Vectra A to Z

By ALASTAIR SLOANE, motoring editor

Someone once said that the whole point of the Holden Vectra was its absence of style. It was made only to be functional, a car people who file supermarket checkout slips might buy.

The model codenames offer a clue here. The first Vectra was codenamed A. It appeared in New Zealand in 1990, aimed mostly at the fleet market.

The second Vectra was codenamed B. It appeared six or seven years later, aimed mostly at the fleet market.

Holden New Zealand has sold 12,800 A and B Vectras since 1990, roughly 1000 a year or 20 a week. (Toyota has sold 70,000 Corolla models in the same period). Vectra's best sales year was 2001, when 1587 were registered.

Many dismissive words have been spoken about the A and B Vectras. This newspaper said they would be "hard to find in a carpark full of 1959 Vauxhall Victors".

A Herald staffer who bought an ex-fleet B Vectra three years ago says, "It's a swear word in our house."

British columnist Jeremy Clarkson found it so boring he switched early in his review of the car to talk about the reed warbler, a songbird with plain plumage.

A disgruntled Australian set up a website listing his B Vectra's woes. He regularly updates it.

That was the then Vectras. The now Vectra, the 2003 model, is altogether different, says Holden.

It has won awards in Britain and Germany. It is bigger, better built, has more equipment, is safer and stronger, says Holden.

The car's torsional rigidity is up 74 per cent, bending stiffness by 62 per cent. It handles and rides better. The seats are more supportive, the interior roomier and more functional. The car is classier all round, says Holden.

Even the codename has changed. It is not C, as expected, but ZC. The Vectra is no longer predictable, says Holden.

For starters, it sits on GM's front-wheel-drive Epsilon platform, which also underpins the new Saab 9-3, a classy performer.

It is 101mm longer overall than the old Vectra. The wheelbase is 60mm longer and the front and rear tracks are wider.

Holden says the use of high-strength steel now accounts for 52 per cent of the car's total weight compared with 9 per cent for the outgoing car.

But the extensive use of aluminium and other lightweight materials has kept weight growth to a minimum.

Aluminium has been used in the suspension system - MacPherson struts in the front and a new multi-link setup in the rear - to further reduce unsprung weight.

The new range comes in three models, a four-door sedan and five-door hatchback powered by a four-cylinder engine and a hatchback using a V6. The V6 model has two specification levels.

The hatchback is built at the Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port, Britain; the sedan at the Opel plant in Russelsheim, Germany. Opel/Vauxhall, like Holden, is a General Motors subsidiary.

The Vectra is on sale now. It sort of sneaked into the country after the launch in Australia for New Zealand motoring writers last month was cancelled when America moved on Iraq. GM doesn't like flying its guests around on the day that America goes to war.

Holden is making much of the Vectra's level of equipment, class-leading specification which includes eight-way adjustable driver's seat, nine-speaker CD sound system, remote audio controls on the height- and reach-adjustable steering wheel, cruise control, remote central locking, power windows, alloy wheels and air-conditioning.

Standard safety equipment is equally impressive: front and side passenger airbags, anti-lock brakes, traction control, electronic brakeforce distribution, cornering brake control and emergency brakeforce distribution. Each helps to prevent the careless driver from going backwards through a hedge.

The range starts with the CD sedan and hatch, powered by a 2.2-litre engine producing 108kW at 5600rpm and 203Nm of torque at 4000rpm and mated to a five-speed manual or five-speed automatic gearbox. Output is up 4kW and 3Nm on the outgoing car. The manual costs $39,900, the automatic $41,800.

Next in the lineup is the automatic CDX hatchback, powered by a 3.2-litre V6 producing 155kW at 6200rpm and 300Nm at 3800rpm, up a substantial 30kW and 50Nm over the old 2.5-litre V6. The CDX costs $47,600.

The range is topped off by the CDXi hatchback, powered by the same 3.2-litre engine but offering the option of a five-speed manual or automatic gearbox with "Active Select" manual mode. The manual model costs $52,500, the Active Select box $54,500.

Holden New Zealand is aiming the 2.2-litre models at competitors like the Mazda6, Ford Mondeo and Toyota Camry.

The more expensive V6 hatchback has the credentials, says marketing manager Sheena Duffy, to go head-to-head with Europeans like the BMW 3-Series, Volkswagen Passat, Audi A4 and Peugeot 406.

"The new Vectra represents another step forward in the development of Holden's product portfolio," she says.

"It is the most sophisticated mid-size Holden yet."