The new HSV MALOO 307KW UTE

[Ivan]

Hahaha had to laugh at the ford rules comment.

Holden and Ford rule jack shit on the international stage compared to the japs and the euros, they only appeal to the bogans who think they have 'made it' when a new HSV or FPV is sitting in the driveway.

Sure, they are good value for money, impossible to find a ute or sedan with the same power for the money, but thats where the comparisons end when you start taking into account build quality.

Oh yeah, the ute is fugly.

If you are unsure of how the aussie cars compare on the world stage I suggest you watch any of the reviews of the Holden Monaro on either Top Gear or 5th gear. They're quiet the eye opener, and the monaro is still a favourite of the Top Gear crew.

How about a little pride in what car manufacturer's in Australia have been able to produce within a very small market?

 

[MasterOfReality]

If you are unsure of how the aussie cars compare on the world stage I suggest you watch any of the reviews of the Holden Monaro on either Top Gear or 5th gear. They're quiet the eye opener, and the monaro is still a favourite of the Top Gear crew.

How about a little pride in what car manufacturer's in Australia have been able to produce within a very small market?

Yes, I have seen those episodes.

Have a look at what the English have to put up with every day. Miserable, small 4 cylinder econoboxes. Of course they are going to love a ballsy V8. In one Top Gear episode Clarkson himself said that the build quality and interior was rubbish, but it was fun to drive.

I remember reading some English car mag and someone wrote in and said that they ordered one of the HSV monaros, despite looking at the previous generation M5. They said they likes how rough the Monaro was compared to the clinical feeling M5. That might be fair enough but what got me was the Monaro was only 5000 pounds cheaper than the M5. Why spend that sort of money on a poorly built car? If the poor sods only knew...........

Its not about pride in the Australian manufacturers. I remember seeing HSV's "Australia 1 Germany 0" billboards. I am sick of hearing that the Australian manufacturers can take it to Europe's best when clearly they can't. My pride doesn't extend to holding poor build quality up to the same light as the euros.

 

[Arete]

Hmm, looks....

I am picking up a new-to-me used car tomorrow and in all honesty, the styling's poxy. My new Pulsar GTiR looks like a lunchbox with a wing and bonnet scoop, and at the moment a big god awful milo tin cannon muffler (I'm going to have to get rid of at that thing). It's not the smartest, most stylish, most environmentally friendly or reliable vheicle purchase and I'm the first to admit it.

However, once in the driver's seat I was sold. 4wd, Sr20det with quad throttle bodies, 1220kg's. Coilovers, bigger sway bars and a few other little mods here and there... I absolutely loved the test drive and have grown very fond of the fat little bastard. I may even have to dig up one of those "post your car" threads and have a bit of a ramble about how much I like my new lunchbox (I really need to get that word made into a sticker fro the back of it). Despite this it does look pertty ghastly and I'm sure everyone I am going to drone past with that milo tin exhaust is going to think rice/wanker/small penis, but hell, it's going to be a lot of fun to drive.

So, yeah the ute looks like a bad Matel toy, and will probably make everyone who sees you think you married you cousin/own a gun rack and pronounce "th" as "f" but I'm sure it's a lot of fun.

 

[24alpha]

http://www.hsv.com.au/Cars/ESeries/vxr/vxr.asp > that

Yep, that's ugly too!

 

[Ivan]

Yes, I have seen those episodes.

Have a look at what the English have to put up with every day. Miserable, small 4 cylinder econoboxes. Of course they are going to love a ballsy V8. In one Top Gear episode Clarkson himself said that the build quality and interior was rubbish, but it was fun to drive.

I remember reading some English car mag and someone wrote in and said that they ordered one of the HSV monaros, despite looking at the previous generation M5. They said they likes how rough the Monaro was compared to the clinical feeling M5. That might be fair enough but what got me was the Monaro was only 5000 pounds cheaper than the M5. Why spend that sort of money on a poorly built car? If the poor sods only knew...........

Its not about pride in the Australian manufacturers. I remember seeing HSV's "Australia 1 Germany 0" billboards. I am sick of hearing that the Australian manufacturers can take it to Europe's best when clearly they can't. My pride doesn't extend to holding poor build quality up to the same light as the euros.

