Sir Les
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2014
- Messages
- 397
- Reaction score
- 248
- Points
- 43
- Location
- Adelaide
- Members Ride
- VF Calais V V6 MY14
A lot has been said about the new ZB Commodore, mainly by people who have never sat in one, let alone driven one. Is it as bad as some say? I decided to take one for a test drive to find out.
My normal daily is a 2014 VF1 Calais V sedan (with 3.6L V6) which has done 42,000 km. It's going well (touch wood). On a recent trip from Adelaide to Melbourne and back my best fuel consumption was 6.8 l/100km, which I thought was excellent for such a big, heavy car. After discussions with SWMBO, it was decided that IF we were to replace the VF, a Calais V Tourer with the 3.6 litre V6 and AWD would be the go. My local dealer didn't have a Calais V Tourer demo for a test drive, only a Calais Tourer, but since the running gear is the same we said ok. I drove it for about 40 minutes on sealed suburban Adelaide roads with speed limits from 50 - 80 km/h. Here's my initial impressions:
Likes
Plenty of interior space for passengers and especially cargo / comfortable seats / easy 1-touch folding rear seats (20/40/20) / motorised boot door / clever removable cargo cover / light steering / bags of engine power / smooth 9-speed auto gearbox / good comfortable ride / great road holding and cornering thanks to AWD / minimal tyre noise compared to VF (ContiSports cf Bridgestone Turanza) / looks better in the metal than in photos, especially in Abalone White / convex wing mirrors on both sides (much better field of view for driver).
Dislikes
Harsh and loud exhaust noise when accelerating hard / v. sensitive throttle pedal (although I suppose you'd get used to this) / all black interior very funereal looking / rev counter and speedo dials in Calais are small and hard to read quickly (no HUD) / console storage and glovebox smaller than in VF / buttons in front of gear lever hard to see and reach / satnav colours and graphics inferior to VF / whole interior and dashboard rather plain compared to more stylish VF Calais V.
The ZB Tourer comes with auto stop/start and power fold wing mirrors as standard, but neither seemed to be working on the demo I drove. Perhaps they were turned off.
Would I buy the Calais Tourer? I think it's basically a good, safe and flexible family car, but after being used to all the extras in my Calais V, probably not.
The Calais V Tourer has lots of additional 'fruit' over the Calais, such as HUD, panoramic sunroof, sports seats, LED matrix adaptive headlights, adaptive cruise control, all-speed autonomous emergency braking, flexride system, larger digital dash display, paddle shifters, sports steering wheel, ventilated front seats, driver's massage and memory seat, 360° camera, etc., etc. All these make for a more pleasant in-car driving experience, and in my opinion, worth the extra cost. But oh dear, that all-black interior and harsh exhaust note...
My normal daily is a 2014 VF1 Calais V sedan (with 3.6L V6) which has done 42,000 km. It's going well (touch wood). On a recent trip from Adelaide to Melbourne and back my best fuel consumption was 6.8 l/100km, which I thought was excellent for such a big, heavy car. After discussions with SWMBO, it was decided that IF we were to replace the VF, a Calais V Tourer with the 3.6 litre V6 and AWD would be the go. My local dealer didn't have a Calais V Tourer demo for a test drive, only a Calais Tourer, but since the running gear is the same we said ok. I drove it for about 40 minutes on sealed suburban Adelaide roads with speed limits from 50 - 80 km/h. Here's my initial impressions:
Likes
Plenty of interior space for passengers and especially cargo / comfortable seats / easy 1-touch folding rear seats (20/40/20) / motorised boot door / clever removable cargo cover / light steering / bags of engine power / smooth 9-speed auto gearbox / good comfortable ride / great road holding and cornering thanks to AWD / minimal tyre noise compared to VF (ContiSports cf Bridgestone Turanza) / looks better in the metal than in photos, especially in Abalone White / convex wing mirrors on both sides (much better field of view for driver).
Dislikes
Harsh and loud exhaust noise when accelerating hard / v. sensitive throttle pedal (although I suppose you'd get used to this) / all black interior very funereal looking / rev counter and speedo dials in Calais are small and hard to read quickly (no HUD) / console storage and glovebox smaller than in VF / buttons in front of gear lever hard to see and reach / satnav colours and graphics inferior to VF / whole interior and dashboard rather plain compared to more stylish VF Calais V.
The ZB Tourer comes with auto stop/start and power fold wing mirrors as standard, but neither seemed to be working on the demo I drove. Perhaps they were turned off.
Would I buy the Calais Tourer? I think it's basically a good, safe and flexible family car, but after being used to all the extras in my Calais V, probably not.
The Calais V Tourer has lots of additional 'fruit' over the Calais, such as HUD, panoramic sunroof, sports seats, LED matrix adaptive headlights, adaptive cruise control, all-speed autonomous emergency braking, flexride system, larger digital dash display, paddle shifters, sports steering wheel, ventilated front seats, driver's massage and memory seat, 360° camera, etc., etc. All these make for a more pleasant in-car driving experience, and in my opinion, worth the extra cost. But oh dear, that all-black interior and harsh exhaust note...