Just over 60 demonstrator Holden VF II Commodores remain at dealerships in Australia nationwide as of January 2019. The dramatically different, imported front/all-wheel-drive ZB Commodore has replaced the local rear-wheel-drive VF II and has started to appear in rental fleets. Last year, I test drove and reviewed a rental WN II Caprice and said it would probably be the last time I got to drive an Aussie rental car. I was wrong – Budget afforded me one last spin in a “Light My Fire” orange VF II Commodore SV6 sedan. Does this final “real” Commodore deserve to be romanticized?
Commodore sales have declined markedly with the new Opel Insignia/Buick Regal-based ZB series, even considering the slow atrophy of the mid/full-size passenger car segment (note: our sales reporting organization, VFACTS, calls the mid-size Commodore a full-size for some reason but not, for example, the similarly-sized Camry). Perhaps a large part of that decline is because the 30% of Commodore buyers who bought a V8 now have nothing remotely comparable – the ZB lineup tops out with a naturally-aspirated 3.6 V6 with 315 hp and 281 ft-lbs, the most powerful engine Holden could wrangle for this global model.
There’s a lot of enthusiasts critical of Holden for putting the Commodore name on an imported, front-wheel-drive hatchback. To those most vocal enthusiasts, the ZB isn’t a Commodore. To those who don’t know much about cars, the ZB is a Commodore… and that name comes attached with plenty of memories. A lot of Aussies don’t realize that many Holdens weren’t actually manufactured here and some Aussies think the entire division is shutting down, not just local manufacturing. To these regular consumers, even a broadly competent German hatchback and wagon might conjure up memories of bogans doing burnouts, taxi cabs, and maybe build quality that’s not quite on the same level as the Japanese. Add to that a general distaste for larger passenger cars and the ZB is suffering badly – Holden has had to halt imports due to excessive inventory.
It almost makes you think Holden should’ve given the new Commodore a different name, even if “Commodore” has some of the best name recognition of any vehicle nameplate in Australia. However, in terms of purpose and positioning, the new Commodore is much like the old. I can’t tell you what a ZB drives like but I can tell you how the VF II drives. For a car whose roots date back to 2006, the answer is pretty well. I’ve had first-hand experience with this platform, having owned a VE Calais V. The good news is Holden largely addressed its faults with the VE II revision and the VF overhaul. The bad news is they added some new quirks along the way.
The SV6 was one level up from the base Evoke, a trim level largely relegated to fleet purchases. Holden had seen a compression of its lower-end trims since the VE, with the Omega and Berlina being supplanted by the Evoke as buyers flocked to the sportier SV6. That wasn’t just private buyers but also company car buyers, police departments and even rental fleets. For $AUD4000 more than the Evoke, the SV6 swapped out the direct-injected 3.0 of the Evoke for a 3.6 and included sportier interior trim and a firmer suspension tune; for just $2k more than the Evoke, you could get the SV6 with a six-speed manual.
Let’s start with the good. Holden added direct injection to the 3.6 V6 in the VE II upgrade, increasing power and torque by 19 hp and 20 ft-lb to 280 hp and 260 ft-lbs. The French five-speed automatic in my ’07 VE Calais – as well as the four-speed automatic in lesser models – was replaced a few years back with a six-speed GM unit. In classic GM style, the six-speed shifts smoothly and never seems to get caught out of gear. If you are so inclined, there is a manual shift mode – using the shifter only as there are no paddle shifters – but there’s really no point. The SV6’s FE2 suspension tune also felt more compliant than the FE2 tune in my old Calais. My rental was well and truly broken in with almost 30,000 miles on the odometer, likely meaning it’ll be auctioned off soon enough.
The VE had a neat, user-friendly cabin but the VF brought a complete overhaul to the interior. Black interiors can look funereal in some cars – and yet it remains a popular interior color choice, go figure – but the SV6 maintains some visual interest with a flowing strip of faux carbon fiber trim and upholstery on the dashboard. The 8-inch infotainment screen is mounted nice and high while the switchgear is of good quality and positioned in a straightforward manner. There’s also a rather large storage nook below the center stack and a couple of well-sized cupholders.
The seats are grippy and supportive and upholstered in leather and suede, with leather-look trim also applied on the doors. There are some hard plastics on the lower half of the dash as expected and the shifter is a bit low-rent but otherwise this is quite an elegant cabin.
