VE Commodore Wins Wheels Car of The Year

[Darren]

Holden’s all new VE Commodore has received top honours at the prestigious Wheels Car of Year awards evening held at an industry function in Melbourne earlier tonight.

Judged on performance, fuel economy and value for money, Wheels judges put 21 of the best new models of 2006 through their paces. After the magazine’s gruelling six day test program the VE Commodore emerged victorious.

Launched in July 2006, the all-new VE Commodore was the largest single automotive program in Australia’s history and helped Commodore remain Australia’s most popular car, a title it has held for eleven consecutive years.

Holden invested over one billion dollars in the VE Commodore program to ensure the car delivers exceptional ride and handling, performance, quality, more technology and more features than ever before at a point of unquestionable value.

Holden’s Chairman and Managing Director, Denny Mooney, said the win as the perfect start to 2007.

“This is certainly a fantastic honor,” Mr Mooney said.

“The award gives much deserved recognition to everyone at Holden who worked so hard on making the VE Commodore range a success.

“We are in no doubt that this was an incredibly tough award to win. The competition was tough and the judging criteria is of an extremely high standard.

“We designed, engineered and manufactured this range to meet world class standards and to be able to compete against some of the most expensive and most carefully crafted cars around the world. Winning this highly respected award is recognition that we achieved these objectives.”

Holden adds this win to the growing list of accolades for the VE Commodore:
- Winner: MOTOR Bang For Your Bucks (VE Commodore SS)
- Winner: News Ltd Car Of The Year (VE Calais V)
- Winner: Drive.com People’s Choice Award (VE Commodore SS V)
- Nominated: World Car Of The Year

Started in 1962, Wheels Car of the Year is Australia’s original new car award and the longest continuously-running award of its type in the world.

Source - Holden Media

[Troy711]

goes to show holdens consistantly building the best and leading the way with their new models. VB, VN, VR, VT and now VE

[Ripcell]

great work by the holden design crew.

keep up the good work for the next generation guys

[drewins]

Wooooooo. Hopefully sells a few cars in the process. Visit drive.com blogs in the next few days and listen to all of the complainers giving crap to wheels and Holden.

[VHSLX3300]

lol good to hear...Now I can begin my Ford Holden war with a mate who said Wheels put the VE down. hehe oh this is good.

[mongoose3800]

Why am not surprised that Wheels gave the VE COTY. I'm ready to be shot down in flames after this but here goes. Whilst the VE is an improvement over past commodores I really don't think it is worthy of Wheels COTY. 2 recalls, Design compromises, panel gaps, useless space (weight) saving spare wheel, widely criticised A-Pillar, Dodgy Aircon and still ugly in many peoples views. The Wheels judges have simply let their emotions or patriotism cloud their judgement. Why is it that other car awards have gone to the Aurion? Why is it Wheels magazine is so good at giving awards to lemons and favouring the Aussie product. The VE has now joined the ranks of other cars that should not have been given COTY like the Leyland P76, Camira, TM Magna, VN, VR, VT and Ford BA. Some of these cars maybe sentimental old favourites now but not one of these cars deserved the award. i.e. P76(bad quality, unreliable over heating engine), Camira (lets not go there), VN (harsh, unrefined, hacked Opel, bad brakes, oil leaks and poor finish), VR (face lifted VN/VP, still leaks oil, Engine still Harsh and G'box nothing to talk about) TM Magna (plastic fantastic, oil burners, bad g'box), VT(modified opel, oil leaks, heavy, compromised suspension) and BA(brake shudder, cooling probs, under cooled auto, CPU freeze ups). Perhaps the Wheels COTY curse will strike the VE as well.

[AttaBoy]

You are not really afraid of posting comments like that... mmmmmm......interesting.

[veclubby]

you could see it coming though....the only real competition the VE had was the aurion and i dont think its been selling that well....mite be wrong but i aven't seen many on the road. and the base models look very strange...

[-UNKNOWN-]

Ford wasnt even in the top ten.. Ha! I thought Ford was "up there" with holden! So Ford says.

[vy-346]

thats because bf mkii isn't a 'new' car.

[vy-346]

Why am not surprised that Wheels gave the VE COTY. I'm ready to be shot down in flames after this but here goes. Whilst the VE is an improvement over past commodores I really don't think it is worthy of Wheels COTY. 2 recalls, Design compromises, panel gaps, useless space (weight) saving spare wheel, widely criticised A-Pillar, Dodgy Aircon and still ugly in many peoples views. The Wheels judges have simply let their emotions or patriotism cloud their judgement. Why is it that other car awards have gone to the Aurion? Why is it Wheels magazine is so good at giving awards to lemons and favouring the Aussie product. The VE has now joined the ranks of other cars that should not have been given COTY like the Leyland P76, Camira, TM Magna, VN, VR, VT and Ford BA. Some of these cars maybe sentimental old favourites now but not one of these cars deserved the award. i.e. P76(bad quality, unreliable over heating engine), Camira (lets not go there), VN (harsh, unrefined, hacked Opel, bad brakes, oil leaks and poor finish), VR (face lifted VN/VP, still leaks oil, Engine still Harsh and G'box nothing to talk about) TM Magna (plastic fantastic, oil burners, bad g'box), VT(modified opel, oil leaks, heavy, compromised suspension) and BA(brake shudder, cooling probs, under cooled auto, CPU freeze ups). Perhaps the Wheels COTY curse will strike the VE as well.

