Holden Ute VF (2013-2017) (2013-2017)

A real mates ute! Love my Holden – As a chic you might be very surprised one owning a ute but I needed it for all my horse gear. As I love holdens I had to buy this Holden ute. Cost about the same as any other so nothing different there. It drives very smoothly and loads of room  Show details

Last of the Line – It has taken holden a long time to get it this good, and now they are going to stop production. I only purchased this ute a month ago, and all i want to do is drive it. I had a cat back exhaust installed and i am in love with it. I had a two seater sports car which i traded for the ute. While the sports car was good, the drive feeling is… Read more

completely different to the ute I feel that I am driving a magic carpet that will do what ever i ask of it, but i know that I don't have to ask as it already does what I want. The cabin interior is bloody excellent, and has all the extras you could want. The heads up display is clearly the best feature. I can see what is happening with the car without lowering my line of sight. My wife even likes the interior of this car.

VF 2 SS ute – Very happy so far , had the car for a month, great deal , 2016 demo with 9 ks on it , guess everybody test drove the SSV Redlines, much cheaper than the 2017 models , same car. Great service from Holden so far. Great to drive , not as bad on fuel as they say, once you're over the mountains. Great loss once these type of utes disappear . You have to look at them as a coupe with a big boot, great for touring.  Show details

SSV Heap! – Drives ok when it doesn't have problems. Areas of the car present very cheaply with squeeks and rattles likened to a low end entry level car. At Around 20000kms it did a push rod and valve spring (while under no load, stuck in slow traffic) Now At 70000kms it has suspected piston rattle (slap), maybe needing an engine replacement (which will no… Read more

doubt lower the resale value of my car considerably). The ute has been with holden for over a week now with no explanation as yet. I have not modified this engine in any way and I don't thrash it. Most kilometers are freeway ones and I've only ever used 98 octane fuel. I wash this car religiously twice a week and up until now have been very proud of it, even giving it a nice new set of simmons wheels. Now, after having driven a toyota corolla (rented by holden) I hate my ute and no longer want it. I never would have imagined a car with holdens flagship LS3 engine would be so much of a heap.

So much for going out with a bang holden. You could have done much better with your last car.

Makes me proud of Australian engineering and manufacturing – I bought my SSV Redline as an ex-Holden company vehicle at 5k km. The handing is phenomenal, with sophisticated but not intrusive ESC and traction control. The harder suspension in the redline is definitely noticeable, and body roll is very low and sticks to the road but with the obvious additional hardness over bumps. The LS3 is an amazing… Read more

engine. It'll be rather docile to 3k RPM but surges in power above there, and another huge surge from 4.5k RPM (peak torque). This means you can potter slowly throughout town with lower RPMs as the big V8 has enough low down torque to pull from 1.5k RPM. If you want power you'll need RPMs, unlike turbo cars that dominate the performance market which can develop maximum torque from lower revs. I like that aspect of the naturally aspirated big V8, simply because I feel it improves everyday drivability.

I have the 6 speed manual. The clutch is extremely bitey, so it does take a bit of time to get used to the sensitivity of it. The gears are quite tall, especially if you're coming from a diesel pickup style ute background. However, the driving experience with the manual is fantastic. Unless you're facing a very steep hill, you can sit in 6th on the highway without needing to change to do typical overtaking.

The interior is a vast improvement on previous Holdens I have owned. The finish is comfortable with good attention to detail.

The heads up display (adjustable between various displays - speed/rpm, gps etc) is fantastic, and being able to keep your eyes on the road whilst knowing your speed is a huge safety improvement, especially considering the potential for this vehicle to rapidly gain speed. My only complaint (minor) there is that there is a bit of a lag or slow refresh rate which limits the usefulness of the tachometer function of the HUD.

The user interfaces I'd rate 8/10, only because of a couple mildly - and I must stress mildly - annoying but seemingly obvious oversights in design:

- No pause button on the rediline for audio (however points for mute button on steering wheel, and generally robust bluetooth connectivity

- Lane departure warning is very accurate, useful and will not trigger when you indicate, however, the warning is not loud enough in my view to alert the driver, considering that in these cases the driver is likely suffering fatigue and falling asleep or is distracted.

- There are lots of customisable settings which is very good, but there are many warning bells and chimes which all sound the same and can be easily overwhelming. It would be good to have an array of differnent tones with settings to modify each.

