VW Passat CC vs Commodore SV6 (and RNS vs IQ) - a surprising comparison

[kleung]

Hey - great to see some fantastic responses (we need to keep up some threads with Passat, Golf GTi and R seem to have all the action!)

We Passat drivers are too busy out enjoying our cars, not writing about them

(nice crisp white though not as good as CC).

Blue needles are better again!

1. The CC stalk is within easy reach (the Commodore's by comparison was a bit of a stretch).

I find the Commodore's less of a reach than the Passats - I have to reach down to get to the cruise stalk on the Passat, but I see where you're coming from re: the Commodore. You have to reach further in order to twist the stalk, as opposed to just flicking the lever.

Additionally, I find it difficult to 'cancel' - I always end up pushing the lever too far and turning the cruise system off altogether.

(which increases or decreases speed in unknown increments).

I used to have a 96 VS Berlina (with the tiny-button cruise controls). According to the owner's manual, the increments were in 1.6km/h units. Smells of a cheap MPH to KMH conversion to me.

3. When twisting the Commodore's stalk I couldn't really tell how much it was increasing or reducing speed by. On the CC, it tells you on the MFD.

The set-speed display is remarkably handy to have. I'm surprised that more cars don't have it. In fact, I think the cruise set-speed display and the round-up/round-down functions are actually fairly unusual, outside of VAG cars.

5. You can also change speed increments on the fly WITHOUT resuming.

Cool! I didn't know this. Good to know.

Now...I managed to find my notes (ain't backups wonderful?)

The first thing that struck me about the car was the looks - the colour is called 'Poison Ivy' - a lurid metallic green colour. It looks good, in a chunky, masculine, muscular sort of way. The doors definitely don't have that lovely solid 'thunk' when you close them. The Sportwagon's tailgate hinge is cleverly set back into the roof, which allows the tailgate to be opened in remarkably narrow spaces. Panel gaps looked pretty consistent, no squeaks or rattles in the car we had.

What I liked about the SV6:
- Auto-crank - just turn the key to the 'start' position and let go. The engine continues cranking until it catches. This is definitely something that the Passat could do better. I recall reading about this as a criticism of the Passat, where if you don't hold the key in for long enough, you've got to the key right out before you can try again.
- The 6sp auto - as mentioned before, an absolute revelation compared to the old 4sp. Shift quality is pretty good, but it does tend to hunt a little bit, especially under load. Sport shift is around the wrong way (IMO) - push to downshift, pull to upshift. The Passat has it the right way around (pull to downshift), and the R36 gets paddles to boot. For some reason, the SV6's shifter felt like it was a loooong way away. Not sure why.
- Air conditioning is efficient and does not noticeably impact engine power - similar to the Passat. As I understand it, both the Passat and the Commodore use Delphi compressors, so this may go some way to explaining why.
- Fuel economy was surprisingly good, at 10.3l/100km average. We were doing mostly between 45km/h-80km/h up and down the hilly and curvy roads around Tassie, with 3 adults and 5 peoples-worth of luggage on board. I can't get the R36 under about 11.5l/100km with just me on board :/
- The suspension is well tuned for Aussie roads. It can be just slightly boaty at times, but it reacts well if you sling it into a corner. Unfortunately I had limited opportunities to test this out because the other people with me got car sick. Doh! The R36's suspension is significantly tauter than the SV6's, to the point of harshness over certain surfaces.
- Central locking-horn chirp - if one of the doors or the tailgate were not shut properly, the horn would chirp if you tried to lock the car. Unfortunately, the doors would lock anyway, and you would have to unlock the doors again to re-shut the door or tailgate properly
- The SV6's High beams are excellent, and light up the roads very well for conventional halogen headlights. But they just aren't a match for the bi-xenon cornering lights in the R36/CC.
- The AC fan in the SV6 has a huge number of speed increments, but it can be a bit difficult to find the lowest fan setting.

What I didn't like so much about the SV6:
- While the cabin is nicely designed, Holden seems to not have paid a lot of attention to the little details. Something a simple as the bolts fastening the fixed end of the front seat belts should not be exposed to the cabin. They should be concealed like they are in the Passat.
- The indicator stalk has long, imprecise travel. You have to move it a LONG way to get it to the 'on' position. This may be because it has become something of a Commodore trademark - the long-travel indicator stalk has existed since before the VS-series, and probably dates all the way back to the VN.
- The front seats in the SV6 are comfortable, but aren't particularly supportive. I guess I may have become somewhat spoiled by the R36 seats.
- There is no vertical cargo blind/net in the SV6, like there is in the R36. I guess this may be because many cargo-carrying Sportwagons ultimately get fitted with hard-grilles.
- SV6 has no auto-down on rear windows, no auto up on any of the windows, Passat gets auto up/down on all four windows.
- The engine note is muted in the SV6, and isn't particularly inspiring when revved.
- Road noise in the SV6 is pretty severe on coarse-chip roads.
- The window and door lock controls are positioned awkardly on the SV6 on the centre console, so I had to physically look at them to find the controls, and you have to arch your arm back uncomfortably to operate them. The Passat's, on the other hand, come easily to hand.
- The handbrake lever design is unconventional in that it sort of 'hides' away into the centre console in the released position. But for some reason, the SV6 I had, the handbrake was quite awkward to release.
- The brakes on the SV6 are a bit funny and hard to judge - I kept misjudging the brakes and not applying enough pressure, which resulted in a few undignified stops.
- The fuel and temperature guages have funny angled gradients on them, positioned a long way from the end of the needle, making it a bit difficult to work out exactly where they are pointing, until you get used to them.

