Last call for Commodore VXR
One of the weird things about my ‘‘ownership’’ period with our longterm ZB Commodore VXR is that I’ve found people are just as keen to talk about the company that sells it as they are about the car itself. Weird and unusual.
We all know the ZB is Holden’s European-sourced replacement for the Aussie VF, following the finish of domestic manufacturing in October last year. It’s also widely known that lack of Australian buyer interest in the ZB is a major contributor to a massive slump in Holden sales across the Tasman since then.
For the record, ZB is doing better in New Zealand. Not brilliantly, because large cars are far from the flavour of the month. Kiwi registrations for ZB in May were 122, ahead of class-rivals Kia Stinger (34) and Skoda Superb (12).
VF Commodore sales in May last year were also just 166, by the way. With a combination of both generations, the model is still hanging in there as the No 10 passenger car overall year-to-date.
But there’s also uncertainty over the ZB’s longer-term future, following the sale of the Opel brand to Peugeot-Citroen. Continuing supply of the current model to Holden was part of the deal (Astra too), but when this model reaches the end of its cycle – who knows?
My point is that the ZB is carrying a lot of baggage. Lucky it’s got a really big boot.
It’s all been a bit of a distraction from whether our ZB VXR has actually been an enjoyable car to run and/or an entertaining one to drive. But it’s scored on both counts.
It was a bit of a novelty for me to have a Commodore as a family car because we had one when I was kid and it’s what I learned to drive in; see, you can’t escape the heritage-baggage of the name no matter what you do.
It’s true that the VXR in particular is well out of step with the modern trend towards sporty SUVs – it’s a sedan-cum-liftback that gets you as low to the ground as possible, in terms of both the VXR’s adaptive suspension setup and the unique sports front seats that come with this model. But that’s exactly how I like my family car to be, so call me old-fashioned.
There are taller ZB options of course, from the more mainstream models right up to the pseudo-SUV Tourer wagon.
The ZB does not have the taxilike rear space of the old VF. Holden can show you all kinds of figures saying it does, but the reality is that the back seats feel a lot more confined and it is much narrower. I never found that a huge issue as it’s still a large car, but then I never had three burly blokes (or three child seats) to cram in there either.
As a sporting sedan (‘‘liftback’’ still doesn’t sound right, although that’s what it is) the VXR was brilliant. The 3.6-litre V6 is not the last word in verve, but the ninespeed automatic is seamless, the all-wheel-drive system has a virtuoso torque-vectoring system and the thing even sounds really good. Some of that soundtrack is enhanced in the VXR, but there’s a lot of real rasp too – it still has an aggressive gurgle from the outside.
You might recall that we did a bit of a back-to-back when we moved from the old VF SS-V Redline to the new VXR. Still love the old-school V8, but during a brisk day’s driving on demanding backroads the newer, less powerful car easily kept up with the V8 monster and consumed nearly three litres of fuel less per 100km doing it. That’s powertrain and chassis technology for you.
In fact, if I had to sum up the standout aspect of my time with the VXR in one word, it’d be that: technology. Not just the chassis, but the brilliant adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go, which I used virtually all the time apart from those backroads blasts. Or the configurable digital dashboard, which you could set up just-so depending on mood or driving situation.
Or the matrix-LED headlights, which change their high-beam shape in very intricate ways depending on what’s coming the other way; they have to be experienced to be believed and they’re better than anything I’ve used in premium-brand machines.
Disappointments? There were a few. Love the cabin styling, but the quality of materials doesn’t match the look. The VXR’s stiff suspension also loosened up a few creaks and rattles during our tenure.
Then again, build quality is still better than any Aussie Commodore ever made.
And I don’t think Holden has got the model mix right. I understand the temptation to insist on the biggest engine for the VXR version (especially when the V6 engine is only in the ZB at Holden’s insistence), but experience with the rest of the range suggests to me that the fourcylinder turbo (which has almost as much torque as the V6 and is much sweeter overall) would work even better in a driverfocused model.
All the four-pot ZBs are FWD of course, but in Europe there’s an Insignia (that’s what the Commodore is called over there) GSi that is basically VXR-spec but with the blown 2.0-litre. That’d be pretty cool.
But the VXR was still one of those cars I looked forward to driving every day, often at the expense of more expensive or exotic road-test cars parked next to it in the garage.
Can’t tell you what’ll happen with the ZB or even Holden in the future, but I can recommend the Commodore VXR right now.