Love it – Great car, a pleasure to drive, excellent performance, comfortable well equipped with great handling. Beats the european stuff and costs far less. Good after sales service. I especially like the quality of the interior, and the smooth comfortable ride. I take it to Melbourne from Sydney regularly and it's a real pleasure to drive.  Show details

Great car for the price! – This review is for the lower spec Falcon and Commodore, I haven't driven a Commodore SV8 or a Falcon XR6 Turbo. I have owned two Fords (AU Falcon Sedan) and a (FG Falcon Sedan) both were great and when i went to buy a ute recently i naturally went to Ford to see if previous experience could be repeated. A big let down, the FG Falcon was a… Read more

better vehicle than the VE (dad had one), but the VE Series II claimed that title back a few years later.

After test driving a Ford Falcon FG Series II LPI and Petrol models, I also test drove the new VF Evoke Ute Petrol (3.6), I wanted to hate the VF and it completely won me over.

What i liked

Engine was smooth

Gear box was smooth (not as good as the Falcon ZF but still very good)

Road noise was very minimal inside cabin

ride was really good

Interior very nice

Safety features

dual climate control

turning circle was good

power still pulled strong across rev range

superior looks

front parking sensor

Automatic Park Assist

Hill Start Assist

Easier to put stuff behind the seats

6 airbags

What i didn't like

Thick apillar

small side mirrors ( blind spot monitoring technology make this issue only minor)

The Falcon's LPI motor on paper should have smashed the VF Evoke but in the real world the 60 n,m extra didn't feel that much more responsive i tried testing this from 60 -100 and 70- 110 (all running in 5 or 6th gear) basically overtaking speeds

Petrol was the same but the difference was even less.

The Ford felt less refined, more bouncy due to leaf spring suspension and a lot of road noise, the cabin looked and felt old and bland (the XR6 is greatly improved due to the touch screen).

Holden has tried to improve their cars and utes since 2008 with new engines, suspension tweaks interiors, exteriors etc. and the VF really shows all of those improvements.

Ford on the other hand have had basically the same engine for 15 years with minor tweaks, only offering four cylinder turbo petrol and six cylinder lpi as alternative for fleet buyers. Other than a touch screen added to the 2013 Falcon XR6 FG II and FG X, the interiors are very similar to the FG from 2008.

To sum up

The VF commodore ute a real value for money and from objective criteria is significantly better than Fords offering.

VF 6.2L SS – The VF is the best handling ute I've owned. I thought my last V8 SS, a VE was good but this one is great. So far it's a little heavy on fuel but with 304KW, it's a jet. The seat back-rest adjustment is my only complaint, it's the old ratchet type, bring back the knurled-nut infinitely adjustable.  Show details

Good ute but too many recalls – I bought my VF SS ute new in 2013 i loved it and still do but they should have put a few more extras in it considering your forking out for a V8 with the SS your basically buying the SV6 car with a V8 engine. You dont get any extras unless you upgrade to the SSV/redline. Also the gen1 VF is riddled with recalls mine has been in 9 times and thats not bad i was told. Worst was my steering locked up while driving.  Show details

Nice drive factor! VF SSV Storm – VF SSV Storm, I had a ford xr6 sedan from new, very under rated car. I have had the ute for a week, still getting used to the manual as its been a while since I had a manual. This car is bloody awesome, and I just want to go for a drive all the time. The WOW factor is definitely with this car, something I didn't have with the ford. Didn't realise… Read more

how much I missed it. The accessories with the storm are easy and the standard satnav saves me sticking one on the inside of the windscreen.

+ WOW factor appeal, plenty of usable accessories

- TOO bloody quiet, people buy the v8 to hear it.

New VF sv6 ute – Hi ladys and gents, I've been a Holden man since I was a little boy and i have owned 6 Holdens and five weeks ago I went looking for a new car. I test drove a black sv6 ute, it had 10klms on the clock, it had a lifter noise in the engine, it looked great and drove very smooth. I was expecting more than what this car is with all the hype and talk… Read more

about the new sv6, I was very disappointed. It didn't handle as good as expected and the power didn't impress me at all. Then the price was after trade in of my 2003 vy commodore which I had since new was $38000 on road and they wouldn't drop the price I asked for free tinted windows and towbar an floor mats. They wouldn't budge on the price. I then went to Ford and looked ate the 2013 xr6 ute and drove it and what a well presented car I bought the xr6 ute with free towbar and tinted windows and mats and premium plates and full tank of fuel for $29000 and it was delivered to me with in a week . the colour shape handled like a wet sponge lack of power noisy engine