It might sound like I have a lot of criticisms of the Commodore, but on the whole, I did enjoy driving it, and considering the price it goes for, I think it's pretty good value.

[Highlander]

The VE I hired had no turn indicators or must have been wired incorrectly.

Every time i wanted to indicate that i was going to turn or change lanes the bloody windscreen wipers came on.

[Ozsko]

Respectuflly disagree. The SV6 I had went like stink if you got the engine spinning in the top half of the rev-range. Perhaps it's the lack of low-down torque that made it feel gutless?

This has been a Holden problem since God played full back for Israel. I had a VS 304 auto Statesman and I still rate as a good car except when towing. Cruising at 120 it was doing about 1900 rpm in top and producing about 85HP. because the peak torque was at 3500 as soon as it saw a hill with the trailer (650KG) on it went back to third and began to hunt from third to fourth constantly. I bought a 2.0 litre TDI DSG Skoda and that motor and gearbox combination will walk all over a Holden when towing because Holden persist in setting the power and torque peaks so far above the cruise RPM. They do it for economy reasons and in the older cars the throttle linkage was not linear to disguise the problem. I looked at three cars when I was buying, Holden Sportswagon 6 litre, Passat and Skoda TDI and it was a close call between them all but I could not reconcile the towing issue along with the fuel penalty it involves otherwise the Holden would have got the nod I suspect.

[weasel]

Great thread guys,

I too rented a VE SV6 last week with the SIDI engine. Went from Brisbane to Surfers and back for 6 days. The comments written all ring true with my thoughts.

I had a grey spedo and could not for the life of me read how fast I was going during the day.....
The steering wheel was like a truck.

It was so easy to compare it to the R36. There was plenty to like and dislike about it. I could write about it all day, but won't.
Fuel economy was very close to the R36. I expected better from the SV6.

Peter

[weasel]

I forgot to add.....

we could not find the boot release......until I said to mysef. Surley it's still not in the glove box.

Yep it was!

In this day and age I don't understand how or why they are not able to change this from the VB commodore days.

Peter

[Pana]

I forgot to add.....

we could not find the boot release......until I said to mysef. Surley it's still not in the glove box.

Yep it was!

In this day and age I don't understand how or why they are not able to change this from the VB commodore days.

Peter

Pretty sure it was done as a security feature - you could lock your glovebox so the boot release wasn't accessible - that way you could put stuff in your boot and if your car was valet parked for instance - the stuff in the boot was safe because the valet key couldn't unlock the glovebox.

[kleung]

Pretty sure it was done as a security feature - you could lock your glovebox so the boot release wasn't accessible - that way you could put stuff in your boot and if your car was valet parked for instance

I remember that 'feature' in the old family VK. The back seats were fixed, so it was actually a worthwhile security feature. Nowadays, putting the remote boot release in the glovebox is just a cost-cutting measure. other cars will have a conventional lockable lever on the floor in the driver's footwell, or a button on the door.

Most of the time you wouldn't really need it these days, since most models come with a boot release button on the key.

the stuff in the boot was safe because the valet key couldn't unlock the glovebox.

That's a relative term, because Holdens of old were not reknowned for their security. I recall some people accidentally unlocking someone else's Commodore using their key because the barrels were so worn out (or the tolerances were so loose...)

[genkifd]

actually dont mind that idea of having the boot release in the glove box.

as in the CC you can lock the rear seats so you cant get access to the boot from the inside, however you can use the boot release and get access from the outside so really it defeats the purpose. unless you can lock the boot release some how.

[Leagle]

Genkifd that is a very good point! I too found the boot release in the glovebox a little annoying (I found myself using the remote button on the key instead to remotely unlock the boot - which you could do even with the key in the ignition).

However I too wonder if there is a way of locking the boot (and not opening via remote button or key) while the car is being valet parked?

[Sumodog68]

In a recent trip to Shepperton in Vic, I got a SV6 for the 400k round trip from Melbourne. I was excited walking over to it, looked tough, and I was looking forward to some time in a "real" car after 3 years in a hairdresser Golf. I was amazed how big and comfy it was, but the one thing that blew me away was how dull, underpowered, and just plain gutless it felt compared to a daggy little TDI. I gave up putting my foot down, a good thing in low tolerance Vic, and drove it like a Yaris. Guess I'm spoilt having such a punchy and engaging little tractor. I can see why it's popular, looks the part, but if ever a car needed a V8....that's the one.

Your tdi must be really special as the ones I drove are much slower than sv6