1987 Holden Commodore VL Executive review from Australia and New Zealand

Car was OK mechanically, but rough when I bought it, so while nothing has gone wrong I've put in a fair bit of remedial work:

1. touched up exterior paint

2. advanced ignition and removed airflow meter screens

3. renewed Panhard rod bushes (HUGE improvement in handling)

4. cleaned up interior and removed lots of dash rattles.

The car has been extremely reliable, despite some astronomical mileage (on its second instrument panel, which shows 320,000km).

I bought it for A$2.5k purely because I needed transport quick after some Richard Cranium in an old Falcon rear-ended and wrote off my Alfa 33 TI.

Five months later I've still got it and look likely to hang onto it unless I find a VL Calais at the right price :-).

These cars are incredible value for money; I have never had so much fun/$ in a car (both driving and fiddling with it).

Good points:

Fabulous tough, smooth, free revving, powerful and reasonably economical engine, with great tuning potential.

4-speed auto gearbox mates nicely with it even though I normally don't like autos.

Interior room and equipment (Executive comes standard with power steer and a/c)

Looks (best looking C'dore ever?)

Parts available everywhere.

Plenty of knowledge around on improving handling, performance, brakes etc.

Good visibility.

Dead easy to work on.

Bad points:

Brakes don't give me much confidence even after bleeding.

Handling can still be a bit spooky on occasion; back off in the middle of a tight corner when you're going hard and you get snap roll-oversteer.

Ride isn't brilliant despite dodgy handling.

Executive interior drab and bargain-basement; Berlina and Calais much nicer.

Sum-up: think of it as a poor-man's Alfa sports sedan - you're buying an engine and getting the rest of the car for free :-)