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Bought a V8-powered Holden Commodore in Australia: Ownership review

10th August 2024, 12:45 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

Getting a car with a V8 engine and thinking about fuel efficiency is probably a mistake!

BHPian BraveArc recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

"It's a car that's built for performance and endurance, embodying the spirit of Australian racing." - Craig Lowndes

Introduction:

I was always car crazy. From my earliest memory, cars have been a constant. I only bought car toys and models, 80% of my video games involve automobiles in some form. And in 2013, I found my niche and my infatuation with V8s started. The Chennai BMW dealership had a matte black E92 BMW M3 and I got to test drive it. Just fell in love with the sound and feel of the car. A few weeks later, I moved to Kuwait to start working. In 2017, While driving back from work, I for some random reason stopped at a used car dealership which just had Camaros, Challengers and Mustangs and checked out the cars. The staff didn’t even bother to come to me thinking I was just having a look. The prices were not as high and out of reach as I expected. So, a few weeks later I bought my first car, A 2013 Ford Mustang with 5.0 V8.

I did not want to just have a Mustang, it had to be the real deal and that Coyote V8 was it. It was an automatic and I enjoyed it for a few months. Sadly, in Kuwait, the Mustang has a notorious reputation with university kids and police keep pulling over Mustangs for the fun of it. I ended up selling the car seven months after buying it. It was short-lived, so within a few weeks, I was searching for a sports car again. I didn’t want anything to do with muscle cars because of the police so I went more upmarket and turned to Europe. Tested a 2013 Audi S5. It was quick and nippy but I didn’t have a smile. Something was missing. I looked for E92 M3s but they weren’t affordable which is when I saw a Jaguar XK and a XK-R. Test drove the XK as it was in budget and because of its V8 soundtrack, was instantly in love.

So on Valentine's day, 2018 I got the Jaguar XK. Owned it for 3 years, took it to the track twice, and not once did it give me any issues. I don’t know why people say Jags are unreliable. I used mine well and it was my happy place. Only reason I sold that was the car was standing too long in COVID lockdowns and rats had bitten too many things and my “Jaguar Specialist” mechanic fleeced me off a good chunk of money and never sorted out any issues. The trust was gone and decided to let it go for peace of mind. I then turned my focus to doing MBA outside of Kuwait to improve my long-term career prospects. With things like the GMAT and university applications going on, the office car was more than enough. Close to two years later I left Kuwait and moved down under to Australia to do my MBA.

Need:

From when I started driving in August 2009 till May 2022, I had always had a car to drive around in. When I got to Australia, I didn’t have that and needed to get used to public transport. For all the talk about being a developed country, public transport especially buses are often late or worse early and as a result, gone before you reach the stop. About a month into living here a friend was travelling and lent me their car for six weeks. It was an old 2000 Toyota Echo hatch. But it did the job of taking me from A to B. When the friend returned and took their car I realized how badly I needed a car here. I actually became very irritable as a person and the wife was none too pleased with how I was. So we started searching and our budget allowed for quite a few new cars.

Search:

We set a budget of around A$40,000 and quickly realized there were quite a lot of options, both used and new but there was a caveat. The Australian car market at that time (September 2022) was quite weird. New cars were not readily available unless you wanted something that was essentially a flop and used cars were going for prices insanely higher than what they were pre-COVID. We decided to have a look around and some of the options considered were:

Any Toyota

I figured the easiest car to sell when I want to upgrade would be a Toyota and so we went to the dealership and almost every model in the budget had a 1-2 year waiting period. The guy took to the used car section and nothing was in budget and some of the almost new cars were selling for over the actual new car price as they were immediately available. So ended up walking away.

An almost new Corolla Cross in the Toyota used dealership priced a couple of thousand dollars over the retail price

Peugeot 308

For about six months in Kuwait, my office had given me a Peugeot 3008, and it was a nice car to drive around in so thought of having a look. Checked out the all new 308 and as expected they did have stock. Tested out the car and it was really nice but I knew selling it would be a pain and I’d just have to lose a lot of money if I did. So decided to keep looking.

A very sharp looking car no doubt

And even sharper interiors.

Suzuki Swift Sport

This was one I really did consider getting, it was fun to drive and there was stock arriving with an approx. delivery time of 1 month. Didn’t mind that, just had to put in a refundable $500 deposit to guarantee myself a car. Put down a deposit after test driving one just to be safe.

Looks good, drives good, what’s not to love

Since I had to wait a month or so, I then decided to have a proper look at the used car market.

Lots of options available, had a look at the Europeans. The wife liked all of them which wasn’t surprising. She wanted us to get either an Audi A4 or a Mercedes C-class as they were fancy and nice interiors. I too was seriously considering it, albeit a bit different in the Alfa Romeo Giulia. Probably one of the all-time best-looking cars in that category.

But after test driving a few of them, I knew I’d want to sell and upgrade not too far in the future. I also checked out a 1997 Lancer Evo 4 which I knew would result in getting kicked out of the house.

Just maybe worth being homeless.

So, I decided to look at a few more which may be different but safe. Initially thought about the Mustang again, there were plenty of them in and around that price range and no police worries here. But it would only make sense as a second car, needed something with four doors and a big boot. That’s when I thought about the Holden Commodore. It had a brilliant V8 and a lot of space. Looked at a few in the classifieds and was getting excited. I then remembered many years ago driving a friend’s E92 M3 manual and how great it was. Complete and precise control, it was a unicorn. So I decided to have a look at manual V8 Commodores as well. I knew Holden had shut down but it had an insanely strong following here being the last of the locally manufactured marquees. Tested a couple of them and had a big smile after I did. Even the wife was surprised at how much I was smiling and also annoyed I didn’t smile this way at other times.

