Search for a new car Part 3 - The SV6

This was the first big car I've driven since the old '88 VL Commodore, a vehicle that had been handed down through 3 generations to end up in my hands around the turn of the century. And, despite my poor opinion of Commodores (thanks to that VL), I was keen to give the SV6 a go thanks to the 20 or so years of evolution in the Holden factory.

I'd seen the new SV6 Commodores around and, I must admit, this was the first Commodore I was interested in. Thanks to the flared wheel arches and the vent behind the front wheels, this thing looked tough. The colouring options were impressive and, unlike the old VL, it was a new car, and a V6 at that.

My first contact with the SV6 was thanks to a car-rental agency. Due to our needs to haul all our gear on a week-long road trip my father and I were embarking on, we opted for a wagon, and I was pleased to see we'd ended up with an SV6 Wagon.

And even more pleased that I would initially get to test drive this machine alone, driving it home to load up before our journey began.

Essentially the same size as a sedan, the wagon came in an automatic, with the option of throwing the gear leaver to the side for a sports shift option. I found the unfamiliar car very comfortable to drive in traffic, and had time to play with the cruse control and other features before hitting the road west.

Generally speaking the car handled well. Cornering wasn't too bad, though I would struggle to call it exciting (even unladen). It was simply adequate.

Acceleration, however... acceleration was always a thrill.

Being used to a 5 speed 4cyl, the 6 speed V6 took off very easily and quickly, leaving me very impressed. Out on the open road the SV6 continues to pull away very easily, regardless of the speed you're doing. On a number of occasions we'd be traveling 120km/h and come up on a road train. It was nothing to just put the foot down and blast past the road titan before laying off the gas and coming to coast at 120km/h again thanks to the cruise control.

On that note, I must stress that cruise control is a big feature that I'm reluctant to go without (I'm looking at you, XR5. This might go against you when we go for a drive!). It enabled me to just keep my eyes on the road, and the landscape, not having to watch the speedo, or control the accelerator. On long trips I believe the effort of having to watch your speed (speedo and accelerator) can be mentally exhausting. This allowed me to enjoy the landscape through which I was driving, and made the trip infinitely more comfortable.

My first impressions of the cockpit were that of a very plastic interior. There were (almost) burred edges along the handbrake handle showing clearly how it had been molded, and the dash did feel a little cheap. But, all in all, it was a fairly clean interior as far as the design went. The dials for the climate control were large and easily accessed while driving. My only concern was that of the radio/stereo options being rather fiddly and extremely difficult to manage while driving.

On the steering wheel sat blutooth hands free controls on the right (very handy), and on the left were the display controls for the digital readout between the speedo and tacho. I found the steering wheel to be a touch too large and had a strange flat outer edge making the wheel rather uncomfortable to grip on longer trips. Trust me, Charleville to Bourke was just one stint in my week long road trip, but it took much less than that to start to wear on the hands.

There were plenty of sensible cup holders and compartments around the cockpit, including a molded groove in the door well to allow bottled water to be stored, while the main cup holders were in use - a nice feature.

I did find the column, stick-mounted, radio controls a bit awkward compared to the very easy controls located on the Focus. But this is just a minor issue.

At the end of the day, it's a good car. There are reports of reliability issues, and with the front windscreen pillars being far too large, but I neither noticed, nor had experience with them. It's a sound car, and was what inspired me to make the change.

However, at the time of writing this, I'm starting to lean toward something a little smaller.

Despite this, my next car is the XR6 Falcon. I'll write more about that soon.

Stay tuned.