VE/VF was the best car Australia made. VF was just a refined VE commodore fixing all the things that needed upgrading on the VE. It’s sad we don’t make cars anymore after we really proved we could build world class cars.
Owned a new VE E3 GTS and was an ok car and traded it in on a new VF MY15 GTS and is next level and a crying shame Holden no longer manufactures here in Oz.
The VE was truly the best car ever sold in Australia, and probably the best there ever will be for the region. Exactly the perfect balance between practicality, performance, reliability (not in the v6 but v6 drivers deserve it), looks, driving experience, everything. The V8 VE is, IMO, the best four door car ever made.
@@Humannn8ss8naaa, not really appearance either. There was plenty of better and timeless looking cars at the time. As far as commodores go. It's a good upgrade for sure though
I scored a VE SSV Z Series Ute. Turns out it came with Redline suspension. FE3, the best performance suspension Holden ever offered. And she had her radiator filled at Elizabeth on my birthday. I'll never sell her. Ever.
I had a silver VE 6.0 Calais with the white leather interior and 18" wheels. Absolutely beautiful car to drive and cruise around in. Wasn't going to win any land speed records but turned heads on more than one occasion because the sound of the 6 litre was quite biblical with a good exhaust. I was heart broken about 6 months in to ownership when a junky in a Range Rover Sport ran in to the back of me while I was stationary at traffic lights. I was the 4th car in queue but still ended up in the middle of the intersection after ploughing through the 3 cars in front of me. The RR was going about 70km/hr and I was completely stationary but received no injuries whatsoever. The rear number plate was pushed up against the back seats, and the front of the car was all but gone, but the passenger compartment was 100% intact, all 4 doors still opened perfectly and you could see how the energy had transferred around the cabin instead of in to the cabin. Remarkable engineering in terms of safety. I sent photos and a thank you letter to Holden at the time, I attribute the fact I can still walk to the fine work their engineering team delivered in this vehicle. I work as an electronic, electrical and software engineer myself, currently designing weapon systems for naval warships and other military hardware for the MoD and DoD so I understand the amount of work that must have gone in to such an epic cabin design that would withstand such an enormous amount of force. I miss my VE dearly, and while my M3 is arguably better in terms of performance, there was something special about owning a piece of Australia when I lived there and it will remain one of my favourite cars of all time.
Wow thanks for sharing your story. Really unfortunate what happened, but a great testament to Aussie engineering that you were able to walk away from it with no injuries - really happy for you as it sounds like it was pretty bad. Did Holden ever reply to you ?
Thanks for uploading this 👍 I remember the magazine supplement which detailed the design and development process. I also read the 60 page supplement on the 2001 Monaro and fondly remember the supplement on the VN Commodore back in the eighties.
I've thought about this, and I think one of the biggest factors of Holden going out of business was that for many years, they were a one car company - the Commodore company. Sure they pretended to have cars in other categories like the Barina, Astra and Colorado. But it was obvious to anyone who cared that those cars weren't real Holdens. Did people think the Land Cruiser wasn't a real Toyota? Of course not. Did people think the Territory wasn't a real Ford? No. But nothing Holden made that wasn't a Commodore was ever really given the same kind of respect as they were just other cars rebadged (though at least the Captiva had a real Holden Alloytec V6 engine in certain models - kudos for that). Holden didn't do anything about this for years because Commodore was king and while it was paying the bills, the rest of the line-up was just a distraction. But in my opinion, Holden should have been using those good years to create some decent real Holdens in other categories. E.g. An Australian made hatch that took on the Corolla or Golf. Or an SUV that took on the CX-8 or Sorento. Then in the future when Australian car buying tastes changed, they would have been able to pivot. But what happened was the large sedan / wagon category fell out of favour for SUVs and Dual Cab Utes. What could the Commodore car company do? Tell Australia they were wrong and to please come back? I know there were plenty of other factors at play, and probably the biggest killer of all for Holden was their lackluster export market. But even if all that was in top shape, the lack of diversification would have got them in the end.
As an ex Holden employee, I can say the whole reason both Holden and Ford Manufacturing was terminated was the deal Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey did with America was all part of the then free trade agreement, money for an SUV was available as was the employees nomination to forgo pay rises for two years in a bid to secure continuity in Automotive manufacturing, we were told as early as 2013 that the plant would close in 2017, some people blamed the Unions as they will always do but in this case deals were done behind closed doors to make sure the free trade agreement succeeded.
