My VEII SV6 Review

[v8snerlo]

Hi guys,
Thought I would share some views on the new VEII SV6 that I hired for a week this week. I hired through AVIS. I did request a Falcon XT, rather than a commodore or an aurion, but as usual, requests are swept aside. When I was told that they didn't have a falcon for me I asked for them to give me an XR6 then, but that is the next class up and would've cost more money so that was out. I just sucked it up and took the keys. First con, the key. I would've thought that they would've used flip keys by now, but no, they don't. So whenever I had the keys in my pocket, there was this hulking great thing attached to a tag that had the car ID info on it. Weird, but their problem, not mine seeing as though I don't own one.
Anyway, headed off to the car park to find the car. Anyhow, it turns out that they gave me a 7,000km old VEII SV6. Nice!! But hang on, isn't an SV6 the equivalent to an XR6?? Idiots!! It was that nice metallic blue, six speed auto. First impressions, very nice. I like what they have done with the new interior, except for the handbrake. It had that new touchscreen which after playing around with it, is not too bad. Hooked up my ipod easily.
Driving it, not a bad steer. Coming from my XR8, it was certainly a different beast. The auto wasn't too bad but the ZF is definitely a better gearbox. The only ZF I have driven is my brothers Turbo territory. Travelling along a freeway and a slight incline, it tends to drop back a gear or two to keep it at 110 which is very strange. My XR8 manual just eats hills up while at highway speed. It obviously lacks some low down torque for which the falcon six is well known for. Driving it in town is ok. It does need a few revs on board before it feels gutsy. I think that they are supposed to be 210kw in these? Correct me if I'm wrong. My poor old 200kw 5 litre would keep it behind but fuel economy was ok. I think it was about 10L/100km which is ok carting around 4 people for most of the trip and luggage (fifth person departed early on). The boot wasn't too bad. It sucked up five peoples luggage ok although my girlfriends turbo VW jetta is still bigger and much easier to pack. One thing that I thought was very strange was driving at night. All the interior lights are quite nice, except for that touchscreen. It doesn't dim once you put the headlights on. Consequently, it is blaringly bright and quite disctracting. I had to physically go into the menus and turn the brightness down to the minimum setting so that I could concentrate on not hitting any roos or other wildlife in the area where we were driving.
So, in conclusion, would I buy one, on exterior looks, no. The falcon still looks much nicer. On inside asthetics, yes. I didn't mind the inside colour combos or the layout. Seats weren't too bad to sit in. Don't get me wrong, I think the current FG is nice, I would still take one with the upspecced interior, and it will be very interesting to see what happens with FG2.
Poke your head into one next time you have the opportunity. Not too bad, as much as it hurts for me to admit it!! ;-) If I think of anything else I will add it.
Cheers.
Leon