2007 Holden Commodore SV6 Ute review from Australia and New Zealand

The power steering pump is faulty. It started making a whirring sound that vibrates through the steering wheel, started at around 2000km. Seems to quieten down when it warms up.

The 6 speed manual gearbox is clunky and doesn't like shifting down to second smoothly at any speed (poor synchro). Hate to think what it'll be like in a couple of years time.

This vehicle is leased by the Queensland Government and it replaced our 2004 Toyota Hilux. The Hilux had around 55,000km on the clock when it was returned and I'm positive it could quite easily have gone to over 400,000km if looked after. It felt bullet-proof. The SV6 would be lucky to see 100,000 without some sort of major repairs I reckon.

Performance is OK, but you have to keep the revs up. It doesn't have the lazy low-down effortless torque of the 4.0L straight-6 Falcon of which we also have a few of.

After having a VT Commodore as a company car a while back (see review titled 'Mediocre at best') I was a bit doubtful when it arrived. It is the sport pack, but there's obvious cost cutting like the fact you can't adjust the intermittent wipers. Instead they are speed sensitive so at 100kph on intermittent they are wiping almost as fast as if they were on full no matter how damp the windscreen is. Not good for wiper blade life. I was fumbling all round for the adjuster til I read the manual and realised it was only the higher models you can adjust.

Will get the power steering pump checked out at it's 15,000km service, if it doesn't blow up before hand. My 1993 626 has 260,000km and has never had steering problems.

It drives well on the highway and feels like you're driving a 4 door car except there is no space for anything behind the seats. It's the first car I've driven that has cruise control with a manual transmission. We won't be loading it up while we have it which is probably a good thing as I doubt that the independant rear suspension would hold up to much weight which is why these utes are normally referred to as 'show ponies'.

I'll update the review with comments if anyone is interested as to how this vehicle ages.