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12/09/2011
REVIEW By EWAN KENNEDY
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The three Australian car makers are doing everything they can to upstage one another in their attempts to gain a bigger share in a car market, one that’s struggling to get back to the numbers of yesteryear.
A couple of weeks ago Toyota invited us to a preview of next year’s all-new Camry. Ford has launched its greatly improved LPG engine in the Falcon and is dropping the occasional hint on the upcoming turbocharged four-cylinder Falcon, the one with the engine called EcoBoost.
Now Holden has upgraded its VE Commodore. Commodore has been number one in the sales race in Australia for more years than the competitors care to remember. So it has deliberately kept changes a visual minimum to cut costs and to put what funds are available into improving engines and transmissions.
Keep in mind that General Motors was in deep financial trouble during the GFC and you will appreciate the cost constraints the Holden guys and gals have been working under.
Appearance wise, the entry level Holden Commodore Omega now joins the rest of the range in having alloy wheels as standard. There are subtle changes to the shape of the front bumper, changes that are highlighted by the use of some chrome details.
Commodore Berlina, the most popular version with private buyers, also gets chromed details on the front end, this time in the shape of surrounds of the foglights.
Chrome is again a feature of the sporty SV6 and SS variants, the shiny material being used around the grille and air intakes. Commodore SS V-Series has chrome around the foglight inserts.
The elegant Calais series has no changes to the appearance at the front, but gains a lip spoiler on the trailing edge of the bootlid.
Two new colours have been added to the palette. A hue called Perfect Blue, it’s vaguely similar to the HDT Brock Commodore of the mid 1980s. The paint name ‘Perfect’ is borrowed from the nickname of Peter ‘Perfect’ Brock, however, it’s not the blue I remember so well from road testing the Brock Commodore back in the HDT days.
The other paint choice could be a sleeper in the sales race, having a name of Chlorophyll and being in the green section of the colour charts.
Inside, there’s silver coloured stitching on the Berlina with leather trim, and red stitching - what else? - on the SS V-Series.
Engine and automatic transmission modifications are aimed at trimming fuel consumption. Though Holden is being modest in claiming reductions in consumption of only one to three percent, every little bit helps. The 3.0-litre V6 used in quite a few different models now has its official consumption a smidgin under 9.0 litres per hundred kilometres – 8.9 litres to be exact.
Holden has also signalled it will be introducing an improved LPG engine to compete with the one recently unveiled in the Ford Falcon.
Finally in the underbonnet department, the 3.6-litre V6 joins its smaller brother in being able to run on fuel that’s up to 85 per cent ethanol. The E85 powerplant can run on anything from 100 per cent petrol to 15 per cent.
The revised Holden VE Commodore hasn’t yet gone on sale. We will bring you drive impressions as soon as we are able to get behind the wheels of a few examples. |
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