Perhaps with the exception of the little black-and-white screen in the gauge cluster, the VF’s cabin appears sufficiently up-to-date. A bonus: unlike the old VE and Pontiac G8, the window switches are correctly located on the doors, not on the center console.
And, being an Aussie Commodore, there’s both a large boot (trunk)…
…and a spacious rear seat with room for three adults, although one of those will have to sit perched on the drivetrain hump. They will, however, enjoy more elbow and shoulder room than in the new ZB – the VF is 74.7 inches wide, 1.4 more than the ZB.
Since the VE, Holden has added features like proximity entry, push-button start, blind-spot monitoring, Bluetooth audio streaming and a head-up display to the Commodore range. I’ve spoken before about the value of a HUD and how it can help keep your eyes on the road instead of looking down at the infotainment screen for your next navigation instruction or down in the gauge cluster for your speed readout. Blind-spot monitoring is also an excellent, unobtrusive safety feature. But Bluetooth audio streaming is something I demand in a new car and something my rental SV6 couldn’t effectively deliver.
No, it’s not all good news for the VF II. A lot of the complaints can be aimed squarely at the infotainment system, including the aforementioned Bluetooth. The car managed to forget my phone every time I shut off the engine. It defaulted to radio in my phone’s perceived absence, meaning I had to wait an unusually long amount of time until it “found” my phone and connected. In my current car – which lacks Bluetooth audio streaming – I have to use an AUX cable to connect my phone. Believe it or not, it’s actually quicker for me to pick up the cable, plug in my phone and press play in my own car than it was to use Bluetooth in the SV6.
I’ve had some frustrating experiences with Holden’s MyLink system before and my feelings weren’t assuaged with this SV6. The user interface could be better and the way the screen is recessed into the dash finally made me realize why those somewhat silly-looking tablet-esque screens are so popular in cars today – they’re more in your line of sight and it’s easier to press buttons on them. MyLink’s navigation functionality has easy-to-read maps but the UX design clashes with the physical location of the screen, meaning you have to push buttons tucked away into corners. I’d much rather use Google Maps via Android Auto, something that was never available on the VF. At least your turn-by-turn navigations are displayed on the HUD, a very handy feature. One final gripe about the interior, though: the rear park assist beeped incessantly. It was much too sensitive, although the camera display was sufficiently high-resolution.
The Commodore also had some faults on the road. Don’t get me wrong: it had the aforementioned smooth-shifting transmission and plenty of low-end torque. But the V6 makes a bit of a racket while wind noise is also surprisingly noticeable in the cabin. And although the ride quality felt more compliant than my older VE, it was a little unsettled on concrete highways.
Sadly, the switch to electric instead of hydraulic-assisted steering has meant some road feel has been sacrificed. My travels took me along Nerang-Murwillumbah Road, a scenic 21-mile (34km) road of sweeping curves overlooking beautiful Advancetown Lake. The SV6 had plenty of power but as speeds increased, the steering felt overly light. Such a road would’ve been more enjoyable in a VE SV6. My seat-of-the-pants impressions were that the VF feels a little less planted in corners than the sporty VE models, although only back-to-back test drives could confirm that. The balanced handling inherent in the Zeta chassis, however, means a Commodore is still going to feel more enjoyable to steer than, say, a Camry.
While the VF took a step forward in many respects – interior design and quality, feature content – it was no better dynamically than the VE and, while still handsome, lost the visual edge of the chiselled VE with its flared wheel arches and angular, purposeful front and rear styling.
I couldn’t help but feel less impressed with this VF II SV6 than I had with its big brother, the WN II Caprice V. The Commodore was a resolutely capable car, don’t get me wrong. But the V8 engine elevated this platform and certainly made it stand out in a market where affordable V8 performance was virtually non-existent. An SV6 was a regular middle management sedan or family sedan, more easily replaced by an imported, front/all-wheel-drive Opel. A V8 SS, in contrast, was a muscle car. The loss of the latter is much more poignant than the loss of the former. Nevertheless, it’s still a sad loss.
Related Reading:
Rental Car Review: 2017 Holden WN II Caprice V — Bittersweet
CC Comparisons: Last Of The Australians – 2007 Holden Calais V vs 2009 Ford Falcon G6E
This is one of those cars where I cannot point out any one particular thing about the styling that is particularly well done, but where the whole shape and package looks really good. The proportions are good, the details are well done with neither too much nor too little jewelry. I am incredibly sad that GM never found a way to sell this car in the US in any significant numbers.
Also, I am a fan of the metallic orange.
