Aussies Hit For Six

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday April 6, 2007

Bill McKinnon

As the decades-old sales dominance of Holden and Ford fades, diehard fans of locally made six-cylinder cars can pick up a bargain, writes Bill McKinnon.

Every day is sale day for the big Aussie six-cylinder these days, as local manufacturers battle to keep their numbers up and their dealers competitive. After being hammered throughout 2006, the large car market stabilised in March, though with only 13.8 per cent of the overall passenger car market.

The glory days of the class, when it owned more than 30 per cent of the market, are gone forever, say the bosses of Ford and Holden. The last thing the class needed in 2006 was a new entrant but that's what it got as Toyota zeroed in on Ford's Falcon and Holden's Commodore with the Aurion.

The attractions of the homegrown six are still substantial, especially if a significant portion of your annual kilometre count is racked up on the open road. Here, you can achieve reasonable fuel economy - under 10 litres/100km in cruise mode.

It remains a fact that local automotive engineers know better than most of their overseas counterparts how to finesse the ride and handling that works on Australia's goat tracks.

You also get more power and torque than any comparably priced import, large interiors, plenty of equipment and, in some instances, up-to-the-minute safety. Insurance, servicing, parts and repair costs are relatively low.

Which is a good thing, because when it comes to resale values, independent guides and expert car valuers rate the returns of most Falcons and Commodores poorly.

You'll be battling to get 40 per cent of the purchase price back after only a couple of years if you decide you want to trade in. Resales will get weaker still in the short term, as new models are discounted. If you're looking for a car to hang on to for five years or more the resale value issue is less of a problem and you won't be overly disadvantaged.

However, the brutal truth is that you can now buy a two- or three-year-old Aussie six, with about 60,000km on the clock and some factory warranty left, for less than half the price of a new one - ex-government examples fetch between $12,000 to $14,000 at public auctions.

If you spend most of your time in peak hour traffic, as the only occupant of the car, you're burning a lot of cash on fuel bills. Expect 15-17L/100km on the daily commute - up to twice as much as in a smaller four-cylinder car.

Despite several worthwhile attempts to improve matters, Falcons and Commodores can still have niggling quality and reliability problems (this is based on our experience as well as feedback from those in the know: fleet operators). You would be unlucky to have any dramas with a Mitsubishi 380 or Toyota Aurion, although it's still early days for the Aurion feedback to surface as it has been on sale for only a little over six months.

It has been about a year since we looked at this class. In the interim the deals have got sharper, though still on 2006 models. Here's what's available.

Ford Falcon

The Falcon's sales woes have resulted in some brutal discounting. Ford took the axe to prices in response to the new Commodore launch but that was just the start.

As Drive's man in the marketplace, David Berthon, reported a couple of weeks ago, some Sydney dealers have been knocking up to $11,000 off the base model BF XT, with $28,990 drive-away deals on the four-speed auto version.

The BF MkII has also been discounted at some dealers by $8000 or more, to $29,990 plus on-road costs, including 17-inch alloy wheels, six-speed ZF automatic transmission and stability control. Curtain airbags are not available.

The pick of the Falcon range, the XR6, has been advertised for $35,990 drive-away, saving about $8000 on the recommended retail price. The XR6 turbo can be had for less than $38,000 - a $6000 discount - while the XR8 can be bargained down to about $40,000 plus on-road costs.

Some Ford dealers are also doing drive-away deals across most of the Falcon range.

Whatever you pay, you won't get much of it back when you trade in. A two-year-old BA MkII Falcon XT auto is worth, according to industry valuer Redbook, only 39 per cent of its new price, the weakest resale value in the market's weakest class.

The Falcon's 4.0-litre, six-cylinder engine produces 190kW of power and 383Nm of torque, the latter at just 2500rpm. Matched with the adaptive sequential ZF automatic, it's easily superior in performance and refinement to the base model Commodore Omega. Australian standard average fuel consumption is 10.2L/100km.

Holden Commodore

Holden took the unprecedented step at the launch of the new VE Commodore of effectively discounting the car from day one, by selling a base model 3.6-litre V6, four-speed auto Omega with air-conditioning (normally a $2000 option), 17-inch alloy wheels and a few frills for $34,990. You can now get this as a drive-away deal.

You can also find Omega autos advertised for less than $30,000, though you'll have to negotiate on-road costs.

The Berlina V6 can be bought for less than $36,000, while the Calais is available for about $42,000, more than $4000 off in both cases - haggle over on-road costs.

The Commodore Omega and Berlina are still saddled with a four-speed automatic. The 3.6-litre V6 produces 180kW of power and 330Nm of torque but it's slow, wheezy and strained compared with the Falcon and Aurion.

However, the new Commodore steers, handles and stops like no Commodore before it and now has stability control as standard. Front seat side-curtain airbags and active front seat head restraints are a packaged option at $2000.

The Calais gets a higher output engine, with 195kW and 340Nm, matched with a five-speed automatic. It's better than the base drivetrain but still well beaten by the Aurion and Falcon. The Omega achieved 10.9L/100km in Australian standard tests.

Mitsubishi 380

At the model's launch in 2005, Mitsubishi Australia said its discount days were over and it would not be budging on the base 380's then $34,490 plus on-road costs price.

The 175kW, 3.8-litre V6, five-speed manual 380ES Series II now has a recommended retail price of $27,990 plus on-road costs. It is being further discounted to less than $26,500. A five-speed automatic adds $2000. The Platinum adds automatic air-conditioning, sunroof, rear parking sensors and a six-stack CD player, at a recommended retail price of $32,990. This is also negotiable by at least $1000.

The V6 produces 175kW of power and 343Nm of torque. It's smooth, with plenty of torque, but is slightly breathy at revs. The manual uses 11.4L/100km according to Australian standard tests; the five-speed auto uses 10.8L/100km.

Handling is excellent for a large front-drive car and there's ample occupant space, though the boot is relatively small. Four airbags are standard but traction control is optional, while stability control and curtain airbags are unavailable.

A big attraction is the class's longest warranty: five years/130,000km. The rest give you three years/100,000km. Mitsubishi also gives a 10 years/160,000km non-transferable warranty on engine and transmission.

Toyota Aurion

Toyota keeps its dealers on a shorter leash than the others, so advertised discounts are harder to find. It's anathema to Toyota to start carving up the 200kW, 3.5-litre V6, six-speed auto Aurion so soon after its launch. The base Aurion AT-X has a recommended retail price of $34,990.

However, David Berthon says that you can easily negotiate a $3000 discount on this. "You can't survive without discounting in a market where your opposition is being decimated," Berthon says.

Aurion won the six-cylinder contest in Drive's inaugural Car of the Year awards last year, in a clear and understandable result. It's well priced and generously equipped and has class-leading levels of standard safety gear.

Its V6 produces 200kW of power and 336Nm of torque. A six-speed automatic is standard. Given the fact that it weighs about 100kg less than the Falcon and Commodore, it's no surprise the Aurion is the quickest car here. It takes only 7.3 seconds to reach 100kmh - nearly two seconds quicker than the Commodore Omega.

Aurion also wins the Australian standard fuel economy comparison, with a 9.9L/100km average, running on regular unleaded. It is the only engine in this group to comply with the Euro IV emissions standard.

The base Aurion also includes the full suite of important safety features: stability control (standard on Commodore Omega; optional on Falcon XT), front, front seat side and side curtain airbags (front airbags only on Omega and Falcon) plus an alarm (not on Falcon and Commodore) and the usual gear you get at this level: basic power adjustment for the driver's seat, cruise control, power windows and mirrors and remote central locking.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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