Caught between buying new sv6 blk edition and a private used vfii sv6(built early 2016, low kms, no gps/hud, owner moving overseas, very good condition). Dealer kinda pushy and reluctant to let me test drive until I commit to buy or put $500 deposit(what??!), saying only limited number available since I stick with silver. He briefly showed me the head up display on a ready-to-pick sv6 blk in the show room, looks cool but not that necessary i think? forgot to ask about the GPS tho. So my question is, is it worthwhile to spend extra few thousand bucks on the blk edition? Can the hud be distracting? More importantly, does the build in GPS provide speed camera alert? I don't quite like the idea to mount another screen on the dash but to me speed camera alerting is a must. Thx!
Correct. If you want camera alerts, you will have to mount a portable satnav that has this facility. The HUD is definitely worth getting. Far from being distracting, it keeps your eyes on the road when checking your speed. Once you've tried it, you won't want to go back to non-HUD. As an aside, I'd be wary of any salesman that wouldn't let me test-drive a car without having to commit to buying it (or putting down a $500 deposit!). I'd ask to see his manager quicksmart, and walk away if the manager has the same stance.
The HUD is brilliant. I rarely look at the analogue guages. Just the HUD and the trip computer etc between the guages.
Are you sure Smitty? The gps tells you what the speed zone is, but not where the speed cameras are. Well that's how both my VF's have operated. I know yours is an HSV though. As for HUD, best gadget ever introduced to the commodore. You can keep your eyes on the road and your speed at the same time. Very helpful in Victoria. It shits me driving my wife's car without it.
Agreed, HUD is a fantastic feature. I wouldn't buy a VF without it. I don't know why this feature didn't become mainstream years ago as the technology has been out since the 80's. I remember the Nissan Bluebird released here in 1993 had HUD.
Doesn't on our Redline. Apparently used to for VE & VE2, the VF manual even says it can be switched-on via MyLink; but it isn't there. Another vote for the HUD. Especially in concert with the SatNav, I'm really really really hoping that Holden will update the maps from their 2011-spec state (and that's an intended warning for mz2017), because I love how it integrates with the HUD so you don't have to look at the LCD screen; can see clearly the distance to the next turnoff without looking away from the road.
Am I the only one that noticed the dealer won’t let the OP test drive until committing to buy or putting down a $500 deposit. Of all the new cars I’ve bought from all manner of dealerships I’ve never been asked for a deposit to test drive a car even if they are in short supply and not even with high performance Euros that have a 12 month waiting list and sometimes you need to wait weeks for a test vehicle to become available. You are required to provide your licence to prove you can legally drive and sign an agreement that if you waste the car you pay the exorbitant insurance excess but nothing else. Hell it’s only an SV6. I’d be wondering what else I’m being ripped off for and that would be enough for me to walk away and search elsewhere. In saying that, the HUD is good, the GPS just average and my VF2 doesn't have speed camera alerts but it does have speed limits/zones but for memory the speed limits don't change when school zones come into play. .
No, Sir Les commented too. A few years ago now, I worked with a Vietnamese guy who'd gone to university in Siberia; it's state-sponsored education, but you have to work in Siberia for a number of years to "pay it off" (I assume some late-80's communist tie-up between Vietnam & USSR of some sort). The way he described it, Siberia was a truly nasty place with a truly nasty level of crime; being mugged was part of life, you'd be stupid to carry cash, etc. So when he moved to Sydney, he felt like the place was so open & honest & friendly. Everyone was helpful. Having a BBQ with the neighbours was a Thing, you could buy a kilo of apples without someone trying to rip you off, you could catch the train safely late at night. This lulled him into a false sense of security when he went to buy a car ... they convinced him it was normal to sign the purchase contract before test-driving the car. So he did. Bought about $12k's worth of Camry Vienta for about $18k. Lucky for him it was a standard NSW MTA contract so it had a 5-day cooling-off period, but he still had to pay 5% of the value ... Anyway, enough Cool Story Hansel for now. I think the moral is "this $500 deposit guy isn't doing anything strictly illegal but he's still a total dick, so unless you really really want that car & it's cheap, you'd avoid giving him the business".