GM’s continual shoving of Opel sedans down everyone’s throats to plug gaps in model lineups strikes me as nothing more than a means to the end with sedans for the brands. I can’t imagine GM will continue buying from PSA in the long run, and as far as I know there’s no home grown follow up in the pipeline, so what other takeaway is there? I get the impression that he proliferation of Opel prior to its sale had less to do about global competent products and more about a charitable Hail Mary pass to keep the struggling division afloat by placing it in other markets, and it’s all too obvious the latter is more true than not, and with Opel gone anyone in the know can only presume the ZB is as much of a dead man walking as the final VF was.
I have almost the opposite opinion. (Perhaps because I’m from the opposite side of the Atlantic)
I look at so many of the laughable cars GM sold in the US in the 90s and 2000s and wonder why they didn’t just offer modified versions of Opels. The same goes for the Daewooization of the Holden range – see Old Pete’s comment below.
It is intriguing to watch what happens with Opel under PSA, and it leaves some questions over the Opel related cars GM sells outside Europe. When GM bought Daewoo and rebranded it as Chevrolet in Europe, I thought it was a plot to close Vauxhall/Opel and bring everything in from Korea. To give up on Chev-woo so quickly and then sell Opel shortly afterwards makes me question how much planning there was at all.
It is not just GM, but they were perhaps the most egregious offenders. With so many good cars being designed, built, and sold in other markets, why did GM (or Ford) just import the good ones worldwide?Instead, they design build market specific cars, using up precious capital and expertise, rather than refining one good design. Think Opels as Saturns, then Buicks, and a few Cadillacs, when they all would have been great small Chevrolets. Ford did it with the Escort, their first “world” car, where the US version was nothing like the eurospec Escort. The Mondeo would be a great Fusion, but they are designed separately. I just don’t get it.
I do understand that there are national rules and regulations that differ from original design countries, but if one is building for world standards, it would seem not that difficult or expensive to meet them all in one design. I can’t think of any one regulation of one country that is contrary to another’s. Different interpretations, slightly different applications, but they are all similar. The one that does come to mind is the US rules not allowing us better lighting, but that could be easily overcome by either tech or political influence.
I worded it a tad strongly but my opinion isn’t actually the opposite per say. I’m wasn’t saying Opel cars are bad or that a global model isn’t a smart strategy, it’s that the models that show up are clearly designed as Opels first and Buicks or Holdens or Chevys or Cadillacs or Vauxhalls et al second, there’s no sense of collaboration effort for the various Opel models to gel with the non-Opel brands they’re shoehorned into. I can’t say anything bad about a Regal (or ZB Commodore) as a car, but when Buick’s own ad campaign awkwardly acknowledges the disconnect with “THAT’s a Buick?”, it seems like a placefiller rather than a legitimate global model.
Basically I’m not against a global Opel, but unlike Ford or Toyota or Honda, etc. GM just couldn’t let them simply be Opels. They had to flex their habit of badge engineering to try and pitch them as something they’re not. But it’s too late now.
I feel like “That’s a Buick?” comes from the same cringy place as “Not your father’s Oldsmobile”, and upwardly mobile young Americans being physically incapable of climbing into a Cadillac sedan.
It’s not “Nudge, nudge, it’s an Opel” but “It’s not the manure we’ve being shovelling into your local dealership all these years”.
And I agree, it seems bizarre that they can’t find a happy medium between designing unique cars for different markets, and virtually doing a straight rebadge.
The SS has shown us the size of the market for vehicles like this in the United States and it is miniscule. If we want a RWD 6.2L V8 family vehicle, we buy a $70K Tahoe. If we want a RWD 6.2L V8 fun vehicle, we buy a $56K Corvette or $40K Camaro. We do not buy a $50K 4-door sedan, regardless of how good it may be.
I think it looks like a brilliant car and I’d love to own one. With a manual transmission. What a machine that would be. But I’m not in the market for a $50K vehicle of any flavor.
I don’t think it would be too far from the mark to say that GM handicapped the SS on the US market. I think the program was done at the behest of Mark Reuss, but they didn’t seem to move when the Aussie dollar went down in value by 20% or more.
My opinion is Holden were right to call the ZB a Commodore; the Insignia had sold under 200 units per year previously, even if it was in a Chev SS-like situation of being the top sporty model only. Holden would have effectively been starting from scratch with the Insignia name, same if they had moved to Malibu (5,000 sales in 5 years 2013-2017).
