VE design is international, says Holden

MIKE Simcoe is no longer Holden’s design director, but he was the chief architect of the VE Commodore before handing over the reins to Tony Stolfo.

His assessment of the car’s new looks is that it’s traditional and international. Nothing outlandish like the AU Falcon – but something Holden has wanted to create "for a long time".

"The same core is there (as VT)," he said. "It’s a very traditional package. It’s not outlandish design because that’s not what the Australian public needs, or wants. It’s good, confident design. It’s well proportioned and it pushes quality to a level that we’ve never seen before.

"The interior package for VT was king of that in the market here – and this car continues that. The volume efficiency of the package – that’s the exterior volume to interior size – is just as aggressive as VT was. We made a big song and dance back then about that. And this car is the same.

"The track is a little bit wider with this new architecture, so from the ground up we’ve been able to put the wheels wider on the car.

"It’s an international design. You can’t say ‘European’ any more, because there’s no ‘European design’, or ‘Japanese design’ – it’s a truly international design in its form language.

"It’s genuinely a rear-wheel drive proportioned car which is something we hadn’t been able to push as hard in the past. And it’s much more formal.

"The form language that’s on the car is internal Holden. We’ve been trying to do something like this seriously for a long time."