From memory, and I'll have a search to back this up, the monaro was roughly HALF the price of an M5. it may have been 5000 pound cheaper than an M3.

I belive the Monaro's were selling for roughly 35000 pound.

But I do agree that the current VE beats german adds blow.

EDIT: So without wasting too much of my lunchtime searching this is the best i can do, and remember that prices of these cars have not drastically changed over the years.

 

[MasterOfReality]

From memory, and I'll have a search to back this up, the monaro was roughly HALF the price of an M5. it may have been 5000 pound cheaper than an M3.

I belive the Monaro's were selling for roughly 35000 pound.

But I do agree that the current VE beats german adds blow.

Actually, it could have been the M3, my apologies.

I guess what I was trying to say was that given the high price of the Monaro's in the UK, you would have to be mad to pass up a M badged car.

 

[Ivan]

I guess what I was trying to say was that given the high price of the Monaro's in the UK, you would have to be mad to pass up a M badged car.

Amen to that

 

[Stubags]

This is what you want

It will be worth more in 20 yrs time as well...


http://www.geocities.com/infieldg/images/v8XAcoupeRF.jpg

 

[wombat]

On this, you would think that Holden and Ford Australia would wake-up and smell the coffee - they're loosing money because the large car segment is in decline - both make many different cars for a diminishing large-car market, and it won't be long before extra tariffs/taxes are implemented on excessive fuel consumption. Large fuel guzzling cars are not the future.

I think that it largely comes down to poor timing.
When Holden started development of the VE the local fuel climate was very different, and big cars were still selling. The development team clearly didn't anticipate the huge rise in fuel costs, so they had no reason to think that the market would shift to smaller cars.

The problem they have now is that the development time was huge, the climate has changed, and now they're left with a car that doesn't look like it's in line with current trends. They can't just dump it though, because so much money has been tied up in its development. I think the best we can hope for now are bandaid measures: cylinder deactivation, diesel etc. A smaller, lighter platform will have to wait until the next newbie I'd say.

I'm guessing that whoever was responsible for the lion's trend forecasting isn't a real popular chap/lassie.

 

[matt.l]

the new maloo is proberly the best holden ute produced (especialy the motor). the best part of the ute is proberly the new tail lights, I love how they come into the i forget what it is called, is it tail gate or somthing, i also like the side skirts.
but really, how needs a ute when you can fit all of your stuff in this
http://forums.farkin.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=85179&stc=1&d=1193046721
http://forums.farkin.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=85180&stc=1&d=1193046903. It will pull it aswell with a 455ci-4 v8 which is 7.5 litres of buick power

 

[topher]

Seems like holden are 2 years behind the stylings of bmw and audi. I personally dislike majority of the holden stuff. The only thing the 307kw would be good for is a mean drift machine. With 307kw average suspension for the power and weight, why would you buy it. I personally would bother like 60+ grand on buying on of these, ship the money into a s3, with twice the quality in and out.

 

[Ben-e]

If you are unsure of how the aussie cars compare on the world stage I suggest you watch any of the reviews of the Holden Monaro on either Top Gear or 5th gear. They're quiet the eye opener, and the monaro is still a favourite of the Top Gear crew.

How about a little pride in what car manufacturer's in Australia have been able to produce within a very small market?

5th Gear liked the car because its cheap (relatively), has a V8 and the Poms like anything thats Australian. They did mention the down side of this car for use in England/Europe, which was high fuel costs and narrow roads. But what about build quality, handling, resale???

I reckon Holden should be able to do better - keep in mind their parent company is GM, who on the whole isn't a technological powerhouse, but have made far better cars.

 

[Ivan]

5th Gear liked the car because its cheap (relatively), has a V8 and the Poms like anything thats Australian. They did mention the down side of this car for use in England/Europe, which was high fuel costs and narrow roads. But what about build quality, handling, resale???

I reckon Holden should be able to do better - keep in mind their parent company is GM, who on the whole isn't a technological powerhouse, but have made far better cars.

