Holden Commodore VE series 2 sat nav

[Stoney!]

Holden updated commodore, which will be released in october will be coming out with a touchscreen info-tainment system standard on all models, with Sat nav standard on Caprice, Calais and SS-V, option on lower models. This unit is made by the same company as the RNS510 (VDO Dayton) yet tops it in several areas. The Holden unit has standard premium bluetooth, standard reversing camera and actually uses the live traffic updates . The internal memory is also a solid state drive. I'm not sure but i always thought the RNS510 was a disc drive. Solid state is much quicker and therefore better, less heat generation also.

I've always likes the commodore apart from their cheap plastic interiors but it looks as though some soft touch plastics have finally been used. It amazes me how poor specification in VW's are starting to look the more models are introduced around it. Like Mazda3 with standard sat nav, Corolla's and hyundai's with their bluetooth, regardless of the car itself being inferior or not. The Commodore series 2 announcement was the icing on the cake for me and I had to say something.

With the possible introduction of the 3.0 twin turbo V6 in the next model commodore or before, I might just be tempted, who knows what other features they would have sourced from the likes of opel, cadilac and buick by then.

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/f112/holden-commodore-ve-series-2-sat-nav-49375.html#post555465

Stoney!

[maca]

Thank you for linking us back to this thread

[REXman]

Thats a pretty good deal for a Holden. I find all new cars now have to offer "something" to stay competitive. Just bluetooth alone I dont reaaaaaaally think is that big a deal.

How many cars have xenons that look around the corner, whilst offering things like park assist, DSG, Recaros, etc all in a German made car for less than $70K and doesnt guzzle petrol and no cabbies drive them?!

I bought a 2002 Holden SS ute and could never bring myself to buy another one.

When nearly 8/10 people I spoke to had engine/gearbox problems with the LS motors back then, and a massive amount of the UTE's sold then were lemons from the factory.

Even the NRMA guy who rescued me when my brakes failed, shared his story of buying a clubsport, brand new same year as me, and had his engine replaced at 18000km's.

(As for the brakes on my car, about 800kms into owning it, my brakes failed and I sailed through a set of red lights after driving at a top speed of about 60km/h, I tried to pull up and nothing - 60 kay never felt so fast!! Blowing all the brake lines at the front and pissing brake fluid all over the paint work and front guard - on top of the engine issues, gearbox issues and interior falling apart {the door lock ripped off the day I bought it} - did i mention the piss poor gaps on the doors?),

Oh and mine nearly fell apart at 1200kms.. I sold it and bought a BMW I was that pissed.

But thats just my view and my experience is a while ago now, maybe they make a great car now.

But I dont compare a commy to a VW for gadgets, I personally dont care if they have 8000KW's, which Ironically, even though back in the day, they would have a 300kw coupe and still get smashed but a 220kw M3.. blame the weight ?? yeah right..

End rant.

Sorry dude I am no longer holden fan and its going to take more than bluetooth to sway me..

[Corey_R]

The internal memory is also a solid state drive. I'm not sure but i always thought the RNS510 was a disc drive. Solid state is much quicker and therefore better, less heat generation also....Like Mazda3 with standard sat nav, Corolla's and hyundai's with their bluetooth

The solid state HDD of the new Commodore only fits 15 CDs !!!! That's ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, the fact that Holden are Australian only has meant they've been able to do what VW haven't, and get live traffic updates (if it actually works). Bluetooth is also now a relatively cheap factory option in the Golf ($550), and the three cars you mention are more expensive than almost all the Golfs (except a few of the Commodores are cheaper than a few of the R's).

In addition, the Mazda3 standard sat nav is a sorry excuse for integrated, and although I haven't used the Corolla or Hyundai's bluetooth, have you been in one of these cars recently? As a Toyota owner for 10+ years prior to purchasing a VW Golf and Polo, I was shocked when I had to spend the weekend in a brand new Corolla. It's a crime that the Australian public are only paying $3250 less for the bottom model Corolla compared to the 90TSI Golf... after spending the weekend in it, including a few extremely uncomfortable trips in the back seat (where Toyotas idea of a seat is a bit of cushion over the wheel arches :/), I can confidently say you'd have to be an idiot to purchase a Corolla over a Golf in this day and age.

And well... Hyundai - there is at least be a case to be made there, because models like the Getz are significantly cheaper than anything VW have to offer, so the fact that they're just not comparable in almost any way to even a Polo is something you'd expect at their price.

[Angryman]

My $299 Navman has live traffic updates through the SUNA network. however it only works in Brisbane Sydney and Melbourne. Shame we cant somehow update the Traffic system on the dub's to dune into the Suna Broadcast

actually I just checked backwith the website and its interesting to see that Toyota and Ford are now on board with them too...

http://www.sunatraffic.com.au/moreinfo.html

[The_Hawk]

Mrs_Hawk discovered that traffic updates work on the Pioneer unit in our car last week when it informed her the traffic up ahead was stopped and would she like to take an alternate route... Seems she now wants to turn it on all the time, even when it's not needed for this function

Personally I don't understand how for $3,000 you don't get bluetooth, iPod, USB, SD, HDD, DVD and a bloody kitchen sink when you can get most of that stuff in a $350 unit from AutoBarn. I also wonder how the hell some of these "Integrated" Sat Nav unit's can fail so badly as things that TomTom and Navman have managed to do so well for so long. Again why the afore mentioned TomTom or Navman have not put together a double din hard mounted unit for sale completely confuses me.

