Buyers count in GM Holden’s long farewell to its iconic locally built Commodore.
Owners of Special Edition Commodore vehicles scrambled to secure their preferred build numbers after the General Motors subsidiary allowed them to select the number on a first-come, first-served basis.
Only 1,200 Motorsports, 360 Directors and 240 Magnums are being produced, all individually numbered in the order they were produced.
The build number given to each vehicle is presented on a plate under the hood. For the Special Editions, the build number will read KOM for Motorsport Edition, DIR for Director and MAG for Magnum. These are followed by the number indicating its sequence. It is this number customers are able to choose.
Along with their car’s selected build number, GM Holden is providing each ’17 Commodore customer with photographs of their car on the Adelaide production line.
Build-number selection is available to customers who bought their Special Edition Commodores before April 24.
The Motorsport Edition costs A$61,790 ($45,620) with a manual transmission and A$63,990 ($47,244) with an automatic; the Director is automatic only at A$63,990; and the Magnum manual is A$59,290 ($43704) and the automatic A$61,490 ($45,395).
GM Holden Customer Relationship Manager Rich Wright says feedback from the two initiatives has been phenomenal.
“One minute before the Special Edition build-number selection website went live we had over 1,000 people waiting for it to open, and three hours later almost 80% of the numbers for sold cars had been claimed,” Wright says in a statement.
“We’ve seen some definite trends in number popularity. For example, all of the first 200 and last 100 Motorsport Edition numbers have gone, as well as all double and triple digits such as 55 or 555.”
The three new Limited Edition Commodores have sophisticated, track-focused driving technology to go with their 6.2L LS3 V-8 engines.
Daniel Pinnuck, lead development engineer-GM Holden Limited Editions, says the models used additional technology to squeeze even greater performance out of Commodore and position one of Australia’s favorite vehicles as the most capable in GM globally.
“We’ve also developed engine and transmission cooling packages to meet ‘GM Level 3’ track performance, meaning Commodore now joins the likes of Corvette, Camaro and Cadillac CTS as among the most track-capable General Motors vehicles.”
