The only Holden Commodore VH SL/E to have survived to this day found a new owner in Australia this weekend after sitting in a garage since 1979. Nobody had driven or sold it before, warranting a price of $108,000 Australian dollars.
Holden put together three such Commodores before starting the production of the first/VH generation (1981-1984). Two were destroyed in crash tests according to the regulations of that era, but the automaker gave the third one to a partner, who ended up abandoning it. Both the exterior paint and the cabin look pristine even now.
Producing the Commodore involved lots of manual work, including shaping individual body parts. Some of the elements seen here, such as the radiator grille and the cassette player, are fakes/placeholders.
The above notwithstanding, the car itself is not just a mock-up. The seller claims it runs on the same platform as the Holden Commodore VB production car from the late 1970s. It features a functional engine and transmission (albeit with unknown parameters) and is in drivable condition. The chassis has a VIN code on it and the drivetrain units seem to be properly numbered, though, so making it street-legal should be possible.
The original Holden Commodore VB came powered by engines with between 2.8 and 5 liters of displacement and between 86 and 153 horsepower. Transmission choices boiled down to four-speed manual and three-speed automatic.