Attributes of the ZB that make it Special

[Badgerdog]

Theres a fair bit of talking up the value of these cars. Bargain prices. Truth is, there are a lot of these cars in storage that may never be sold. Therefore the value in the future will be negligible. I think a used Holden Malibu would be a better buy.

I had a Malibu for a few weeks while waiting for my new ZB. You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Chalk and cheese.

 

[Paul Smedley]

You will find surface rust under the dash of just about any car most of the cross supports and brackets are just unpainted pressed steel.

Except on a VF where the Crosscar Beam changed from steel to aluminium

 

[Immortality]

Ripped right off is the only way to describe it. IIRC at the time they released the last Falcon sprint vehicles they admitted they'd been running an over-boost function on the barra turbo engines in the FPV's for ages, not sure about regular Ford XR6 turbo's and on the supercharged V8's too.
HSV with the GTS to their credit put in a heavy duty driveline and huge diff but that sucked up a lot of power and from memory with a wheels comparo the 430 kw's came in at about 310 rwkw's which was a bit less than the Falcon Sprint supercharged V8.

Much more to it than 0-100 times.
FPV and Ford with their Sprints went down the torque modulation path in lower gears to preserve the driveline. Neither the FPV barra turbo's or the supercharged V8's made full torque in the first two gears. More telling was the 80-120 overtake acceleration times and both were bang on 2.5 seconds which is bloody fast real world acceleration and not something you get from any Holden other than a HSV GTS. I think they talked about a test on the Falcon sprint at 4.6 seconds...

Chrysler had a belter of a stereo...900 watt 19 speaker Harmon Kardon. What a bit of gear that was which was just as well because you need to turn it up to drown out all the squeaks ands rattles from the interior lol

Had a pretty good run with the 3 FPV's I had...especially the first the BF2 FPV Typhoon. Not a single thing went wrong with that car, ever. Should have kept it...that was the one that got away. Supercharged FPV GT-P liked a little bit of oil but was an absolute belter so that was easily forgiven.
https://www.caradvice.com.au/videos...d-xr8-sprint-review-exhaust-note-and-burnout/

FPV's never had the tech of the Holden's or HSV's but they certainly did the basics of handling, performance and braking well and were always far better value here than their HSV counterparts.

I maintain with the ZB's, for the first time ever Kiwi's have had the opportunity to buy a highly specified Holden for a fair price. Maybe that's why they've sold over here a lot better than in Australia ?

Its not fast though. Never have I pretended it is. 0-100 in 6.1 seconds is okay though and the handling, excellent brakes and huge level's of technology make it a solid package that's exceptional value for money. I got sick of spending up on cars and am taking a break from it. For $50K brand new the ZB Calais V is a winner.

The hypo turbo barra's are about the only thing Ford/FPV got right but you need to compare apples to apples, if you are using FPV than you need to compare it to a HSV and not your more run of the mill Holden model.

 

[keith reed]

I don't have any interest in the ZB so have spent very little time looking at this part of the forum. Anyone who has one is going to take a bath when they come to sell it. An example. 2018 RS ZB new $42,630. 2018 RS ZB with 5,800 k's $28,724. One might be new but it's still two years old. The second hand car was from a dealer so it's quite likely he didn't pay anything like this amount for this car. Another possibility is that he can't sell it and wants it out of his yard at any cost.
I still think no matter whether this is a good or a bad car using the Commodore name was a mistake.

 

[Fu Manchu]

I had a Malibu for a few weeks while waiting for my new ZB. You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Chalk and cheese.

So you had a Malibu before being fleeced for a ZB. hmmm

 

[Paul Smedley]

I still think no matter whether this is a good or a bad car using the Commodore name was a mistake.

Completely agree on this point!

 

[DK's]

For the VF lovers and for myself as a special person. There has been some interesting threads and comments, but implying that I'm not mentally intact and the comment is allowed to remain astounds me.

https://www.motoring.com.au/holden-commodore-hero-departs-123706/

 

[Badgerdog]

So you had a Malibu before being fleeced for a ZB. hmmm

There was a 6 week wait between when they traded my Chrysler SRT8 and my new Calais V (in the colour of my choice arrived off the ship) so the dealership loaned me a Malibu off their yard. It was a very long 6 weeks lol

 

[Badgerdog]

The hypo turbo barra's are about the only thing Ford/FPV got right but you need to compare apples to apples, if you are using FPV than you need to compare it to a HSV and not your more run of the mill Holden model.

Except that I paid less for my FPV BF2 Typhoon $60,700 in 2007 and FG F6 $65,000 in 2010 than a Holden V8 at the time so on a cost basis I am comparing apples with apples but getting a much faster car with Brembo brakes. In terms of whether the 5.0 supercharged FPV's were any good, here's the definitive dyno test and we see HSV GTS makes a maximum of just 306 rwkw's on Rob Herrod's mainline dyno, this from a car alleged to make 430 kw's at the crankshaft and costing over $120K new here. https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/fpv-beats-hsv-in-definitive-power-test
My stock standard FPV GT-P (cost $91K new) with a somewhat dirty stock air filter made 297 rwkw's on CTB's mainline dyno https://www.ctb.co.nz/ and 312.9 rwkw's, (nearly 7 rwkw's more than a GTS) by simply fitting a new K&N air filter. (I can email you the dyno charts if you like, send me your email by PM) My GT-P was very, very fast. I met up with Rob Herrod for a few beers when he was over here. Nice guy.

 

[07GTS]

I still think no matter whether this is a good or a bad car using the Commodore name was a mistake.

yep... they should have just ended it like the falcon and then called the ZB something alse, its like ur grandmother cooking sunday roast for 60 years then all of a sudden slaps a frozen meal on the table and calls it sunday roast...