Comments: 1-15, 16-17
- A/C stopped working
- Pieces of interior trim fell off
I had high expectations when we recently hired a new VE Omega for 14 days; the car that Holden and Wheels magazine claim can match it with the best from Europe. Unfortunately, the car has been majorly overrated by these motoring ‘experts’, and is let down a very ordinary drive line that is way off the pace being set by the Toyota Aurion, and even the BA Falcon.
The V6 power plant is a crock; it lacks low down torque and is way too harsh and noisy for a supposedly modern engine. Perhaps this is why even GMH no longer use this motor in their American built cars. The pathetic 4 speed auto is also a sad joke, with poor ratios, shift pattern and a tendency to spend most of the time hunting through the gears. The car also lacked a manual shift or tiptronic mode, which was disappointing. The drive line of my 1988 Nissan Skyline GTS, with the legendary RB 30 embarrasses the Commodore with its incredible smoothness and refinement. In fact this 20 year old Aussie built Skyline would still outpoint this car in nearly every respect, aside from interior room and secondary crash protection.
The steering is also too light and vague, and provides the driver little in the way of direct feedback. The ride was also floaty and the handling was no better than average - Certainly not on a par with a BMW 5 –series as claimed by Wheels magazine!
The quality and finish of the interior plastics are a joke, with large variations in dash panel gaps, and loose fitting pieces of trim and bonnet release that felt like it was going to break off at any stage. A couple of pieces of the centre console trim actually fell off while we had the car, which does not say much for its long term reliability considering the car only had 20,000 k’s on the clock.
At one stage the A/C also stopped working, raising further doubts about this cars long term reliability and build quality.
The steering wheel mounted controls and trip computer display were difficult to use and poorly thought out, and there was no manual boot release or even a locking fuel cap.
About the only things that impressed me about the car was the amount of interior leg room and the excellent brakes. However, the car falls way short of the new Toyota Aurion, with its silky smooth V6 and Lexus like 6 speed auto, along with Japanese levels of build quality and finish. Even the Ford Falcon, with the optional 6 speed auto would be a better bet then this very disappointing car.
No offence, but you HIRED this car... its prob been trashed as hire cars would.
There was certainly no evidence of previous abuse of the car. Really, if we are honest with ourselves no car should be falling apart after 20,000 km's. My 1988 Skyline has over 340,000 km's on it, never broken down and not a single rattle, and the driveline has been untouched, aside from regular servicing! I don't thing the latest 'bombodore' will age anywhere near as well.
As stated in my review, the main faults with the car lie in the core engineering - the harsh engine and pathetic 4 speed auto box, are a long way off the standard set by the Toyota Aurion.
I have been working on the VE since they came to the our Holden Dealership. Although this opinion does come across a little too harsh for my liking, there are some very true points made. There is a manual boot release, but the fuel flap has no backup. We have had some trouble with the A/C (software issues)...all good now. The motors are loud at higher RPM - that sucks! The omega still uses the 4L60E transmission... variation of the VR up-ward trans, however the software has improved. Transmissions in Commodores have always been average, but believe it or not, the VE changes though gears best.
Omega's have never stood out for me as they are ugly and very basic (Good Police Cars). The BMW compared models are the Caprice and Calais V. They are nice! Very good for the money in comparison. That's V8 I refer to.
Ultimately tho, every body has the right to an opinion. I have seen all the 'types' at work. Some people are very happy with the car... and some are really upset. I spose it's an excellent way to tell which way you'll lean by hiring a vehicle... good on yah mate! Hope that dream car is just around the corner. :-)
You are obviously a Ford lover. You've got it all wrong, I hired a Omega for a month while I was in the Gold Coast, and nothing went wrong at all. I think it's a beautiful car and Holden have done really well to pick up the quality of there vehicles. Yes the engine and transmission are disappointing, but I think you're just in denial because Ford cannot match Holden for quality, power, luxury etc.
Before you ask I have driven in many BA Falcons, 380s and the all new Aurion, but still none of those are any where near the Omega. Many of my friends own BA Falcons and can't stop complaining about them leaks, rattles, odd engine noises and even digital read out and speedo issues and everytime their kids try to get in the back of the car, they hit their heads (and they're 5 and 7).
As stated in my review, I am a Nissan Skyline owner and fan... have never owned a Ford.
Well I'm gonna state this, everybody builds an occasional bad car, get over it.
