, is something of a Holden icon himself).
From a customer point of view, the brand rolled out a Black Edition of the Commodore.
The dress-up package will be offered for the first 40 people who purchase a ZB in April. It looks rather good, actually: blacked-out grille and window surrounds, with badging to match.
It’s unusual to celebrate the first birthday of a new car, but that’s OK. Any excuse, right?
What makes it a bit jarring is that the 40th anniversary of the Holden Commodore name
The brand rolled out a Black Edition of the Commodore . . . It looks rather good, actually: blacked-out grille and window surrounds, with badging to match.
(launched on October 26, 1978) passed by last year without a mention.
Understandably so, given that Holden sales were in freefall in Australia and there was a lot of illfeeling about the company canning local manufacture . . . while continuing to use the Commodore name on an imported German car. Even if it was one with a lot of Australian engineering input.
Indeed, six months after Holden’s plant shut its doors, the brand’s Aussie sales had fallen to their lowest level since 1948. It’s been struggling to make the long drive back ever since.
So it’s really no wonder that the big birthday for what had always been an Aussie-made icon was left alone in both Australia and therefore New Zealand. No doubt it was a touchy subject and a potential slap in the face for brand loyalists to be marking the occasion with too much (or indeed any) enthusiasm. Too soon.
That’s our theory. Holden NZ’s goes like this: ‘‘We consider every opportunity to promote and recognise our vehicles, but as a small team had to weigh up where best to invest both our time and effort,’’ says general manager of corporate affairs Ed Finn.
‘‘Given the shift in consumer preferences from large passenger cars to SUV, we decided to dedicate resource to a flawless launch of the all-new Acadia, which we were completely focused on in the lead up to the 40th birthday of Commodore in October.
‘‘We have a little more breathing space right at the moment, so decided to mark the first anniversary since the launch of the new ZB model in a small but significant way with the release of the Black Edition.’’
New Zealand is faring much better with the brand in these troubled times – to the extent that key executives from the Kiwi operation have been called to Australia to help out. A long way from the top, but year-to-date the fifth-biggest brand, with a 7 per cent market share.
But that includes everything: passenger, SUV and commercial. The big question must be: how is ZB really doing here after a year on the market?
Nobody was expecting Commodore to dominate Kiwi sales. Holden has already stated its intention to move with the times and become an SUV-focused brand. The ZB exists in a dwindling market segment; sedans and conventional wagons are yesterday’s cars, in many respects.
Against that backdrop, ZB’s holding its own. Year to date, it’s the only sub-$70k large car worth talking about: with 328 sales, it has six times the sales volume of the second-place Kia Stinger. Yes, there will be some police cars in there. But a sale’s a sale, right?
Neither of the top medium cars (which are actually a similar size to the Holden) are close either for the year: ZB has easily outsold Toyota Camry and Mazda6.
Or look at it another way. Consider the 2017 sales of the old VF, excluding the V8 and ute models (neither of which have equivalents in the ZB lineup), and Holden NZ sold 1427 Commodores.
In 2018, it sold 1366 ZB models (and no, that doesn’t include the 269 VFs that carried over).
Commodore’s days as the hero car of the Holden brand are long gone: the brand sold 4583 Colorado utes last year, for example.
But in the context of current buyer preferences, the ZB’s doing OK . . . in New Zealand.