There were 23,676 Commodores sold in 2017, and 9,040 in 2018 – and roughly 1/4 (if it wasn’t more) of those were leftover VFII’s. This is the lowest volume Holden have seen since 1955, or if you only look at Commodore since 1950 when they were still ramping up production from zero. They are definitely suffering from the move to importing; one of the reasons they had sold as well as they did was the local parts supply industry that would help you avoid potential months-long waits for parts, there are some real horror stories out there.
Thanks for the article William, it does provide an interesting exploration as to which could be regarded as the ‘ultimate’ Commodore; the VE that had a more tactile driving experience but lacked some of the latest mod-cons, or the VFII that had more trinkets and nannies but a lesser driving experience. I can take a guess as to which one would be easier to resolve – upgrading infotainment versus trying to achieve a better electric power assistance calibration than the Holden engineers!
I think you’re close to the mark, John. Other than the NASCAR tie-in, GM ran exactly zero advertising for the car in the US. There’s a good bit of speculation on the “why” on the various forums, and my sense is that it was a combination of Lutz and Reuss both being car guys, plus the economic and political (both national and within GM) issues that led to the US getting the Monaro (GTO) and Commodore variants (G8, PPV, SS) at all.
Reuss himself was quoted as saying he thought there was a market for maybe 3,000 cars annually (referring to the Chev SS), and that’s very close to the total number of units sold (12,953 over four model years). GM purposefully limited production to that number, and even still, had to run several 20% off MSRP sales to clear inventory (I bought mine during the sale in March 2017).
I always read William’s Holden car reviews with interest, as we’re approaching the car from two different contexts and perspectives. My SS (neé SSV Redline) is hands down the best performing & handling car I’ve ever driven. The tech in the car is the one area that falls far short (William and I are in violent agreement there!). It’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s just that it’s so unrefined and outdated (the radio is basically 2012-era GM hardware). There are several owners actively working to figure out a way to replace the HU with a current CarPlay unit – a real challenge because the Commodore does not have a standard 1 DIN or 2 DIN mount so you can’t just plug and play.
At any rate, I have around 53K miles on my car in less than two years driving, and have had no failures at all – it’s actually been one of, if not the most reliable cars I’ve ever owned. I have no idea what I’ll eventually replace it with, as there’s simply nothing in the US market that comes anywhere close (at the $40K price I paid during the 20% off sale).
And just for the heck of it, here’s mine alongside one of those upstart brand cars… (c:
There’s no question the VE had nicer steering, one of the nicest tillers I’ve ever used (at least in the wide-tyred Calais I drove). Having driven only a base VF, albeit alloy-shod, the steering felt lesser. And having just said these things, the VF SS may well have different calibration and without doubt has more weight from the whopper engine, so I can’t fully judge, I suppose.
As for the fine handling, the VE engineers were told essentially, “Blank sheet fellas!”, so the suspension guys said “Front-mounted steering rack?” (apparently better for feel) and were told “Yes”, and then “50/50 weight distribution?” and told “Whyever not!”, and then spent much of the development fighting to make sure these two key features stayed. Good steering and excellent balance are absolute gold in making a car FEEL good and confident on the road (IM-not-very-Humble-O).
One last thought. Roads in Oz are usually about as well made as a teenager’s bed, so when our William was giving this car a bit of a fang through the curves and expressing a bit of disquiet here, remember that for each swing of the electrified wheel there’d likely be a large hump or hole or gravel edge or off-camber shape for the car and driver to cope with too. And over-light or otherwise numb steering makes the car feel less planted, or at least, can affect the confidence of the pilot about what’s happening as the bump is encountered. Such conditions may perhaps less a permanent feature in the States.
In Minnesota, potholes are rampant. Curve? You’d have to explain “curve” or “bend” to Minnesotans in the same way I had to explain to my Aussie colleagues why the Chryslers arrived covered in salt.
@Ed –
You should get a CC Aussie to send you a sticker and maybe a license plate holder (if they exist/fit) from some Holden dealer in the middle of nowhere, just to complete the look.
Or if not the middle of nowhere, somewhere very Australian sounding. Is there a Holden dealer in Woolloomooloo?
@tonito – I’d totally do that if someone wants to step up with the goods!
@justybaum – Roads here in the Middle West sound very similar. The Chev SS came to us with magride suspension, which I imagine makes a bit of difference from the lower trim level Commodores – wasn’t it only the HSV models that got magride in Oz? I also have my car aligned with track settings and am running a 19×9.5 +35 square wheel setup – both of which really enhance handling.