Even Nissan can build a bad car.
I don't think the VE is a one-off bad car. Commodores have never been known for build quality and reliability. It might boast about dynamics, but the reviewer is right: fundamentally it's flawed.
Holden Commodres have always been garbage so this review is not suprising.
I work as a mechanic for a fleet company that runs a large fleet (few hundred cars) which is obviously made up of new falcons, commodores, aurions, camry's, 380's and so on.
As far as ease to work on commodore wins followed closley by the falcon.
Best engine would be toyotas 2gr-fe (aurion, kluger, rav6 and tarago) most powerfull and lively, yes the falcon i6 engine has a nice power output but it also shares it origins from fords first ever in-line 6 engine in the first falcons 30+ years ago so id EXPECT ford to have it right by now, which quite often suffers from sump, power steer, rocker cover and the rare rear main seal leaks.
The alloytec engine is at most 4 years old at present so give it a chance to evolve, the worst I've seen is a slight rocker cover weep.
To drive commodore and aurion win, falcon although being a potent car feels slow to drive with heavier than I like steering, the aurion suffers from shocking torque steer as a result of being a high powered front wheeler, and commodore feels light and perky while not producing ugly power trips like the aurion.
Even though that ve you drove had 20,00km on the clock the way they get driven could make wear equvilent to a 400,00km car, believe me I've seen a brand new corrola come back with a stuffed transmission from shifting into low gears at high speeds.
Amazing how everybody here thinks the new Holdens are cr@p yet you still see so many of them on he road, just think about it.
I'm somewhat surprised but at the same time I should expect this. A bad review comes up of a Commodore and the guy must be a Ford fan. Every car manufacturer can have problems, sometimes based on development, sometimes based on production line time. Failure rates in mass produced cars, such as the Commodore for example are higher than that of lower produced cars, such as the Mitsubishi 380, due to the lower stresses to push it through the assembly line to keep up high numbers of production.
Owned 3 Holdens, Never owned a Ford. Several Mitsubishi's, A Toyota or two. Many a Chrysler. 2 Mazdas. You tend to notice things when you shift around the auto industry so frequently.
I work in a road-service call centre in Australia and in my experience of thousands of calls that I have taken for stranded motorists would be the Commodore VE would be at the top for an Australian built car. I'm not sure but a lot seem to stall from customer feedback on a relatively new vehicle, so the owners I speak to aren't at all happy when they call us! Oh by the way Toyota Camry's (previous shape) seem to like breaking down especially on hot days! You see a lot of Holden Commodores around as they're used for Government/Fleet & company vehicle doesn't make them good. I own a 1989 Toyota Corolla SR5 4wd wagon and apart from cracked manifold never had any issues and extremely reliable engine. Ask any mechanic and they hardly see Toyota's in there workshops mainly Fords and Holdens. I think a Friday built car is a lot of crock & a cop out as new cars are quality tested. Our other family car is an 04 BA wagon with 80k, lots or noises and rattles and I wouldn't recommend this model. Also major problem with Ford BA transmission which costs about $2500 to fix, ask any transmission company how to fix as Ford wipe there hands of any warranty issues about this.
The reason why you see so many Commodores on the road, is because people are fooled by its good looks and false media coverage, that even had me believe that this time Holden actually did build the best car in the world.
Ha! After more than two years of ownership and first-hand experience, guess who would never be fooled again! Japanese cars are currently the world's most reliable cars produced, we have to admit, proudly Australian or not!
The main reason why I was stuck with the Commodore for this long is because it's resale value is lower than crap.
I'd tend to agree with previous comments about the problems with cars that are forced through production. Surveys in Europe show that Skoda (yes, THAT one) cars had far higher reliability and satisfaction ratings than Audi or VW, despite the fact that they use VW/Audi mechanicals and electricals.
Cars these days are far more fragile, unfortunately. Far too many computers (software problem) and electrics, which are susceptible to extreme heat (rather than cold). Notice an earlier comment from a call centre worker saying they get calls from Camry owners when the weather gets hot. If a Camry can have problems, then there's a fundamental problem in how many cars are designed these days.
We have commodore VE's as our work vehicles and they oooze cheapness all over. They do the job for fleet, but it is like driving a tractor, and boy they are slooooow. You feel like going to sleep waiting for them to get to speed, the power delivery is all over the place.