The last great Aussie tow tug

The last Commodore to come down the line was as a SS-V Redline manual sedan, which of course – like all VFII Commodores with a manual transmission – has only a 1600kg/160kg towing capacity.

However, it’s the automatic version in Commodore, Ute and Caprice that was the solid tow hauler option, with its 2100kg/210kg towing capacity. Sure, it wasn’t enough to lug your 26-foot tandem-axle home on wheels, but plenty for a typical single-axle 18ft van.

Ford’s local offerings including Falcon and Territory were one step better, with 2300kg/230kg towing capacity, but Ford stopped producing them a year ago when it also closed down its local manufacturing operation.

Have a look at any other passenger car or wagon on the market today and you’ll find nothing that has the Holden’s towing capacity and – crucially – its 10 per cent towball download capacity. Only mid-size SUVs can come near the Holden’s maximum towing limit, and even then most have much less than a 10 per cent TBM maximum.

The only medium passenger tow vehicles that come close to the Commodore’s maximum towing capacity are European wagons, such as the Peugeot 508 GT wagon, with its 1900kg towing limit. The problem is, the 508 can only take a maximum of 75kg on its towball.

SUVs such as the Hyundai Santa Fe are better, with its 2000kg capacity. Yet to improve on the Santa Fe’s meagre 100kg TBM limit, you have to tick the towing pack option – which gets you a 150kg TBM – still well short of the Commodore’s 210kg TBM.

These imported vehicles also lack the Commodore’s local development – which of course has included development for towing Aussie vans in local conditions.

One key reason for there being no other passenger car equal to the Holden in tow capacity is simply that the market (both generally and for tow vehicles) has swerved towards SUVs. When is the last time you saw a shiny-new Commodore towing a caravan?

It’s a shame, because the Commodore is a gun tow vehicle. The last Holden Commodore I tow-tested was a 2014 VF Commodore Sportwagon SV6 3.6 V6.

When optioned with the 2100kg tow pack, Holden specified that a Weight Distribution Hitch had to be used. There’s no doubt that the WDH would have done its bit to improve stability, but even so you can often tell when a WDH is a band-aid over a tow vehicle sorely needing better inherent towing balance.

The Commodore had that balance; sure, with 180kg on the towball its tail dropped enough that a WDH was definitely needed, but the combination felt planted on the road.

The SV6’s 210kW/350Nm 3.6-litre V6 also offered enough horsepower to be more than an old Clydesdale – it pulled the 1600kg van behind it easily, with enough hill-climbing and overtaking power to stay out of trouble. Like any relatively large displacement petrol engine, it sucked down fuel at a decent rate when towing, with a 16.0L/100km average. But try to get any better out of a V6 petrol SUV!

With the van parked, the Commodore had the ride and handling that owners of similarly priced SUVs can only dream about, not to mention better performance and fuel consumption. It was also one of the most comfortable cars for touring, hours on end…

You can’t deny that the market for tow vehicles like the Commodore has shrunk. But then you can only wonder if the recent increase in popularity of smaller vans such as single-axle pop-tops will soon make the Commodore sorely missed among caravanners.