@Ed- Well, yes, no doubt square wheels and magnets would help grip a great deal, though almost exclusively of benefit when at standstill on a steel roadway, which I was unaware the Middle West used. Here, there is a tendency to drive cars about.
I rather foolishly forget that US snow-belt roads must cop huge damage over winter freezes. Here, away from any sort of main road, the road quality problem is more that the population is simply too small to pay for it. The State of Western Australia, for example, is 1.6 million square miles with 2.5 million people: Texas is 400-odd thousand square miles for 28 million. There are more miles of dirt than paved road in the country.
Yes, I think the magnetic dampers were only on the HSV’s here (ie: not even optional on the rest) and they do have quite a name for transforming a given car.
Go on Justy – send that man a sticker. You can steal one while test driving a Commosignia.
Parramatta? Wollongong? Wagga Wagga? Cullamulla, fella?
@tonito- Unfortunately, the Holden dealer in Wagga Wagga is just callled “Wagga Holden”, so missing out on the comic repetition of the town name, so no. My favourite is always Woy Woy, NSW, famously called “the largest above ground cemetery in the world” by sometime resident Spike Milligan (his folks had retired there, it’s actually a beautiful coastal town north of Sydney), a silly name exaggerated by some strange Milligan-esque song he wrote about the place that’s lost in my memory someplace. But the only Holden dealer nearby is the imaginatively named Central Coast Holden.
Next favourite is the Victorian town of Manangatang, but alas, no dealer. Or, these days, residents, really.
Must admit I’m so inured by familiarity to what are objectively odd or funny-sounding names (all of Indigenous Australian origin, btw) that I need to think about it. But I’ll find one.
And, in honour of the amazing wheel and tyre setup Ed has, I’ll ask whoever it is for a square magnet with company logo.
These days of computer generated everything, I think it would be easy to make a one off Holden dealer sticker, just pick the town name you wanted.
Easy for someone who knows how to do it that is, which isn’t me.
@justy – In case you’re not pulling my leg, a “square” wheel setup just means I’m running the same size wheel at all four corners. The Chev SS had a staggered OEM wheel setup (skinnier wheels and tires up front, which I’ve seen referred to as ‘lawyer tires’ because they’re there to induce understeer).
I do a lot of work with vinyl decals, and now you’ve got me thinking it would be super easy to cobble up a fake Holden dealer logo. “Woolloomooloo Holden” sounds pretty good to me!
@Ed- Yes, I was pulling your leg, but having made a number of silly references, I realised that I didn’t know what it actually meant and was by then too embarrassed to ask!
Pretty outrageous for a non-supercar road car not to have matching tyres anyway, though I suspect it is wishful thinking that the factory front ones were made of an understeered-over lawyer wrap.*
*not serious
William, the thoroughness of your reviews and much of your work at CC, is outstanding. And the art direction of your pics, very well done. Your contributions are a great compliment to Paul’s site.
Agreed. I ‘m very proud of of our talent here, especially our two hard-working younger writers, Will and Brendan. Highly professional work.
They are very hard working, with great attention to detail, and accuracy. Their objective, balanced views, as your site is known for, are huge pluses. Plus, they have a friendly rivalry, which often shows when they comment on each other’s work. 🙂
It’s not easy to write about cars from sometimes decades before they were born, but they do it well.
Well shucks guys, thank you so much! What a nice thing to read first thing in the morning.
I especially love the feedback I’ve been getting lately on my photos. I’m not a fancy photographer, it’s just me and my Google Pixel 2. Evidently whatever I’m doing is working though!
Your enthusiasm and authenticity really shows in your writing William. It’s much appreciated! And you’re well prepared when readers with opposing opinions comment. With facts, and balanced views. Many very much appreciate the respectful, rational dialogue that is a hallmark of Paul’s site. And you and Brendan have a people-friendly manner that reinforces this.
Hear hear
Great site and great articles from young Mr Stoppard
Also Daniel you might appreciate this. Look what’s lurking in the background of the last picture… No I didn’t set that up (although the cemetery background was planned), it was sheer luck that car appeared as I was photographing the VF II…
That’s a very cool coincidence William. It adds immensely to the pic. All the images are great. If a commercial photographer submitted them to me, I’d pay their price without question. And offer more work likely. lol I’m most impressed that it’s clear you are both putting a helluva lot of effort in to creating a very professional presentation and package with each piece you post. I think many people can see all the work you and Brendan put into your writing and photography, if people don’t always comment. I find that sometime when work is so professionally done, that readers assume you are professional writers/journalists and/or photographers. The more seamless a presentation, people may forget private individuals offering their time and skill, are putting that extra effort in.
