1997 Holden Commodore VS Esteem review from Australia and New Zealand

Overall a very reliable car with only minor things that have gone wrong.

1. Blocked air filter, which was obviously blocked when I got the car. Replaced with K&N filter, which improved fuel economy.

2. Pulley broke, had to get the car towed by the RACQ for free. Only cost $100 to fix.

3. Electric window broke. Cost $300 to fix and jammed down the bottom, which was a pain.

I paid $6000 for a car with 100 thousand Ks on the clock off the original owners. Paint job is in mint condition, and it came with a full Alpine sound system, which sounds great.

Since then I've fitted exhaust and extractors, which sound much better than stock (obviously not as good as a V8). The car has a lot of grunt with a very powerful first gear. Only problem is if you put the foot down after 45ks, the auto gear box won't drop down to first and will stay in 2nd, and at that speed 2nd gear is very gutless due to low RPM.

Also raced a same year model EL Falcon XR6 up to the speed limit of 80ks. Beat it by 2 car lengths.

Overall a great car. Very reliable with a solid engine, certainly no V8, but offers a great happy medium between a 4 and an 8.