High and mighty in world of wagons
It’s a sign of the times that Holden’s V6-powered Commodore wagon is somewhat unique in the market, says David Linklater.
It’s been all change for the Commodore in the last year: from VF Aussie sedan to ZB German liftback. But what does continue is the ‘‘sportwagon’’ name on the estate-car version of Holden’s large car.
A station wagon: what decade is it again?
We do live in an SUV world. But it’s nice to have choice, isn’t it?
That’s especially true if you’re a Holden shopper. Because the brand sources from many different places, you wouldn’t necessarily say there are direct equivalents across its passenger-car and SUV ranges.
The German-built, Aussietweaked Commodore ZB sportwagon is one thing. The Mexico-sourced Equinox medium SUV is quite another in character and appearance. The Commodore is more of a large car and the RS-V tested here is V6-powered, so maybe it’s closer to the forthcoming Acadia SUV. But again – the latter is pure Americana and a seven-seater, so different again.
You gain space, but what are you losing compared with the liftback?
There’s a $2000 premium for the
sportwagon over the equivalent sedan (it’s a liftback really) and you get an extra 70 litres of loadspace in five-seat configuration. Plus a bit more load practicality with the higher, longer roofline. The rear seats are split 40/20/40; very Euro.
Styling is a subjective thing, but for our money the sportwagon wins hands-down on design. The Commodore liftback (you can continue to call it a ‘‘sedan’’ if you really want to) is a handsome thing, but its weakest angle is at the rear – it’s a bit generic. The sportwagon looks long, low and very distinctive. You also get a cool hands-free tailgate with an illuminated Holden logo shining on the ground that shows you where to kick your foot to open it.
Any V6-powered Commodore is an appealing machine from a driver’s point of the view. The 3.6-litre engine has a growly exhaust note, the nine-speed (yes, count ‘em) transmission is smooth and the Twinster all-wheel drive system is revelation on wet or low-traction surfaces. It gives each rear wheel a separate clutch for true torque vectoring and does so with quite a bit of finesse.
Here’s what you can’t have in the sportwagon: VXR specification, which brings even better exhaust noise, adaptive suspension and lots of trick technology like adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go and incredible matrix LED headlights.
You can have some of that in the Tourer (meaning it’s another kind of wagon) Calais V, but that’s more of a pseudo-suv which is getting away from our point about the appeal of a an old-school estate car.
Tourer also has softer suspension than the RS-V, so it’s a bit less sporting.
Any other cars I should consider?
So you want a throaty sounding V6 wagon for around $60k that’s not an SUV? Good luck.
The Ford Mondeo, Hyundai i40 and Mazda6 wagons are all large and pretty swish – but they’re focused on four-cylinder power and in fact the models with the best driver-appeal are diesel.
Skoda’s Superb fronts up in 202kw turbo-petrol 4x4 format – still a four, but no shortage of grunt. It’s more expensive than the Commodore RS-V though, at well over $60k and up to $70k for the most highly specified version.