Holden Commodore (VN)

Holden

MarqueHolden

ProductionAugust 1988 – September 1991 / 1997 (China)

Enginegasoline: / 2.0 L GM Family II engine#C20NE / C20NE Straight-four engine / I4 / 2.2 L I4 (China) / 2.6 L Opel cam-in-head engine#2.6 litre I6 / C26NE

Assembled by MotorJury from Wikidata, Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) and Wikimedia Commons · method

Holden does not build many cars like the Holden Commodore (VN): a 4-door sedan / 5-door station wagon / 2-door coupé utility (VG) with Petrol engine, built from 1988 to 1997 in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. Its designer of record is Phillip Zmood.

How it came about

The Holden Commodore (VN) is a full-size car that was produced by Holden from 1988 to 1991. It was the first iteration of the second generation of this Australian made model, which was previously a mid-size car, as well as the first Commodore available as a coupé utility. The new range included the luxury variants, Holden Berlina (VN) and Holden Calais (VN) and, from 1990, introduced the commercial Holden Utility (VG).

The hardware

Under the skin sits Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Kerb weight is 1311 kg–1492 kg. The gearbox is a 5-speed Borg-Warner T-5 manual / 4-speed GM HydraMatic 700 automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2731 mm–2822 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Family and rivals

Where it sits in Holden's history is not in doubt: the Holden Commodore (VL) / Toyota Crown (S120) (Lexcen) came before it; the Holden Commodore (VP) followed it; it was built at Adelaide, South Australia. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Ferrari F40, the Mazda MX-5, the BMW 5 Series. Its Holden stablemates include the Holden 48-215 and the Holden Adventra.

The money

There is no federal ownership record for the Holden Commodore (VN) — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.