what would you give the 2011 ve commodore 6 speed auto out of 10 in terms of all round... reliability, response... etc
It’s all in the model code. The 5L
40E is the weakest of the bunch. The 6L
50E is next up on the list then the 4L
60E. The winner for strength and durability is the 6L
80E fitted to the V8s.
The two digits I’ve bolded tell you the power handling rating of the transmission, the higher the number to more power its been made to handle, which should be a fairly reasonable estimate of durability in most cases.
The below article lists the transmission types fitted to each vehicle at the beginning of the VEs lifecycle. The 5L40E and 4L60E were scratched and replaced with the 6L50E for the series two VEs, except the LPG variants which carried on with the old 4L60E apparently.
Holden probably had some excess stock of 4L60Es to use up and figured that the extra fuel economy benefit of 6 gears wouldn’t be missed on an LPG vehicle with cheap fuel!
https://www.drive.com.au/news/holden-ve-commodore-transmission/