By EWAN KENNEDY
7 August 2006

Holden has come up with an exceptional, dynamic package for its new VE Commodore. Making it a car that feels right up with European cars costing more than twice the price.

We have just completed close to 1000 kilometres of road driving out of the new GM-Holden corporate headquarters in Melbourne. Driving for two days we have sampled every standard model in the range as well as most of the engine/transmission permutations.

Performance from even the lowest-powered engines, the 180 kilowatt V6 is likely be more than enough for the great majority of drivers. There's plenty of urge for safe overtaking and the engine feels significantly smoother and more refined than it does in the outgoing VZ Commodore.

The next engine up in the range, still a V6 but with variable valve timing and a peak output of 195 kW, has excellent feel off the line, though some who aren't used to the way Holden tunes its engines may find it’s a little too aggressive on takeoff. Drivers who like near-instantaneous action will love it.

Typical fuel consumption for the six-cylinder engine was in the nine to ten litres per hundred kilometres in motorway cruising and seldom went over 11 litres per hundred in country cruising in a fairly brisk manner.

We haven’t done any real suburban running at this stage, but don’t expect the consumption to go much above 12 to 13 litres per hundred kilometres. We will give further information on this important factor of current-day car buying after we have tested the VE Commodore in our home conditions.

This fuel consumption is perfectly acceptable for a car of the size and performance of a family car like the Commodore.

Now in Gen 4 format, the V8 engine displaces 6.0 litres and can produce up to 270 kW, and 530 Nm at 4400 rpm. The engine delivers a huge amount of grunt from about 2000 rpm upwards. And sounds good to boot. It doesn’t have the volume of old style V8s, chiefly due to stringent noise regulations, but what sound is there is just great whether it be under steady state running, when acceleration or during decelleration.

Fuel is hardly of great concern to V8 buyers. In our initial testing we found the engine to use about 10 to 11 litres per hundred kilometres on the motorway, but that the consumption increased rapidly when the SS we tested was driven in a spirited manner in hilly conditions. We did see petrol usage on the wrong side of 20 litres per hundred kilometres at times. But that settled back to an average of about 15 litres per hundred.

Handling and road grip are sensationally good. The body has a lovely solid feel that bodes well for long life and also provides a good platform from which the suspension can work. At speeds well over those likely to be tried by the average sensible driver the new Commodore simply runs around corners with consummate ease. It’s almost completely neutral in its balance and steering feel in normal road driving and there are large reserves of safety.

Should you make a mistake and enter a corner at way above your intended speed the Holden ESP (electronic stability program), which is standard on all models, will assist you in keeping the car safely on track.

Should you drive into the corner at a ridiculously high speed then you will have a big crash and hopefully the Holden's passive safety features, including airbags will help you survive your folly.

Ride comfort is very good despite the sporty handling ability. Holden continues to show prestige European car makers how tyre and road noise can be suppressed on coarse-chip surfaces. It makes almost no difference what the road surface is like, there's little increase of sound and vibration levels inside the cabin.

Is the new Commodore perfect. Of course not, but the gripes we have in our early introduction are minor ones. While we admire the clever design and neat look of the new-style mini handbrake it’s somewhat awkward in use. And there's a lot of relentless grey plastic in the area of the dash and centre console. The quality and styling is fine, it’s just that to our eyes it needs a bit more variety of colour.

If the new VE Commodore doesn’t re-ignite Australian drivers love affair with big, safe six-cylinder family cars we will be extremely surprised.