VF Evoke impressions

[Forg]

My niece grudgingly admitted the modern interior trim of my VF is a cut above the plainness of her twice-as-expensive Tiguan 4-Motion TDI (a 'uge and fugly black thingy). My brother, though, still stubbornly believes his filthy, smelly Golf wagon is better than anything I've seen. Ah, bullsh!t, bro!! It never stops...

Wait, wat? Why would you insult a Golf wagon (a good car) by calling a Tig Juan a Golf?!?!

 

[SilverVKberlina]

While I acknowledge the more modern look and lift in quality of VF I personally don’t think it’s a better looking interior than VE. There’s clear 5 Series/Audi influence in VE (particularly Berlina, Calais etc) which makes sense given they benchmarked both in design. Just a shame Holden don’t have BMW/Audi budgets. I see lots of Korean/Asian influence in VF, and it’s an interior that tried very hard to be on-trend, which is shame because interior trends moved ultra fast from about 2013. I actually think VF interior is awkward and unresolved. Would I have a VF SS over my VE SS? Probably, but aesthetically it would irk me in a few areas, inside and out.

Type in 'VF Commodore review wheels' on YouTube there you will find Peter Robinson doing his best confessional box at church impersonation as he repents his sins of the VE commodore.
Imagine the VF being the earlier model and then unveiling the new VE interior it would be like when Homer Simpson designed the new car for his brother.

 

[Big Red VF-SII Go-kart]

Wait, wat? Why would you insult a Golf wagon (a good car) by calling a Tig Juan a Golf?!?!

The Golf is OK, just too small for me and my travel equipment, 7 cameras, 2 tripods, film backs, pop-up darkroom, kitchen sink and cookie supply...
We have a 2015 snow white Golf wagonwheels (diesel, and makes diesel sounds), which must share its living space with a red VF. The Golf replaced a Jetta which busted its timing chains and never ran well again. And Niece No. 1 has a sparkly black Tiguan 4-Motion, with ghastly damage to left pass. door from shopping poorly-aimed shopping trolley (hers; she was on Facebook when she lost her grip), and a big chunk/hole on right side wheel arch trim from taking out her letterbox (!), despite the better judgement of the Tiggy's radar and alerts telling her to "Hard a-starboard, NOW!" -- not a chance: "you don't tell Nurse what to do!!" Meanwhile, Niece No 2 has a grey Golf hatch from 2009 (no DSG tranny problems, ever), which has served her wonderfully and she has no plans to update to another model. She paid me on Boxing Day $160 to detail the interior. I bought a dashcam with the loot.

 

[Forg]

I reckon the incredible amount of changes made between the VE and VF interiors was acknowledgement by Holden just how cheap and really nasty the VE was inside.

Commodores always, always had the most awful of interiors. It’s like they had no budget, so they embraced the ‘awful’ as though it was on purpose.

The VR had door trims that wrapped into the dash, like smaller cheaper Japanese cars had been doing for a decade ... except it was done by sticking these crappy mismatched plastic bits to a non-wraparound VP door-trim. At least it wasn’t like everything before the VN, which had an interior of the same colour as the exterior (making a red VK pretty eye-bleeding on the inside).

VF was a very welcome departure from the norm!

 

[Big Red VF-SII Go-kart]

VF was a very welcome departure from the norm!

Yes indeed!

 

[Brettly-2008]

Fudging. Really now...
View attachment 208821

That's 25km continuous roll over, same also on 100km interval. 7.* is on the incline coming home.

Actually a VE is not the same as a VF! And high fuel consumption is a given in crappy city traffic of which he is a daily contributor.

No need to poke fun at a 190cm guy with big hands wrangling the stupidity of a poorly designed VE handbrake. It's not an isolated/one person problem.

I don’t own a VF (sister has an SV6, and I’ve spent enough time in a series 1 SS to know it drives better than my VE), but to me that looks like you’re averaging 7.3 yeah? I wasn’t exactly poking fun at your mate, but honestly, the VE handbrake is not an issue if you actually think about what you’re doing while operating a motor vehicle. I actually like what Holden did with it by trying something different to the ugly, outdated (but functional) umbrella handbrakes that every other manufacturer had back in the 2000s. The integrated handbrake also made LHD export interiors a bit easier, so bravo Holden for thinking big/out-of-the-square with a small budget. People hurting themselves using them makes me laugh. Sorry, now I am poking fun at your mate.

 

[Brettly-2008]

Commodores always, always had the most awful of interiors.
!

You sure you’re on the right forum dude? Not saying everything needs to be a Commodore love-in around here, but if you really believe what you just wrote (and that’s perfectly fine, each to their own ) maybe there’s better things (Other forums, putting ships in bottles etc?) you could be doing with your time.

Anyway, beauty/ugly is in the eye of the beholder so not really debatable anywhere, so I’ll try to focus on facts if I decide to weigh in on this thread again.

 

[Brettly-2008]

Imagine the VF being the earlier model and then unveiling the new VE interior it would be like when Homer Simpson designed the new car for his brother.

Captain obvious reporting for duty Also, I don’t think discrediting Peter Robinson on more than one occasion to prove a point is doing you any favours, a national and internationally-renowned motoring journo. How’d you go confirming that 4.6l per 100km? Any other VF owners getting close to that? I can confirm 9L flat in my VE SS and 7.8L in my V6 Statesman at 115kmh, year in, year out. No tractor noises... or timing chains issues for that matter

 

[Calaber]

Commodores always, always had the most awful of interiors. It’s like they had no budget, so they embraced the ‘awful’ as though it was on purpose.

The VR had door trims that wrapped into the dash, like smaller cheaper Japanese cars had been doing for a decade ... except it was done by sticking these crappy mismatched plastic bits to a non-wraparound VP door-trim. At least it wasn’t like everything before the VN, which had an interior of the same colour as the exterior (making a red VK pretty eye-bleeding on the inside).

VF was a very welcome departure from the norm!

I think the VT changed that a bit. Stepping into a brand new VT, even an Executive, was a huge improvement on its predecessors. I agree about the VR. My Berlina was still very low rent and those add-ons yelled no budget. The VT definitely improved things. The dash and door trims were neatly matched, the materials were better quality and the whole interior just felt and looked more upmarket. The VE interior was a huge step backwards IMO.

 

[Holden17]

I think the VT changed that a bit. Stepping into a brand new VT, even an Executive, was a huge improvement on its predecessors. I agree about the VR. My Berlina was still very low rent and those add-ons yelled no budget. The VT definitely improved things. The dash and door trims were neatly matched, the materials were better quality and the whole interior just felt and looked more upmarket. The VE interior was a huge step backwards IMO.

From memory I’m pretty sure it was widely acknowledged at the time that the vast bulk of the billion dollars was spent on the new platform (necessary to keep the building of Commodores in Oz alive at the time) and overall exterior design & so not a lot remaining for the interior...certainly didn’t stop many of us proudly buying such a fantastic looking vehicle at the time.