But I digress. Alot of these niceties are become very standard fare as the technology get's cheaper and cheaper and far more mature than it was even only two years ago.

[halojump]

I've had Traffic Updates on my TomTom for about 18 months and its pretty useless. After some*discussion* with Suna on just how useless it is they said that their traffic data is sourced from QLD Transport and Brisbane Council traffic control centres.

The problem is it is usually (up to) hours out of date and can not really be relied upon. Google does traffic on the iPhone and according to Suna, they supply the traffic data for Google.

I've found however that there is usually a difference between the two, with Google being correct more of the time. (So maybe its a TomTom update frequency thing).

I used to (in the mid '90's) work for TrafficMaster in the UK; they have a much better system because its a) independent and b) is reasonably high density (easy to achieve in the UK). It uses a system of number plate recognition to determine tailbacks and congestion levels.

On the Commodore thing - the car will probably fall to pieces well before you get any real advantage from the SatNav. If you look at the number of recalls this year it is like 64K cars affected so far.

[Stoney!]

It really annoys me, no end, when people talk about recalls in such ways. I see recalls as a good thing, specially when the likes of toyota and ford are so reluctant to recall some problems, some of them that can or have caused harm or death. Yet the second holden finds a manufacturing fault they correct it and recall their cars to make sure all is fine, and THAT my friend is customer service. The type of customer service I would hope to get with my golf if there was a manufacturing fault found by VW. The amount of cars they have recalled, this year, some dating back to cars almost 10 years old, and from varying manufacturers, isuzu, holden itself, opel and GMDAT. Give it a break seriousley.

Coreying, I do understand where you are coming from. But some golfs cost as much as a higer range commodore and are a much smaller car. I am by no means comparing the cars here as build quality in golfs is fantastic and far from great in commodores. However the holden is also a much larger car with larger more powerful engines and yet similar pricing and offering similar equipment levels, and in the case of info-tainment, exceeding those levels set by the golf. I love some of the spec levels found in the golf not found in any other car is its segment. But even passat's don't have sat nav as standard, and the R36 can get pretty damn pricey when specced up with such things, and is then lost in resale which is my biggest problem through all this.

I agree about cornering bi-xenons and other such features. The new holden grange has self park assist now. It's only a matter of time till such features filter down to calais and so on.

Stoney!

[killingwithasmile]

I've had Traffic Updates on my TomTom for about 18 months and its pretty useless. After some*discussion* with Suna on just how useless it is they said that their traffic data is sourced from QLD Transport and Brisbane Council traffic control centres.

The problem is it is usually (up to) hours out of date and can not really be relied upon. Google does traffic on the iPhone and according to Suna, they supply the traffic data for Google.

I've found however that there is usually a difference between the two, with Google being correct more of the time. (So maybe its a TomTom update frequency thing).

I used to (in the mid '90's) work for TrafficMaster in the UK; they have a much better system because its a) independent and b) is reasonably high density (easy to achieve in the UK). It uses a system of number plate recognition to determine tailbacks and congestion levels.

On the Commodore thing - the car will probably fall to pieces well before you get any real advantage from the SatNav. If you look at the number of recalls this year it is like 64K cars affected so far.

i work for holden and all this years recalls came about from intense real time testing by our proving ground and there has only been one recall for the commodore, ute tailgate falling open if hit by something inside the tray in a particular manner. better found by us than from someone getting hurt or even killed..


on the topic, this holden iQ system is very impressive the storage of 15 discs.. and the ability to stream music via bluetooth from your phone..

[GoLfMan]

im a fan of the VE commodore. A friend just bought a VE SSv ute and I must say i VERY impressed with the quality. Fit and finish is spot on, nice interior materials, no real blemishes on build quality. Found a couple of paint blemishes on it where the dealer had covered stone chips. Apart from that it was spot on!

VW's dont have the best reliability reputation at the moment either.

[PhilVW]

Correct, it annoys me about VW reliability issues at the mo, i have worked at VW dealers for a few years, i like the product, i like the work and the tecnology they do at the moment, way ahead of the other brands, the TSI technology goes to show that, power assist steering, park assist (3 years old now?), adaptive cruise control, blue motion....... could go on. A mates dad was showing me his new commador thing the other week, he tells me its the direct injection version. Is that a bragging point with Holden owners?

rant off

[Buller_Scott]

rant off

no no, rant on

[clubbie]

Errr people the thread was about the new head unit in the VE II, not recalls and percieved quality.

Flame me if you like but my 118TSi already has a rattle on the B pillar and also on the faux carbon fibre insert in the drivers door, the squeak in the rear passengers door and lets not forget lunching motors due to a faulty sensor. Lastly you can't have a normal conversation at highways speeds due to the tyre roar (thought that was behind me with the Mazda SP23). Drive a Holden on the highway.

German quality, nope, if you want quality buy japanese.

C'mon people the reason we choose to drive a VW is that you actually enjoy the drive, the dynamics and the interior but as I said this thread is about the new satnav.