The Commodore family wouldn’t be complete without the VF facelift being extended to what must be one of the most charismatic Australian cars. Like what was mentioned on Calais’ article, these cars represent why prospering in the car world isn’t done neither with only global or only regional projects, but using a combined strategy. Ford has followed this concept at that market using Falcon, which has been this family’s archenemy for decades. So now you’re about to read the latest chapter of this delicious competition.
Even though the market has received many new categories in the last years, such as four-door coupés, retro-inspired compacts and the endless variations under the “crossover” label, their purposes may be very different but the history is usually the same: one particular automaker found a gap of the demand that no one was satisfying directly and released a very different car which, according to its intentions, the public would prefer instead of the existing ones. Some ended failing, but others achieved so much success that soon became followed by the rivals. However, other categories were created by clearer demands, such as the Brazilian compact pick-ups: in the 1970s, this market’s commercial sector had only s-size trucks or big pick-ups. The exception came with an adapted version of Fiat 147, whose reduced size gave it excellent handling in city streets, along with the much better fuel consumption of an urban car – the hatchback was already very commended for its frugality. The Australian situation was very similar, in fact: that public wanted smaller pick-ups, although not as much as the Brazilians’, but also taking the advantages of being derived from urban vehicles: it was possible to share most of the mechanics and even several visible parts, such as the interior’s front part, resulting on unusually attractive commercial cars.
