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Falcon and Commodore no more — when racing cars aren’t the cars people buy
The decision made by the Holden in Australia this week to focus on “utes” (utility vehicles) and SUVs (sports utility vehicles, also known as crossovers) has set the wheels in motion to cause an end one of the most famous racing feuds in motorsport — the long war between the Ford Falcon and the Holden Commodore in Australia.
In fact, Ford had already ducked out when they switched from the Falcon to the Mustang this season, romping to championship success with the car.
The reason for that change was that Ford had ceased production of the Falcon, their large saloon car, and had aligned with Ford’s general principle of promoting the Mustang as its premier performance road vehicle from this year.
Holden had chosen another path, and had attempted to keep the Commodore tag alive, but with the group no longer building its own cars (both Ford and Holden ceased all Australian production two years ago), the GM-brand imprinted the name on the imported Opel Insignia, which is a smaller saloon model produced for the European market, but was already exported to the American as the Buick Regal, and now to Australia as the new Holden ZB Commodore.
Holden is struggling at home. The GM brand has slipped from the third most popular car maker in Australia just…
