Holden: Big boy got 'em singing the blues

Holden Commodore SV6. Photo / Supplied

They do love their special colours at Holden and with every model or facelift comes at least one striking hue to mark the occasion. For the model year-2012 Commodore it's Perfect Blue, a colour the company says pays tribute to long-time Holden racing driver Peter Brock, who was killed while competing in the Targa West Rally in Australia in 2006.

One of Brock's most famous road cars, the Brock-tuned 1985 Holden Dealer Team (HDT) Group A VK SS, was finished in a lurid shade called Formula Blue. Holden has recreated it from an original paint sample, then infused it with metallic highlights.

Photographs don't do the new colour justice at all. It retains the flat appearance of the original 1985 colour but at close range or in very bright conditions the metallic highlights become visible. A special paint job then and although not special enough to be limited to Commodore, it's also being used to boost buyer interest in the new Cruze range.

At least the Perfect Blue name gives you some clue as to what it looks like. Carryover colours in the Commodore range include Hazard, Mirage Glow, Sizzle, Karma and Nitrate. There's another new colour, which is called Chlorophyll. Your guess is as good as ours.

When the big talk is about paint colours, it's pretty clear that we're talking about a very minor upgrade. Visual changes to our $57,890 SV6 sportwagon are limited to extra chrome highlighting on the grille and lower air intake.

So the Commodore is essentially still the Series II model launched last year. It's also still a very good thing. Commodore is still the No3 car in the Kiwi passenger vehicle charts and continues to deliver on style, performance and driving dynamics. Holden is changing, with more emphasis on small cars like Cruze (now built in Australia) and high technology such as electric cars, but the big fella hasn't been forgotten. It is still the most important model for its Australian design and manufacturing operations and the company is committed to building a new version in 2013.

Commodore is still a lot of fun for the enthusiast driver. Aside from all that space for a family of five, the big Holden delivers strong performance, great steering and beautifully balanced handling from that rear-drive chassis. Hey, it's good enough to provide the basis for the all-American Camaro.

It's not completely old-school. There are some big-picture improvements to the 2012 Commodore which offer a degree of future-proofing, even if they aren't of immediate relevance to New Zealand. The most important is E85 (85 per cent ethanol) biofuel compatibility for the SV6's 210kW/350Nm 3.6-litre V6 engine - it was the only Commodore powerplant to miss out on E85-tech (also called Flex Fuel) when the Series II version was launched last year.

E85 is available at only one service station in New Zealand - a Gull station in Hamilton. In Australia, there are now 100 Caltex E85 outlets in main centres. Globally, GM sees itself as an E85 specialist and has manufactured more than 5.5 million Flex Fuel vehicles.

The SV6 benefits from range-wide changes to Commodore's six-speed automatic transmission to reduce friction, as well as modifications to the air-conditioning to reduce draw on the powertrain. The SV6 sportwagon ekes out another 0.1 litre per 100km - overall it's 9.8 litres. Other models, such as the entry Omega 3.0 sportwagon, make bigger gains - improving from 9.2 to 8.9 litres.

The Commodore's colour-touchscreen cabin control system has been upgraded, including Bluetooth compatibility.