Who cares? Obviously not the testers. Because they didnt expeirience those mechanical problems during the 6 days of testing. As for the weight issue, performance isn't everything and obviously fuel ecomony was up to scratch at the time of testing for vt.

[Danv8]

Wooooooo. Hopefully sells a few cars in the process. Visit drive.com blogs in the next few days and listen to all of the complainers giving crap to wheels and Holden.

How uncanny.
http://blogs.drive.com.au/2007/01/do...uence_car.html

[pro_gmh]

Wheels mag like that the ve has a euro style, i reckon its BS and i would rather a falcon as i reckon they look tuffer and and suit more aussie taste. also the ve isnt selling all the great either??

i reckon holden should take a lesson from the us about tuff car style and a little less german/euro style

[holden#1]

i'm lovin' it.... just happy the BF didn't score coty...

then again, i'm biased! if Holden did make a car on the slightly crap side, it would still be better than the competition!

[fourstar82]

To all of you who bag the award, buy the magazine and read why it won. It also criticises it in many areas, so wheels aren't completely ga ga over it.

[vztrt]

i'm lovin' it.... just happy the BF didn't score coty...

How would it when the BF was an upgrade from the BA which was COTY? Like the VX/VY (VT platform) are ineligible for the award.

[pro_gmh]

I didnt know that vztrt, so cars that are based on a prev modek arent eligble? example, say the vn won, that would make the vp ineligible?

[vztrt]

I didnt know that vztrt, so cars that are based on a prev modek arent eligble? example, say the vn won, that would make the vp ineligible?

Yes, there are certain criteria a car needs to meet to enter the award. The VN did win but so did the VR I believe. I think they say that the car needs to be significantly different from the previous model to enter. So while the BF got a power upgrade and new transmission the fact that many people cant tell the difference between the models made it ineligible.

[VS Omega]

Good on Holden for winning the award. Just for reference here's a list of previous winners. Interesting ones I'm making bold. Taken from Wikipedia, my favorite source of information After looking at this list, it doesn't seem like much of an achievement (a freakin' Camira won one?!), but I guess there can only be one a year..

Wheels’ Car of the Year winners are:

• 1963 Renault 8
• 1964 Morris 1100
• 1965 Ford Falcon (XP)
• 1966 Ford Falcon (XR)
• 1967 Chrysler Valiant (VE)
• 1968 Holden Monaro (HK)
• 1969 Holden Torana (LC)
• 1970 Renault 12
• 1971 Chrysler Valiant Charger (VH)
• 1972 Award withheld
• 1973 Leyland P76 V8
• 1974 Volkswagen Passat
• 1975 Holden Gemini (TX)
• 1976 Volkswagen Golf
• 1977 Honda Accord
• 1978 Holden Commodore (VB)
• 1979 Award withheld
• 1980 Mazda 323
• 1981 Mercedes-Benz 380SE (W126)
• 1982 Holden Camira (JB)
• 1983 Ford Telstar and Mazda 626 (joint award)
• 1984 Mitsubishi Nimbus
• 1985 Mitsubishi Magna (TM)
• 1986 Award withheld
• 1987 Honda Prelude
• 1988 Holden Commodore (VN)
• 1989 Mazda MX-5 (NA)
• 1990 Lexus LS 400
• 1991 Honda NSX and Nissan Pulsar
• 1992 Mazda 626 and Ford Telstar
• 1993 Holden Commodore (VR)
• 1994 Subaru Liberty
• 1995 Honda Odyssey
• 1996 Mitsubishi Magna/Verada
• 1997 Holden Commodore (VT)
• 1998 Subaru Liberty Wagon
• 1999 Mercedes-Benz S-Class
• 2000 Subaru Impreza
• 2001 Holden Barina (XC)
• 2002 Ford Falcon (BA)
• 2003 Mazda RX-8
• 2004 Ford Territory
• 2005 Mazda MX-5 (NC)
• 2006 Holden Commodore (VE)

[GLD-086]

lol do Falcons achieve anything?

If the BA never won it in 2002, the XR would've been the last to win it. lol

1966-2002 That's a pretty big f***ing gap.

Also yeah it doesn't really seem to be an achievement. They let a Boat (VN) with an optional anchor (Buick 3800) win it for god sake.

[1991_Vn2nV]

lol do Falcons achieve anything?

If the BA never won it in 2002, the XR would've been the last to win it. lol

1966-2002 That's a pretty big f***ing gap.

Also yeah it doesn't really seem to be an achievement. They let a Boat (VN) with an optional anchor (Buick 3800) win it for god sake.

A boat thats bigger, faster, stronger than its predecessor (the VL). Last I checked, only milk comes in a 3L

Just jokes.. Why are there years with "Awards withheld"?

Also, I think the Wheels COTY award has come a long way espeially in the last 5-6 years.

[vr_owner]

the awards withheld is there because there was no cars released that were any good, well good enough for the title