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Holden Commodore Turns 30, Still Looks Damn Fine

Put on your party hats people, the Commodore is now 30 years old. But – unlike most 30 year-olds – the Commodore isn’t wallowing in despair and regretting a wasted youth spent drinking beer and playing Galaga, for after three decades and 14 model variant


Put on your party hats people, the Commodore is now 30 years old. But - unlike most 30 year-olds - the Commodore isn't wallowing in despair and regretting a wasted youth spent drinking beer and playing Galaga, for after three decades and 14 model variants, the Commodore nameplate is still fighting-fit and at the top of its game.

Holden has much reason to celebrate the Commodore's 30-year milestone. Since launching as the VB Commodore on 25 October 1978 and replacing the venerable Kingswood, the humble Opel-derived sedan gradually won over the hearts and wallets of Australia's motoring public, and has scored the distinction of being Australia's top-selling passenger car for the past 12 years running.

With over 2.5 million Commodores being produced since production began, the Commodore's status as an Aussie institution is undisputable. It's also become a bit of a money-spinner for GMH too, with Chevy and Pontiac-badged Commodores being exported to the Middle East, England and the United States, confirming that the Australian-built and Australian-designed sedan is quite literally a world class vehicle.

Anyway, it wouldn't be a birthday party without a drunk aunty making embarrassing references to the birthday boy's youth, so in that spirit check out the following advertisement showing the original VB Commodore slaloming around its own name on the Westgate bridge:

Car ads sure have come a long way, huh? Thankfully the Commodore improved with age too, with the VL generation packing a sizable amount of grunt from a new Nissan-sourced inline-six and a grunty V8. To properly illustrate its newfound power, Holden threw together the following ad showing a VL towing a 737 airliner -and possibly voiding its own warranty by pulling well over 22-times its maximum towing weight.

Nothing like good ol' fashioned Aussie improvisation, is there? Happy birthday, Commodore.

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