Faults:

Rear windscreen washer dribbles when cornering. Could not be fixed by the dealer, even though it went back twice under warranty.

Recently a seized idler pulley caused a broken fan belt, which damaged the oil pressure switch and also the crank angle sensor and the crank pulley itself. All up fixing the damage cost $500, not including the tow to my mechanic.

General Comments:

This car is very reliable; almost as reliable as my Skyline!

The comfort level is very good, and it has been used on numerous interstate trips with the family. I still prefer taking this wagon on long trips, because it is so spacious and able to take a large load, including teenagers and my wife's excess baggage.

This wagon has the best roof racking system I have ever come across on an Australian made car (or any other car for that matter), using an integrated rail system. Roof bars can be separated up to 1.5m, making loading very stable. No problem loading up surfing equipment, spare tyres and whatever else.

The engine and mechanicals, are very simple and accessible. Great for home based mechanics who want to reduce the costs of servicing. I now service my own and both my sons 3.8L Commodores (3 cars) for less than it would cost for most people to maintain and service one car.

With advice from my mechanic, I put this car on LPG in 2006, and the car runs and performs beautifully on this low cost byproduct fuel... I haven't looked back since that advice, and it is a real winner for the hip pocket! Both my sons agree, as their Commodores are on LPG too!

I haven't driven the later VE, VF Commodores, but if they are anywhere near as good as my VX wagon, I don't understand why Holden is struggling with sales.

Faults:

The Only things that has gone wrong with the car is a problem with gas leaking in the ventilation controls whenever I change the air direction to the wind screen, meaning that the air flow becomes stuck on the windscreen, costing $60 to get it fixed each time, it has just happened for the second time.

There is also an intermittent problem with the back right power window not working for a couple of minutes at a time, but this is very rare and only happened once while I had the car and twice while my parents had the car.

General Comments:

I love the car, it is reliable, relatively economical for its size and performance, decent performance and very comfortable.

The Car was owned by my parents before I bought it off them, it had 75 000 Kms on it when they bought it, and they never had any problems with it, but they decided to downsize to something smaller and more economical.

The Commodore is very hard to break into, which I found out once when I locked my keys in the boot with my spare set in the centre console, called the NRMA and the only way they could get the car open was chock open the top of the drivers door, open the lid of the console with a coat hanger and pull the spare set of keys out through the top of the door.

I would recommend the car to anyone, its extremely hard to beat the "metal for your money" ratio, and to get something more comfortable, powerfull/economical, and good looking on the price level.

Faults:

Driver seat rails. Replaced under warranty.

CD Player would intermittently fail to recognise a CD. Replaced under warranty.

General Comments:

Holden Commodore VX Acclaim Wagon.

I have owned five Holdens. This is the best yet, and is my first Holden Wagon.

It's comfortable, quick and cheap to run.

In the City, it's smooth and a pleasure to drive in Freeway traffic.

Country trips are a pleasure. The quiet interior allows me to play CDs without having to crank up the volume.

Power is more than adequate and inspires confidence when evaluating a passing manoeuvre.

Comfort level is exceptional, even on long trips.

I would like to fit front seat covers to protect the velour upholstery. Unfortunately, because of the side air bags it is not permissible.

I'm not impressed by dealer service. It took four attempts to have the CD player replaced. The Dealer would not acknowledge the CD Player to be faulty unless they could fault it themselves. Because this was an intermittent problem, and according to Murphy's Law, the CD was always working when I took it to the Dealer.

I eventually got a sympathetic Mechanic/Technician to do the right thing.