Black Edition adds colour to Commodore
Holden has given its Aussie sedan a fillip with a limited-run Black Edition. By David Linklater
Special editions are a part of motoring (marketing) life, as much with Aussie brands as anybody.
They’re the perfect way to stir up sales when a model is on a go-slow or in between updates.
Holden has cranked out more than its share for the Commodore over the years, but they haven’t always suited Kiwi customers.
Australians are simple folk, content to sleep on a bale of straw and travel by wooden cart where necessary. So entry-level models are very popular among private customers across the Tasman.
Hence, special-edition Commodores have tended to be something like a base Omega with some tiny alloys and a sticker on the door, or climate control replacing the plastic dashboard fan that otherwise comes as standard.
In NZ, entry Commodores are really just for the fleet market and people who put flashing lights on top of them. Kiwis prefer higherspec cars and in the past, those Aussie-derived special editions haven’t really delivered.
It was back in 2007 that Holden New Zealand struck out on its own and created a Kiwi-appropriate limited-edition Commodore, the GTR. It was a mechanically standard V6 model but gained monster wheels, lots of black stripes and extra luxury equipment.
HNZ did another Commodore
GTR in 2011 and yet another in 2015.
It seems the Aussies are finally getting the idea because the latest limited-run Commodore, the Black Edition, is similarly flashy and shared between the two markets.
The Black Edition reaches up the range, from the SV6 model (as tested here) to the SS V8.
It’s particularly pertinent for the SV6 because the Black has Holden’s colour head-up display, which is familiar from high-end Commodore V8 models but has never been offered on a V6-powered version before.
The SV6 Black also gets satellite navigation integrated into the MyLink touch-screen information/ entertainment system.
You might have noticed that the Black car featured here is actually in a colour called Red Hot. That’s because the Black name denotes the very-2016 automotive fashion of blacked-out exterior detailing.
So this car has black fender vents, mirror caps, grille, light surrounds and lip spoiler. There’s the obligatory special badge on the rear doors (in chrome, oddly). It also has combination silver and gloss black 18-inch alloy wheels. All good, except that 18in wheels look a bit too small by contemporary standards on a big car like Commodore and the black bits make them look even more undernourished.
It’s a special edition but also a limited edition: for NZ, there are 90 SV6 models and 40 SS V8s. At $51,490, the SV6 is actually $4500 less expensive than the standard SV6. Can’t complain about that.
The SV6 has always been the pseudo-sporting Commodore: larger-capacity engine and more power than the humble Omega, and plenty of the styling attitude of the glamorous SS. The SV6 rides lower than the Omega on ‘sports’ suspension, but doesn’t go all the way to the V8 models’ FE3 setup.
The Black Edition certainly fuels those sporting aspirations, without actually adding anything to the SV6’s performance or handling (the standard model already runs on 18in wheels, just in a less elaborate style).
Not that you necessarily expect more go in a special-edition of anything and I probably wouldn’t have mentioned it, except that there was a Black Edition brochure in the boot of our test car with the headline ‘Style is nothing without substance’ and it annoyed me.
Anyway, the SV6 is a still a driver- pleasing machine in many ways. The 3.6-litre V6 sounds a bit breathless, not to mention the hint of taxi-like whine that emanates from the differential even on brand-new Commodores. But performance is strong and the six-speed automatic is efficient, despite lacking manualshift paddles.
There’s a purity about a reardrive car – even an everyman one like the Commodore – that’s quite special. The front wheels do the steering, the rears put the power down and the driver just enjoys the balance and responsiveness. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Holden’s head-up display is superb and even seems to survive polarised sunglasses (which make many such readouts disappear). The graphics are crisp and you can easily cycle through the different functions via a rotary dial and centre-pushbutton on the dashboard. The location of which is not ideal: it’s low, on the right-side of the driver and just out of sight, but it’s probably not something you fiddle with a lot.
There’s plenty of other useful technology already present in the SV6, including rear cross-traffic alert and automatic parking, which works in both parallel and side-byside situations. It’s a bit drawn-out at times (parallel parking is a threestep manoeuvre), but it works.
The Commodore’s cabin styling is curvaceous and outwardly of good quality. The materials aren’t the most expensive, but Holden has done a good job of disguising that with a variety of overlaid textures and trim inserts.
The Black Edition gets a bit of extra garnish with special stitching, albeit in red.
MyLink is still a pleasure to use, with handsome graphics and a very responsive touch-screen. But Holden hasn’t gone so far as to upgrade the system to Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, unlike the much older Korean-sourced Captiva SUV and much newer Spark hatchback. Easy to see where the future lies.
Time is running out for the fullsize, rear-drive Aussie ‘big-six’. As the genre goes, the Commodore VF is as good as it gets and the Black Edition gives you a whole lot of extra equipment for a lower retail price.
If that’s your thing and you miss out, don’t worry. This probably won’t be the last special-edition Aussie-built Commodore.
HSV6 BLACK EDITION
Base price: $51,490.
Powertrain and performance: 3.6-litre petrol V6, 210kW/350Nm, 6-speed automatic, RWD, Combined economy 9.0 litres per 100km.
Vital statistics: 4964mm long, 1471mm high, 2915mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 495 litres, 18-inch alloy wheels.
We like: Extra driver-assistance technology, correct-wheel-drive chassis.
We don’t like: Wheezy-sounding engine, two-tone wheels look too small.