SPY PICS: Holden Commodore facelift

The first imported Holden Commodore has only been on sale in Australia since February, but a mid-life update for the Opel Insignia on which it’s based has already been spied testing in Europe.

Sporting a new-look front-end design that appears to borrow a few styling cues from fellow German car-maker Volkswagen, Opel’s facelifted Insignia was spotted in Germany in both sedan and wagon body styles.

The Opel Insignia is sold in Australia as Holden’s ZB Commodore but features recalibrated steering and suspension designed for local conditions, and thee spy shots of an updated model suggests European customers will see the facelifted vehicle within about 12 months, by the end of 2019.

Although a Holden spokesperson told motoring.com.au that "Holden doesn’t comment on future product," our sources have confirmed the facelifted Commodore will arrive in Holden showrooms in 2020 as a 2021 model-year vehicle.

As well as the restyled headlights, the front grille and fascia appear to have been resculpted to keep the vehicle fresh.

As with any facelift, we may see changes to equipment levels and potentially a few upgrades to the infotainment system and interior fittings, such as the dashboard and seats.

In Australia, sales of the German-made Holden Commodore have steadily increased since launch, but remain well below those of the homegrown version produced in GM’s Elizabeth plant in the north of Adelaide until Holden ceased local manufacturing in October 2017.

In its hey-day, the Commodore was Australia’s top-selling car, but in 2018 it's outsold by the Ford Mustang, a niche sports car.

In 2011, Holden sold more than 40,000 Commodores and the model’s biggest year was 1998, when 94,642 examples of the VT series found homes.

Commodore sales are down 57 per cent thus far in 2018, with 7295 registrations of new and old vehicles being well off the 17,194 units sold in the same period in 2017. However, the Commodore is still Australia's top-selling ‘large car’, by a significant margin.

The current ZB Holden Commodore is based on GM’s Epsilon II (E2) platform and supplied by France’s PSA Group -- the custodian of Peugeot and Citroen -- following its purchase of GM Europe’s Opel and Vauxhall brands in early 2017.

Holden says it has a contract with PSA to supply the Commodore — including its current architecture — for six years. That means the ZB should continue fundamentally unchanged until 2023 and Holden is confident it will offer a new generation Commodore after that.

But whether Holden’s next Commodore is based on a Buick model sold in China or shares its EMP2 platform with the Peugeot 508 large car remains to be seen.