By DAVID PIKE

The first Holden Commodores went on sale in November 1978, 30 years after the original 48/215 made its debut. In many respects the Commodore was the most important new Holden to have been introduced since that time. It was also, demonstrably, the least Australian to date. There was a new emphasis: this was Holden's first `world car'.

The VB Commodore was a physically smaller car than the old Kingswood/Premier, particularly in width. Its overall length was 4704mm and its width 1722mm. By contrast the HZ Kingswood stretched the tape to 4834mm and 1887mm. Where the HZ was a Falcon-sized car with adequate width for three adults to sit in the rear, the Commodore was more of a four-seater.

Somewhat remarkably, the old Kingswood/Premier remained on sale; the General was hedging his bets - sure the Commodore was going to prove a runaway sales success, but if it didn't there was the faithful older style Holden to fall back on. Even the Torana, which offered no obvious advantage over the Commodore, soldiered on, ensuring that GMH could offer not just a wide but also a rather confusing variety of six-cylinder models. Here was an especially interesting tacit admission of doubt.

When the Holden Commodore went on sale, the feeling across the Australian automotive industry was that it represented the way of the future. Yes, it was smaller, but surely that was the way of the 80s and it achieved a kind of European elegance not enjoyed by previous Holdens. There was no question of its refinement and sophistication compared with other Australian manufactured cars.

The VB Commodore came in three levels of trim; Commodore, SL and SL/E and there was a Sports Pack model using the 4.2 litre V8 in a slightly upgraded S model. There were two pushrod six-cylinder engines, the smaller displacing 2.85 litre and the larger being the trusty old 202 (3.3 litres). While two V8 engines were offered, the 4.2 was more readily available with the 5.0-litre being more or less confined to the topline SL/E model.

Striking new colours further emphasised the modern image of the Commodore, among them Firethorn (a non-metallic maroon), Dark Carmine (a deep metallic maroon), Atlantis Blue (a light blue metallic) and Malachite (an ultra dark green). Pricing started at $7000 for the standard model with the 2.85L 6 cylinder engine and 4-speed manual transmission. By 1978 standards it was well specified. It had a floor mounted manual gearbox, rack and pinion steering, front disc/rear drum braking system with standard power assistance and creature comforts included reclining bucket seats, soft feel steering wheel, a quartz clock, pushbutton radio as well as remote exterior mirror adjustment.

One market the new Commodore failed to satisfy was the taxi market, and many taxi companies swapped over to Falcons at changeover time.