It will serve you both *very well* in life!
Ditto what Will said. I appreciate the kind words and as I’ve said so many times over the years, the wonderful community here is what keeps me writing and sharing my thoughts.
You’ve been contributing great work and comments at Paul’s site for a long time Brendan. And all the long time writers and readers know you are a great guy, as it comes across in your writing and comments.
Besides the amazing work of Paul and each of the contributors at this site, I especially appreciate that you each typically engage in real time with readers. Offering further details from your research, or providing feedback, etc. It really adds to the experience for readers reading a specific story that day, and in the following days. And engaging directly with the writer. That’s pretty cool.
Daniel, I must agree with all you have noted about Will and Brendan and their work here. This is what I love about this site – the many and varied voices that bring so many unique perspectives to any given car.
+1 to those compliments by all above
A large part of Holden’s problem with the new Commodore stems from all the sub-standard Daewoo – sorry, “GM Korea”, products they’ve sold under the Holden name. They’ve debased the brand to the point where people don’t trust Holden. Who makes an honest product you can trust? Six letters, starting with T……
So many brand names, in so many industries, seem to have been debased that I’m not even sure if consumers hold it against companies anymore. 😉 We’ve come to expect it / accept it as consumers perhaps? I genuinely don’t want to sound too cynical!
Just so, Old Pete. There was nothing beneath the Oz Commodore except old Daewoo-factory built crap for years. Take away the Bogan’s Pride (ok, a bit harsh) and there’s nothing there.
And no, Daniel, in this particular case the remaining loyal buyer base does indeed hold it very firmly against the company. And frankly, on the basis alone of Holden’s false promises and swallowing of tax dollars over the past years leading to closure, they fully deserve it.
Dynamically not better than the VE thats a shame, I had a new VE rental and wasnt hugely impressed, i would have though they’d adress the shortcomings, The new Commodore only seems to be a police car here though I have seen some plain colour ones about, I had a look around the Holden dealer’s lot in Amberly the other night on my break, ok not the biggestHolden dealership in the south island but there was a used 6 cylinder ZB on display outside, looks nice but I’m not in the market for another car, though if Peugeot continue production the cars could improve in the ride/handling department, or did PSA just but production space like when they bought Chrysler Europe.
So what will the Kiwi and Oz police drive when the current Opel Insignia is dead? And it probably will die or become a reskinned Peugeot. Will GM just convert a Malibu or an equivalent to RHD, or will they switch to Korean SUVs? End of an era indeed..
Camry and Hyundai have been popular as police cars in Queensland and the new Kia Stinker is on the fleet as well. Down south in Mexico they do have some BMWs too.
KJ in Oz
I think it is kinda weird to complain about the new Commodore being a Opel, since that is what the 80s Commodore started as. Even the name comes from Opel!
Completely understandable observation, but the car has drifted a long way from those roots and also entered the culture of the country. Those dwindling numbers, usually a bit older, who were buying their “Aussie pride” 6 and 8 cylinder RWD cars felt betrayed by being offered a competent (though by no means best in class) 4 cylinder FWD import. The Holden line-up under the Aussie Commodore consisted by and large of Korean made re-badged imports, many with a poor name, so the folks currently rejecting the big imported Commodore aren’t being too crazy in being suspicious of it.
Holden has now lost whatever brand equity it had as the “local” brand, and I am strongly of the view it won’t even survive in about 10 years time. There’s just no reason at all to buy one, as other makers can make something better.
Anyway, heaps of buyers never knew their Barinas – Corsa – and Astras were all Opels! They just knew and trusted the “local” “Holden” badge.
Good stuff, Our Man in Brizzy.
I am relieved to read that I’m not the only mug punter to think that the VF externals were, at best, a step sideways from the VE. It’s like some friends toddler having drawn earnestly all over your couch with lipstick – you have to politely say it’s all good but in truth you’re thinking that it’ll never look any good again. The VE only became a bit dull by sheer over-familiarity, but the chiselled essentials have always been a very sweet thing. Likewise, I liked the Audi-esque neatness of the dash and interior, marred only by one of the world’s most idiotic handbrakes. The VF’s dash is really a bit of a trinket-spill from the bling shop for mine.
Your wind noise complaint is odd. I wonder if the car had had a smash at some point, as getting doors exactly lined up again is a black art.