I think you'll find if you watch those episodes again, and the new reviews of the vxr8, they mention great handling. In fact if you do a search for car reviews of the Vaxhaul VXR8 they generally rave about the handling. One review I read even said the germans could learn something form the cars handling. Now I've never driven a german made car to make a comparison, so I'll just have to trust what these guys say, but Jeremy Clarkson would never praise anything from Australia unless he felt he had to.

I still don't understand all the V8 bashing. So it doesn't have a turbo or a variable centre diff..... but it also doesn't have block's of wood in place of shock absorbers either, will actually fit you and 4 of your mates and the new VXR8 stops quicker than the lambo murcilewhatever.

 

[trailblazinBros]

dh just dont fit.

have you ever tried to fit a dh rig under the solid tray cover on maloos its mission impossible...i dont care what it... looks like i couldnt give a ratz how fast it goes.... as long as i can fit my rig then the cars ok by me..

 

[Ivan]

have you ever tried to fit a dh rig under the solid tray cover on maloos its mission impossible...i dont care what it... looks like i couldnt give a ratz how fast it goes.... as long as i can fit my rig then the cars ok by me..

Did you try taking the front wheel off? or maybe ditching the hard cover? sounds to me like your trying to fit a round peg in a square hole.

I regularly carry my bikes under the hardcover.

 

[Cruz]

Why would you want to take off the front wheel of your d/h rig all the time just so it can fit into the tray of a pseudo ute with butt ugly add ons? This isn't a little hatchback, it is a ute. Oh,sorry, it is a sport ute.

 

[Ivan]

Why would you want to take off the front wheel of your d/h rig all the time just so it can fit into the tray of a pseudo ute with butt ugly add ons? This isn't a little hatchback, it is a ute. Oh,sorry, it is a sport ute.

If you don't want to take you front wheel off, don't put a friggin hardcover on the ute! it really is that simple. It has as much or more usable tray space as any extracab or dualcab ute out there.

So what's the benefit of taking your front wheel off and storing your bike under a hardcover? On the way to or home from a ride you can stop at you LBS/quikemart and leave your bike in you ute, locked under your hard cover and out of sight.

that's me out of this thread

 

[flying high dh killer]

I think you'll find if you watch those episodes again, and the new reviews of the vxr8, they mention great handling. In fact if you do a search for car reviews of the Vaxhaul VXR8 they generally rave about the handling. One review I read even said the germans could learn something form the cars handling. Now I've never driven a german made car to make a comparison, so I'll just have to trust what these guys say, but Jeremy Clarkson would never praise anything from Australia unless he felt he had to.

I still don't understand all the V8 bashing. So it doesn't have a turbo or a variable centre diff..... but it also doesn't have block's of wood in place of shock absorbers either, will actually fit you and 4 of your mates and the new VXR8 stops quicker than the lambo murcilewhatever.

Jeremy Clarkson is Top Gear. NeBos mentioned 5th gear.

 

[Ben-e]

I think you'll find if you watch those episodes again, and the new reviews of the vxr8, they mention great handling. In fact if you do a search for car reviews of the Vaxhaul VXR8 they generally rave about the handling. One review I read even said the germans could learn something form the cars handling. Now I've never driven a german made car to make a comparison, so I'll just have to trust what these guys say, but Jeremy Clarkson would never praise anything from Australia unless he felt he had to.

I still don't understand all the V8 bashing. So it doesn't have a turbo or a variable centre diff..... but it also doesn't have block's of wood in place of shock absorbers either, will actually fit you and 4 of your mates and the new VXR8 stops quicker than the lambo murcilewhatever.

I havnt seen the episode of Top Gear where Clarkson drives the monaro, but i have seen the 5th Gear review with Tom Ford, who liked the car but as i mentioned before, thought it was impractical for use over there. I dont readily base my opinion on television shows, just what i have driven - from this i would say that commodores are some of the worst cars i have ever driven, whereas the Japanese and European cars are always better.

I dont think anyone is V8 bashing - they're just bashing the Holden V8 for being prehistoric - they still need massive cubic inches to gain the same power as smaller rival engines, and they place these engines into cars that have rubbish chassis', which further inhibits the performance of the car.

 

[Badams]

pretty sweet man