Holden Commodore hits the wall

Independent vehicle safety assessor ANCAP’s twice-delayed ‘audit’ test of the new Holden Commodore will finally take place in Sydney next Tuesday (May 8).

The imported ZB Commodore has already been a maximum five-star safety rating by ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment program), but that is based on a Euro NCAP crash test of a left-hand drive, front-wheel drive 1.6-ltre turbo-diesel Opel Insignia.

The local test will be of a right-hand drive V6 all-wheel drive RS-V — a model actually sold here — and is intended to verify data supplied by Holden and ensure ANCAP’s own methodology is up to scratch.

If the offset test does not confirm the published five-star occupant safety result, the Commodore could be immediately reclassified by ANCAP as unrated.

But ANCAP makes clear that a bad result is not expected.

“The submission we received from Holden was a very comprehensive one and a very good one, but what we identified was the vehicle that was tested [by Euro NCAP] was a small engine diesel not offered in Australia,” ANCAP chief executive James Goodwin told motoring.com.au.

“There were suggestions the V6 and the all-wheel drive could be one of the popular selling models here and we really didn’t have any independent data on that, we only had Holden’s in-house data.

“So that was the reason we selected the V6 Commodore for an audit test program.”

The Commodore test was originally scheduled for February, but was delayed until late March because a vehicle could not be purchased in time. It was then delayed again when an RS V6 AWD rather than an RS-V was supplied to ANCAP.

“Essentially, the vehicle we ordered wasn’t the one we got, but only because the broker and the dealer were trying to get us a vehicle as quickly as possible,” explained Goodwin.

“So, they did a switch on the dock. But we weren’t comfortable with that for the purposes of why we were doing it.

“We didn’t want any suspicion or concern. It’s not that we necessarily have any concerns with the car, it’s just that we don’t like the process from an order point of view.

“It’s a different colour and all those sorts of things. So, from a real customer point of view you wouldn’t accept red when you ordered silver, so we thought we would be the same.”

Goodwin said the purpose of the test was to audit ANCAP’s methodology as much as the Commodore’s crash-worthiness.

“We have calculated a rating for the Holden Commodore based on a small diesel Insignia, so are our internal systems appropriate and correct? Have we got enough information from the manufacturer?

“So, we are really auditing ourselves as well as the vehicle itself. If that exposes anything in that then we will be seeking explanations from the manufacturer on that.

“We want to make sure the public has confidence in the integrity of our process. We are very conscious the public understands what we do and how we do is sound and they can have that confidence in it.”