Several Commodores have won Wheels Car of the Year awards - VB in 1978, VN in 1988, VR in 1993 and VT in 1997. And no doubt other awards.
The original Torana was based on the Vauxhall Viva, model before the one above.
The second gen Torana LH models were based on the Opel Ascona - they were a bigger car.
The Falcon AU is not a "crap car" in my opinion - it drove acceptably well, apparantly by all reports of the time as well as the VT Commodore (I drove the AU, but not the VT, so can't say more than according to reports). And no-one calls the VT crap. There were no major quality issues with the AU either for it to get a bad reputation (unlike the EA Falcon and the VT Commodore which are both known for quality problems).
Lack of IRS across the AU range is mentioned above - but the VT didn't have IRS as standard either.
I would say the AU was average to competent for its time in most areas, but it certainly didn't stand out in any way, nor was it a bad car. OK, it didn't sell that greatly, but nor was it a complete sales flop.
So, it is only really the styling (exterior and interior) that is controversial about the AU - is polarising styling really enough for a car to get the tag "crap" labelled on it?
I can see people debating this one for years - much in the same way the Leyland P76 gets debated about.