From the news.com.au cars site:

VZ Economy impresses
Gordon Lomas
27oct04

HOLDEN should be making more noises about the fuel economy benefits of its new Commodore range.

The first real-world test of the VZ models that are now running with new Alloytec 3.6-litre engines and new or upgraded transmissions showed more than just incremental gains over the long-running but now shelved Ecotec 3.8-litre powerplant.

Fuel figures under 8litres/100km were achieved in a wide range of vehicles including the Statesman (190kW V6), Executive Wagon, sedan and Acclaim.

Holden engineers deliberately set low fuel consumption targets on its annual fuel efficiency drive from Sydney to Surfers Paradise for Indy week, keen to show the potential of the new powertrain in the VZ line-up.

"You would never have seen any of the figures dipping under 8 litres with the old 3.8-litre engine," Holden fuel efficiency expert Greg Bentley said.

Bentley was as surprised as the rest of the team of Holden engineers after ploughing through the results of the drive that was split into six stages over a day and a half.

It was run predominantly in pouring rain with lots of surface water, rocks, trees and other obstacles such as turtles flushed out of creeks and on to the road.

"Given the conditions you would expect the fuel figures to be affected by up to .2litre/100km so for a lot of the cars to meet or beat the targets was a little surprising," Bentley said.

Officially VZ fuel figures for the Executive, Acclaim and Berlina have come down to 11.1litres/100km from 11.3 litres for the old Ecotec engine on combined city/highway driving. In Statesman and Caprice the figures of the new models have come down from 13.4 litres to 12 litres.

But in real-world driving and being conscious of throttle application and reading the road conditions ahead, these figures are substantially lower than the factory numbers.

Setting off from Sydney airport the first run was into Raymond Terrace near Newcastle – a 173km run in an Executive wagon. Trip time targets were set for each leg, preventing drivers from negotiating the stage under speed limits or dangerously slowly. The Executive equalled the 8litres/100km at the end of the stage after running as low as 7.7litres/100km.

From Raymond Terrace to Wingham, the next car, an Acclaim decked out in Holden By Design gear registered 8.6litres/100km over the 163km, missing the target of 8.2litres/100km during the run in driving rain along waterlogged roads.

The most challenging stage featured wild weather, heavy rain squalls and 30km of a slippery, muddy road.

View the rest here.

wow

im happy with my 4L/100km bike, and it'll beat that v6. ha ha.

You won't be beating the V6 when you're flying over its bonnet cause you didn't look when you cut a lane :P.

New car choice hunter?

if you don't look while riding a motorcycle, you deserve to get squashed. i ride to work every morning, and it pains me when i see riced up skylines and commodores trying to race me or block me off.
*yawn* twist my wrist and see ya's later.

Nah I just got my 10k loan approved today. EL Falcon or VS S2 commodore soon for meeee.

Well that's a pitty.

yeh, i read that article in the paper the other day, quite surprising really. oh well it looks like the 600million dollars spent into designing and producing that engine is paying off. :D

I dont care how good the fuel consumption is, Holdens are for boguns.

At least people who drive holdens can spell bogan properly.

And I am sure they revel in that fact.

shad, you're a f***en ricer no doubt....

Dont you have innocent people to rear end?

last edited by shad at 23:38:22 29/Oct/04

What sort of brakes do the VZ's come with?

You won't be beating the V6 when you're flying over its bonnet cause you didn't look when you cut a lane :P.

Or tried to turn into your drive-way.

You won't be beating the V6 when you're flying over its bonnet cause you didn't look when you cut a lane :P.

shouldn't that be

You won't be beating the V6 when you're flying over its bonnet cause I didn't look when I cut a lane :P.

last edited by WhiteWolf at 11:19:54 30/Oct/04