A Manual VE commodore Series-II. Previous owner put a Chevy badge as they were sold in the Middle East as the Chevrolet Lumina SS. It had around 85,000km and the dealership was asking A$38,888.

This was the second one I saw. Private seller. Definitely in his early 20s. Had tuned the engine to put out 390hp and had a really nice exhaust put in. I could hear it when he entered the street. He was asking A$40,000

Buying:

In my budget and only looking for cars that had done less than 90,000km I saw models between 2011 and 2014. This was essentially two different generations of Commodores. The VE series 2 (meaning facelift) or VF series 1, which was the last generation pre-facelift. Both were mechanically identical but big difference in the styling inside and out. Saw three different cars and finally settled on a black one from a guy who used to be the head of service at a Holden dealership. I knew I wouldn’t be able to find a better cared-for car. It was definitely a strong gut feeling that I did not get with the other two cars. I did a VIN check anyway to see if any accident history, but absolutely nothing.

Delivery:

We negotiated the price and settled at A$37,500. surprisingly found that the car was bought on a 10-year finance. Transferred the remainder of the loan to the bank and the balance amount to him. He signed the transfer paper and then asked if he could go for one last round before I drove off and the way his face looked, there was no way I could say no. We went for a small round and then I drove the car from his house and parked it in our apartment. This is it:-

Parked for the first time in my garage spot

By the time I got home, it was around 7:30pm so the next day I had to go to their version of an RTO called ‘Service NSW’ to transfer the car to my name which unsurprisingly involves a fee that is 3% of the purchase price.

Love the powerful stance. Holden raised the rear slightly more than the front.

Number of km when writing this review:

The car has done a little more than 92,250km so far. When I took delivery, it had done exactly 84,500km. So, basically been averaging 4,000km a year.

The Commodore:

Butch front. A very well put together car, GM should take a few lessons at-least from the Aussie’s on this.

Very clean back. Rather walk than talk sort of a feel.

Exterior styling & design

Even though it is 10 years old, the VF Commodore does not look dated. It boasts an aggressive design that features a muscular front end with a distinctive grille and prominent air intake. The SS variant comes with a more sporty body kit, including a rear lip spoiler, side skirts, and quad exhausts, which adds to the whole visual appeal. These things apparently helped with aerodynamic performance but the previous owner put in a tow bar so not sure how much of that has been undone.

The car comes equipped with LED daytime running lights and projector headlights making it look good but the fact that they came with basic halogen bulbs irks me. Even for 2014, that is a bit dated. I do plan on changing the low beam to xenon’s someday. The rear of the car is nice and butch. The quad exhausts add to the whole look, the V6’s have single outlets on either side and it just makes it look shallow for some reason. In terms of badges, just the Holden and ‘SS’ badges because everyone here knows exactly what model the car is.

Overall Build Quality, Fit & Finish, Paint Quality and Panel Gaps

The VF Commodore showcases high-quality construction with good attention to detail. The factory workers knew this would be the last Australian-built car and gave it their all. The build quality is impressive, with tight panel gaps and a premium feel to the paint finish. Holden has clearly invested in ensuring that the VF feels solid and well-built. However, While the doors are substantial, they feel slightly lighter and do not have the same vault-like 'thud' as the European cars.

Wheels & Tyres

I do love the wheels on the car. It is fitted with the optional 20-inch alloys which look really sleek. Plus, the whole black-on-black look makes the chrome bits on the car really stand out. The tyres, typically 255/35 R20 in size, provide excellent grip and contribute to the car's dynamic performance but the V8 can still cause quite a bit of wheel spin and rear-end slide under hard acceleration until the traction control kicks in.

One disappointment is that the car does not come with a full-size spare and rather comes with the non-option 18” wheel but at least it’s not a space saver so long drives aren’t much of a worry.

Visibility & Size of Mirrors

Frontal and lateral visibility is generally good, with large windows and a well-designed seating position. The A-pillars on the other hand are quite thick, maybe not Ford EcoSport level of bad but they do create blind spots.

Rearward visibility is pretty decent even with the high boot lid and rear design. The ORVMs are small but adequate and provide a good view of the rear, assisting with lane changes but do not have auto-tilt when in reverse and there is a lot of kerb side parking in Sydney. I end up manually tilting the left mirror when parking and this is a big big miss in my opinion. It also has blind-spot monitoring but I'm so used to not having it, I hardly ever pay attention to it.

Safety & Related Equipment

The car excels in safety, offering a comprehensive suite of safety features that make it one of the safest cars in its segment. The car is equipped with seven airbags for both front and rear passengers. The usual six and the seventh being for the drivers knees. It also comes with ESC, EBD, Traction Control(very necessary) and ABS.

The headlamp cluster

The LED DRLs are at the bottom and manage to shine through even on the brightest of days

Scuff mark shows the problems of having a low car. (By the previous owner)

The DRL turns off when the parking light is turned on

All the lights turned on. Disappointing to not have Xenon at-least for the low beam.

Note the sensors, there are six in the front and four at the back

Small ORVMs but not really a problem. Also a vent which is purely for show. The indicators are integrated into the vent which has been a Commodore thing since 2005.

10 spoke 20" rims. They come from the HSV division which is Holden's performance brand. The discs look small as a result. When the time comes to change, might get some drilled discs.