These Utes Were Made For Gawking
Illawarra Mercury
Saturday September 29, 2007
A new big Holden is always noteworthy but a new big Holden ute is more than important, says BRENT DAVISON.
The script was writ large across the rear window of the Holden utility ahead and declared that: "Aussie girls wear boots and drive utes". What it failed to take into account is that a lot of Aussies girls and otherwise tend to view the modern utility not as a workhorse but as a show pony, a gilded and glittering creation that is effectively a two-door sports coupe that just happens to have a very long and interestingly accessible boot. I discovered that little fact of life in country NSW late last week when I dropped down behind the wheel of Holden's latest utility iteration, the VE Commodore-based Ute. In fact it is almost fair to say that, if the cabin had been devoid of an interior rear-vision mirror, I would have been hard-pressed to know I was in something purportedly built to carry hay to the livestock, spare parts out to the tractor and, on weekends, a trail bike to the bush. Or is it? With this latest version of the Ute (and please, don't call it a Commodore utility because that just gets the Holden folk riled. It's a VE Ute and that's all there is to it.) Holden seems hellbent on removing the notion of "work" from the job description. Sure, there is the requisite entry-level Omega model for the chippie or cockie and with the 180kW, 330Nm V6 engine providing motivation through either a six-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission it all seems to work rather well. After that though Holden has gone all sporty with three models all wearing the 'S' nomenclature. Starting point here is the SV6 (with 190kWt/340Nm V6, six-speed manual or five-speed auto) with the SS (6.0-litre, 270kW/530Nm V8 and six-speed auto or manual) in the middle and the better-specced, more luxurious SS-V rounding out the range. With Omega you get steel wheels, fairly ordinary paint colours and a nice but kind of ordinary interior. Step up to the SV6, SS and SS-V levels and you get all sorts of nice wheel and tyre packages, some seriously pretty paint (K-pow, anyone?) and swish interior trims well away from the black-on-black of the Omega. But most important of all is something Holden has spent years learning from arch-rival Ford - extra cabin storage. At last, owners can now carry important, valuable or fragile stuff that is thicker than a CD case behind the seats of their utes. The second most important thing is the plastic load bed that is now standard across the Ute range and guaranteed to increase both longevity and resale values. How do they drive? The simple answer is: "very nicely thank you" and about here I refer you back to the pars suggesting Ute is really a two-door coupe. The fact is the VE is a no-brainer and with Holden's decision to fit electronic stability control across the range it drives like no other ute made. All of a sudden unleashing 270kW on a twisting gravel road is neither a case of softly-softly or an exercise in bravado. Now it is a pleasant case of point and press interaction between loud pedal and steering wheel with the electronics managing everything exceptionally well. Ditto the Omega although the result is not quite as spectacular thanks to the power deficit compared to the SS. The ride and handling is equally good and anybody stepping out of a Commodore sedan into a comparable Ute would be hard-pressed to find any drop-off in quality. Even a boot-wearing Aussie girl.How much?Omega (man/auto): $30,990 SV6 (man): $35,990 SV6 (auto): $36,990 SS (man): $39,990 SS (auto): $41,990 SS V (man): $44,990 SS V (auto): $46,990
© 2007 Illawarra Mercury