I mean yeah most models were nasty pieces of rubbish outside of the Commodore. The Captiva did get Alloytech but that was still a Daewoo through and through. Other than that it was generic GM shitboxes that nobody wanted.
Holden should have produced a SUV car based on the ve platform from what i read it was in the works but GM did not give it the green light which is a shame because it might have saved holden. Also they could have made the commodore a smaller car and the statesman the bigger car
Today July 16th 2023 is a 4-door Camaro anniversary Holden Commodore's VE Launch Anniversary On this day, 17 years ago, GM Holden launched the Australian market that would be the last model of Chevrolet Omega to land in Brazil.
Just stepped up from VY Ute that was the most reliable car I’ve ever had to a MINT condition VE series 2 SV6. Factory option double hump hard lid and interior that looks like the day it was built and an underbody so clean you could eat your dinner of it. Full service history. It’s a beautiful car to drive and goes extremely hard. I’ve had over 30 cars mostly holdens VK VL VY VS but this car is in another league. DEFINITELY a keeper. And to all the FLOPS on here talking timing chains the series 2 used upgraded chain kits and I’ve had ZERO issues. It’s all about maintenance and oil changes. If you treat ANY car like shit it’ll repay you by being unreliable. And fords outdated shit boxes had PLENTY of issues.
40:06 I've never heard Brocky sound so by the script . One could be forgiven for thinking this was a promotional release. It makes no difference now as we produce nothing.
All that a money invested and now the plant sits idle and shut what a waste… I still have my SS Ute with 58k on it and I love the slightly unrefined feeling.
Why ??...these days the VEs are used by bogans as a Meth chariots. They are clapped out shitboxes now. What a waste of 1 billion dollars. No wonder Holden doesn't exist anymore.💯
Pity they didn't test for the quality of the owners. Go to George Auto's channel, he purchased a Ford Falcon XR50 that had the characteristic Alloytec problems. It's down to servicing. I have an Alloytec powered VE with almost 190 000 kms on it and have never had the timing chain problem crop up. There's a lot to be said for servicing every 6 month or 5 000 kms, whichever comes FIRST.
@@BrentonCrude Why would a car manufacturer test the quality of owners...? That makes no sense. As much sense as someone who has serviced their vehicle at least 38 times in 190,000kms. Cars aren't supposed to be serviced that amount of times given their own handbook says 10,000k intervals. People should expect that the owner's book is accurate and servicing every 5,000 is over the top. But hey, if you want to spend twice as much on servicing good for you. I've owned plenty of cars where I have done 30K services as per the book and the vehicle easidly did 200+ ks before I sold it in mint condition. Renault Trafic is one such vehcile that had 30K service intervals. So yeah, Holden really needed to ensure the vehicle they made and advised on service intervals was able to handle what they were telling people they were designed for. Normal every day drivers and owners will service per the handbook.
I have mine a 2012 HDT Gtoup 3 based on a fully optioned SSV and i have no plans of selling it anytime soon its a pleasure to drive and I've never driven it when someone doesn't come up to me raving over it, peter Brock may have been killed in 2006 but he is still alive and kicking in every holden guy in Australia 18 years later
The FG was an ugly outdated shit heap full stop. Rubbish interiors leftover tailgates on Utes from AU turds. The VE was FAR superior to an FG and the VF COMPLETELY wiped the floor with fords donkey garbage.
Riddle me this 1 billion spent on development and on multiple v6 engines with stretched timing chains thanks GM for designing them to fail. The sky is the limit, my my how far we can fall thanks Mary Barra (GM CEO)
That one billion should have gone towards a locally developed twincab ute and an SUV unique to Holden......with a choice of different drivetrains. By about 2005, nobody wanted this type of car, bar a few hoons and motor racing fans. Mainstream buyers had moved on. It didn't help that tariff levels had dived and local labour costs were off the charts thanks to endless union demands. I'm disappointed that for the greater good, the different bodies involved couldn't work together and bring about a better outcome. Now we've got cheap Chinese EV's flooding our market.......... vehicles we could have done ourselves.
So at 12 minutes in, those body panels are all hand made? Because you have to have press dies already to have stamped parts. It all looks so stamped out? A video on this would be awesome! Ok much was explained. It is a huge shame it all finished with all that work! Surely the government played a part with all that imported junk. There needed to be a small car made in Oz though?
Funny thing is if you put proper quality oil in it treat it respectfully and service it on time there is no issue. My 2013 sv6 with 185,000 km still drives like a new car.