Before I bought my new VF2 SSVR I was looking at a 2017 Volkswagen Passat R Line for my wife, the salesman let us take it overnight without signing a purchase contract and when we didn't fall in love with it he just shook my hand and said he hopes we can find something that we truly love and that was a $68K sticker price car. I think the OP's dealer is a dodgy bastard and should be avoided. Also I could not go without the HUD anymore, I used to hate getting out of my ute and into my wife's Craptiva. Now I don't have that problem
Hi, Went through this issue myself in the last couple of weeks, though mine was compounded by the shortage of SV6 manuals currently available. In the end, I went with a 2016 MY16 (not Black Edition), and decided to stay with the HUD I had been using on my MY14. Being GPS-based and not OBD II, the speed shown is actual road speed rather than the speedo reading in the Holden HUD. Someone will let me know if this last comment is not correct, but the advice I received from salesman was that the Holden HUD showed the ODB II (i.e. digital speedo reading) reading. My HUD cost me $69 incl postage from Kogan, and I am totally happy with it. With no SV6 Black Edition manual within coo-ee of me, I would have needed to travel and might have found it harder to negotiate a good deal on a Black Edition. Ended up paying a $10K changeover to move from a 2014 MY14 to a 2016 MY16. I had done better in the past with changeovers, but this was good enough for me in this circumstance as it will allow me to remain in a manual RWD SV6 for some years longer. I had received a changeover price to an SV6 Black Edition just before they disappeared from Sydney (December 2016), and my local dealer started at $19K changeover with a drop to $16K after extensive "argument". However, my local dealer has never wanted to do business with me and I have always bettered any offer from them by many thousands in the past. I expect that I would have been struggling to better $13K changeover for a Black Edition. Thus I am satisfied with my MY16 with Kogan HUD for much less. I am also not a fan of the Holden GPS. Had it in one car (MY12.5 VE Z), and the delays in map upgrades (and their cost) has returned me to stand alone GPS. I currently use a TomTom Go6100. Big screen, life time world maps, life time traffic, and real time communication to allow the passing of non-fixed speed cameras back to base and on to other cars travelling past that point. So my recommendation: Maybe, just maybe, the Black Edition is worth the $1K premium. But I would not pay more than that for it; except a 2017 Black Edition would probably be worth $2K more than a 2016 non-Black.
I've had mine for almost 2 weeks and I really love the HUD. The missus was positive she would hate it and it would be distraction but she always has it on. It's actually pretty helpful and you can change what it displays. Also it's pretty trendy
"my local dealer has never wanted to do business with me" whats the go with the dealer, what issues did they have?
My local dealer is part of a bigger organisation that controls most Holden dealers in the area. Their modus operandi seems to be to avoid competition between dealers. I always like to support local, but not at huge expense. When I raise the figures that I am willing to sign for, they always scoff, tell me(verging on rudely) that I am totally unrealistic and that they cannot come anywhere near my expectations. Then I go somewhere else, and have always managed to achieve (or better) the figures that the local dealer refused. We are typically talking at least a $5K difference, which is a lot on a V6. I always do my research before considering buying, and have a realistic idea of what is achievable, hence other dealers meeting my offer. My worst experience was when a friend called me for advice when he was being pressured to sign at the dealer. I rang one other dealer on spec, and they offered a $4.5K better deal over the phone - without asking or being told of any other deals being offered. Obviously my friend took the latter deal. Then a week later, my local dealer rang him to follow up and, when told that he had bought elsewhere for much cheaper, abused him for "wasting" their time. However, I still always offer them the chance. They just never seem to want to meet the "market" - no animosity, their choice. On a slightly different tack, I had a similar experience with the local F**d dealer back in the 90's. At that time, I had a manual Fairmont Ghia. I got changeovers from my local dealers, and one from a Holden dealer nearby. Soon after, I received a call from the F**d dealer asking had I made a decision. He acted surprised when I told him that I had changed brands, and seemed confident that he had been competitive. He had offered me a previous year model for $7K higher changeover than the current year model Holden. That was around when the Commodore started to usurp the Falcon, and I think part of that may have been F**d dealers thinking they did not need to compete. That said, the local dealer service centre is top-notch, so I inevitably use them.
I love the HUD, out of all the cars I've tested with them the Commodore one is the most easy to use as well.
HUD = Awesome! When the HUD says 220 or 230 and the road ahead is clear and straight, you just KNOW that you own it!
