Opel’s Holden Commodore twin to be axed

The car that formed the basis of the final Holden Commodore sold in Australia, the Opel Insignia, will reach the end of the line this year.

A spokesperson for Opel parent company Stellantis has confirmed to European media that the Russelsheim factory in Germany that produces the mid-size passenger car will drop Insignia to free up capacity for the more popular Opel Astra small car.

The current Opel Insignia was not expected to be replaced until 2024, although its future has been the subject of intense speculation given poor sales in Europe.

There were reports earlier this year that Insignia would be reinvented as an SUV, which could still take place.

The Insignia became the replacement for the previous Australian-built Holden Commodore after local manufacturing ended in October 2017, arriving on our shores as the ZB Commodore early the following year.

Despite extensive local engineering work, the ZB was never considered a ‘true’ Commodore by many Australians and only had a short tenure, with Holden announcing less than two years later that it was dropping both Commodore and Astra to focus solely on SUVs and utes.

Only a matter of weeks later, in February 2020, General Motors formally announced that it was killing off the Holden brand altogether by the end of that year.

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