You only have to Google what other big name car makers such as BMW and Mercedes spend on R&D orders of magnitude more for the euro cars making our $1 billion investment a drop in the ocean by comparison yet the VE/VF series is a bloody good thing and makes a joke out of a BMW or Mercedes in long term repair costs as you clock up the Kay’s. I have a 2013 VF Sv6 wagon with 185,000km on it and have done virtually no repairs except routine maintenance and still drives like a new car!
To be frank, this car was way behind in both performance and technology compared to it's German rivals. The Yanks basically just dumped the left overs on Australia when they were down with the Lumina.
That's nonsense. In many ways the VE was equal to their German counterparts, cost being the factor in limiting the luxury bits you get in the big German brands. The driving experience, in the other hand, is one which shows that Holden got the equations right.
Nope it was cheaper and was no slouch in handling and ride quality and its gm drivetrain shits on anything European, go to a drag strip and tell me what engines are getting used 😂
wow... SO inaccurate.... i just moved back to Aus after 5 years driving these 'better performing european supercars'. bought myself a ve calais only a few months ago, if only i had this to drive on the autobahn, or through Italian and Greek coastal roads or in Sweden in Winter... the volvos, mercs and bmws i did drive there are damn lame and boring next to this 13 year old VE.. ive never had so much pleasure driving wish i could have bought one new.
Yes that was the early ones addressed from late 2007 onwards. I have. 2013 Vf sv6 with a LFX v6 with 185,000km on the clock yes always had a slight metallic chain rustle since new at idle but top quality oils and 7.5 to 10,000km oil changes this engine has performed faultlessly. I know of someone with a VE Series 2 with an LFX that has cracked 390,000km and is still going strong. Treat it right and it will look after you!
@@Zanelancaster20074 The interiors on VEs in general were bland, plain and boring. No support in front seats so very uncomfortable on a trip longer than 3O minutes and cheap plastic everywhere you look. They look and feel cheap. Nowadays they are clapped out shitboxes used by bogans as Meth chariots.
This was good engineering but a commercial failure as GM decided to sideline the platform early. To be frank big thirsty low riding cars were already on the way out so this was not going to end well.
The VE interiors were plain and boring. Horrible seats, horrible steering wheel, shit carpets and roof lining. The exteriors we're average at best. The 3.6 V6 are gutless and unreliable. The auto transmissions are slushboxes whilst the manual transmissions were rough and clunky and weak as piss differential. Absolute garbage.
I own a 10 year old VF and my neighbour keeps his 2018 outdoes all the time windows wound up and plastics and interior are still okay despite some shrinkage in seat leather but it’s not given much love.
Yeah but humans are touchy freely spatial creatures that prefer to touch and see something. Seeing something on a 2D screen is not like seeing something in the flesh!
VE = 6L80E the worst 6 speed I've ever driven and the worst gear box I've ever experienced in a commodore. Doesn't know what gear it wants to be in. Doesn't down gear efficiently when reducing speed. A total piece of junk compared to the ZF in the FG's
Its a gm sub and he was the most qualified for the job, this isn't unique for foreign people to be in charge, hell head of opel design was australian in Germany in the 80s and head of global gm designs in the u.s rn is australian and has been on jay leno to talk about old buicks and show rare gm cars multiple times now.
Yes, when bought to raffle, when the expectation was to sell $3million worth of tickets. The plethora of raffled cars a couple of years ago distorted prices a bit.
@@jimclarke1108 yes, and then raffled for large profit. The fact that virtually noone can afford a million dollar car but lots can afford a few $50 raffle tickets allowed the profiteers to step in and distort the purchase prices. Good on the early raffleres who made good money, but as with any good scheme it becane way over done.
Holden was GM's way of suckering in Australians thinking the car was Australian when really it was just imported and re-badged crap. It was all downhill for Holden once the import tariffs disappeared and actual car makers came to Australia.
Should have designed it bolder. Aussie cars were often nice, but lacked stronger flare. It didn't sell in the US- pity. Most cars are downright ugly or really boring .
It was sold in the United States. Look for "Pontiac G8 GT". It was sold in Brazil also named australian "Chevrolet Omega" and "Chevrolet Omega Fittipaldi". It was sold in England as "Vauxhall VXR8" and was finally sold in the United Arab Emirates as Chevrolet Caprice.
@RicardoMNogueira Middle East Market got both long wheel base Caprice and short wheel base commodore badged as Lumina. The R8 was called CSV CR8 , caprice was also sold in Asia as Daewoo and Buick.
