Holden Commodore SV6 manual 2010 Review

Road Test

Price Guide (recommended price before statutory and delivery charges): $42,790
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): Onyx leather trim $2500 and Rear Park Assist $495
Crash rating: Five-star (ANCAP)
Fuel: 91 RON ULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 10.2
CO2 emissions (g/km): 242
Also consider: Ford Falcon XR6, Toyota Aurion Sportivo SX6

Overall rating: 3.0/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 3.0/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 2.5/5.0
Safety: 3.0/5.0
Behind the wheel: 3.0/5.0
X-factor: 4.0/5.0

About our ratings

Before we laid hands on the latest Commodore SV6, Holden had arranged an economy run to demonstrate the fuel efficiency potential of its upgraded MY10 Commodore range. Unlike that benign drive program (sunny, dry with smooth roads and low speeds), our first opportunity to drive the revised large car on home turf was about as demanding as it gets. Melbourne had experienced a drenching downpour over the previous three days and the rain was still bucketing down when we took the SV6 out for an extended drive at night.

Coincidentally, the car tested was the very same manual transmission vehicle driven by this writer on the third leg of the Holden economy run. Many of the comments then still apply, of course; among them our scorn for the shift quality of the manual transmission.

Other than the ability to cut perhaps fractions of a second off a launch in the dry, there's no effective value in Holden’s manual transmission box as it stands. If you think this is 'fun' -- as one of our readers apparently does -- you need to get out more. It's slow, heavy and ponderous. Jeep's Patriot provides better manual shift quality -- and that's an SUV, for crying out loud.

At the risk of labouring the point, there's some sense of satisfaction in getting the right gear, smoothly, and in a reasonable timeframe driving the SV6 -- but you're still not getting the performance or the ability to cover ground rapidly that a manual variant of a sports sedan promises.

The automatic version of the SV6 is FASTER from point to point and offers better fuel economy potential. And as for the counter-argument that you have more control over the car with a manual transmission, you don't if you wrong-slot... and that's likely enough with this manual box.

Engine braking -- something the six-speed automatic can provide also -- allows the SV6 to glide into bends and corners with weight over the front wheels and the drive wheels alone exerting some influence on the car's inertia. In the wet, the SV6 stepped out on one tight corner, but it was predictable and quickly curtailed by the stability control system. On another occasion, accelerating gently through a tight corner resulted in some signals from the Mac struts at the front that they were doing all the work, but the car didn't understeer across the centreline (it was a left-hand corner). In short, the SV6 offers very good grip at the front -- even in the wet -- and is more likely to let go at the rear, but it's moderate and poised when it does. The car handles like a good sports sedan should.

Steering complements the handling. There's plenty of feel and the weight is about right, given the car's target buyer type -- people who prefer more feel in their steering, less assistance. Turn-in is progressive rather than direct, but it's a car that’s not slow to respond to the wheel. Again, it's composed, particularly at higher speeds. The lack of flightiness in its handling and steering makes the SV6 the sort of car you can drive in all conditions with a high level of confidence.

There was just one occasion when the SV6 felt a little under the pump. On one downhill bend the rear of the car subtly 'jacked up' on one side turning into the bend. But there was no real cause for concern -- merely some weight transferred without any impact on the car's roadholding otherwise. Praise be for multi-link IRS.

We were pretty impressed by the ride comfort of the SV6 too. Like the Falcon XR6, it's a car that combines sports sedan dynamics with the sort of comfortable but well-controlled ride that many more expensive cars fail to achieve.

Brakes benefited from the SV6's tyres, which provided plenty of grip in a straight line as well as around corners. The antilock brake set-up alerted the driver with some low-level pulsing, but none of the histrionics normally associated with an anti-lock system. Stability control was calibrated along similar lines to those of the FG Falcon, allowing considerable latitude before taking the car (and the driver) by the hand.

With its direct-injection 3.6-litre V6, the SV6 is athletic enough on the road, but it's also an effortless car to drive around town. While the transmission ratios are quite low (which is the beauty of six speeds available for selection), the engine musters substantial torque right across the rev range and the SV6 can be driven in the same gear across a wide range of road speeds. As pointed out in our original drive of this car, it will tootle along at 1000rpm in sixth gear -- uphill!

It's this snatch-free delivery and torque that makes the SV6 a large-displacement car you can actually drive around town without paying through the nose at the petrol pump. It will literally crawl along in sixth at 60km/h and use very little fuel in the process. Even without the parsimonious driving of an economy run, we saw figures around the 10.0L/100km mark in a combination of open-road and around-town operation. It's not too far wide of the mark then for Holden to claim that the 3.0-litre engine fitted in the Omega and Berlina returns four-cylinder fuel economy.

Average fuel consumption for the larger-engined SV6 was 11.5L/100km when we handed it back to Holden, but that included the demanding drive in the rain, when fuel consumption had reached its nadir of 12.2L/100km, before returning to the more acceptable figure with some gentler driving.

But SV6 buyers are more likely to want the car for its performance. In that, the SV6 doesn't disappoint either. The SIDI V6 in 3.6-litre form has torque all across the rev range, as already mentioned. Where the torque is of the fuel-sipping type between 1000-2000rpm, its linear power delivery pushed from about 3000rpm right up to the redline. Getting to the maximum engine speed, the V6 emits a bass note that, if not in the same ballpark as an Alfa V6 installation, at least is a major improvement on the old Alloytec engine's and doesn't sound like a typical V-configuration six. Indeed, it seems as charming as the Falcon's inline six. The Holden engine is refined at higher revs as well, generating fewer vibes than its port-injected predecessor.

It was harder to pick on saturated roads, with the rain still falling, but the tyres seemed to be a little noisy on coarser bitumen. Some low-level vibration from the drivetrain could be detected at open-road speeds, but no worse than in any other locally-manufactured large car.

Inside the car, the SV6 is comfortable and spacious. There's plenty of room in the front and the rear for adults, and the boot is also fairly commodious.

The driving position was very good; it was simple to find a commanding view of the instruments, in easy reach of the controls and comfortably distanced from the pedals and wheel. Seats were very comfortable. While they weren't as heavily bolstered at the sides as the seats in the Falcon XR6, they were up to the job of holding the occupant well during cornering anyway. They were a little flatter in the base cushion than we recall for the Falcon, but they remained comfortable, without the sinking sensation in the Falcon's seats.

Apart from our long-running VE Commodore gripes (handbrake alignment and the dreaded A-pillar blindspot discussion) two other issues were minor disappointments in the SV6; the unlined boot lid didn't have a pull-down strap or recessed grab handle for shorter people and the audio system will not play an MP3 disc. The boot lid we can live with, but a car the likes of the SV6 should be equipped with an audio system that can keep the family happy on longer runs.

All that aside, the revised Commodore range has really impressed us here at the Carsales Network. And the SV6 is a fine example within the range. There are elements of its packaging that smack of a 3.6-litre version of the Omega with some added trinkets, but we think that's what people want from this type of car. If it's affordable but still sporty, who's going to complain? Certainly not us.

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