I clearly see you’ve owned one (not). I have a 2013 VF Sv6 with 185,000km on it nothing has gone wrong and still drives like a new car. Could you say the same about a BMW or Mercedes of the same era without deep pockets? Nah don’t think so.
Too bad that the VE SV6 and Omega was absolutely trash. If you have to have one get one with a V8. The only thing that will be breaking is pieces of your interior.
Plus the slushbox auto transmission and weak as piss differential. Timing chains on Alloytec 3.6 V6 fail and then the engine lunches itself. Absolute trash.
@@victorpeirce4753 one of the worst engines I have ever had the displeasure to work on. Absolute pile of Garbage. Only the SS VE is worth buying because of the LS.
Im pissed that the legacy doesnt live on.. thanks gm for killing Pontiac and Holden. Such a super diving experience .. what a useless sub-perfomance marketing by gm here in the states..
@@markhollis362 unsure what that has to do with the Falcon being a better car, drive them back to back the Falcon is superior in most ways, hell even a BF drives better than a VE
Bullshit I've got a ve and a fg in the driveway, ve is heaps smoother car heaps better IRS design etc fg slightly more refined than a ba. But the v6 alloytec is a pos flawed design all rev no go or torque. Ve/vf the roof pillars are a huge blindspot but tough af, they had to redesign the jaws of life because of the ve. Ss vs xr8 ss smoother to drift also. Reliability wouldn't go past the barra though can't kill em.
Its a pitty holden put a crap v6 in them . Terrible engines . My ecotech with over 500,000 km still going strong . Thats a vs commy though . Holden lost the plot after the vs series finished . Its no use having a car that looks good and handles good but has a crap v6 in it that should have been in the bin . Gmh had lots of engines they could have used but chose the crap v6 .
I have a V8 WN Caprice I also had a VS for driving and handling the WN is leaps and bounds ahead even if I need to rebuild the engine which has done 365,000 Kays so far no problems I will do that than go back to a VS and the interior is nice also
The Alloytecs (especially early ones) and LLT engines weren’t great at all, the LLT was slightly better but it did still have issues with timing chains and water pump issues. The last of the VE Series 2’s made from late 2011 up had the same LFX V6 from the VF and they were excellent, I’ve seen many of those as taxis with 350,000+ kms on them on original chains and water pump. Mine has done 200k and still drives great and pulls hard. Never had chains done, and if I keep servicing it as I do I will more than likely never need one done.
@@jnthepassenger347 Hi, A mate of mine has a limo company and he has some 2007-2010 statesman - they have 400-650k on the clock and original engine and drivetrain, in all of them and they drive like new ( i borrow one most long weekend ) BUT he does oil and filter change every 5,000 k's
Does anyone really think GM really spent 1Billion on this vehicle?? A reasonable person would assume quite a large amount of this went overseas for possible testing of Australia's so called car . I suspect GM had a big party in America to laugh at how dumb Holden Commodore drivers and Australian tax payers were . Holden was never an Australian car it' was American from there early designs look at American cars at that time Aussie Holden's just smaller versions it not football, meat pies kangaroos and American cars
@@bobolulu7615 Get ya hand off it mate if it wasn't for the yanks and the Europeans this shitbox would of been an even bigger flop than it already was. Aussies couldn't produce crap without the rest of the world contributing.
It doesn't matter where it came from, it's still Australian because it was far Australians. Did they make exact same cars for or in America or Europe, no, in europe almost, but still no. They would be no Commodore for 40 years if not for GMH Australia. It was the best car GM ever made in the world
Man, it's just a Chev, a Chevrolet Lumina, nothing Australian about it, GM does the same thing in Europe with the Vauxhall brand. Your just esambling a Chevrolet. Holden started to exist as a horse saddle making company in Australia. The only thing Ausie about it is the name Commodore, that is an Ausie name for the model, bit it's still a Chevrolet Lumina, same as a Vauxhall VXR8, they all part of General Motors, even Opel and Isuzu Holden never had it's own cars, it's always been assembling debatched cars from proper car manufacturers.
Designed and built in Australia only, is your only problem that holden is a gm subsidiarie? If so your a moron, small car companies don't exist except for boutique companies, you cant survive unless your part of a bigger fish.
The VE/VF was really a good car but about 10 years too late. Also needed an AWD, twin turbo option. Bogan V8 hoons are a dying breed. Why make a new car only designed for them. Australians want more sophisticated cars that Holden were only just starting to realise.
