CarAdvice adds to extended test fleet

By Paul Maric | December 24th, 2008

Santa has dropped into the CarAdvice offices early, delivering three additional cars to our extended test fleet.

The three new additions are:

Click on each car to read our experiences during the first week.

Holden Commodore SS AFM – David Twomey

Well the garage at the CarAdvice bunker has swelled in the past week with Holden adding a yet to be released Commodore SS V8 AFM – that’s Active Fuel Management – to our extended test fleet.

Not to be outdone the Blue Oval has thrown in an also yet to be released Ford Fiesta Zetec five-door, which Road Test Editor Matt Brogan will have a few things to say about over the coming month. Likewise, Paul Maric is handling the Saab 93 Aero TTiD to which we have also been thrown the keys.

‘Big Blue’ as I’ve affectionately dubbed the Commodore joined our ranks in an 6am pick up from Holden HQ in Fishermans Bend – do those PR people every sleep, well yes they do but the security guards don’t – and then it headed to the airport to spend the next two days sitting in the long-term car park while I headed over to Adelaide to get acquainted with the new Ford Fiesta range.

Since then we’ve been doing a lot of commuting and a few country runs to my home outside Melbourne, all of which has seen one tank of fuel disappear and provided some initial statistics on this attempt by the Red Lion to make its 6.0-litre, 270kW and 530Nm V8 engine a little more economical.

Our car is a 2009 model Commodore SS V8 with blue metallic paint ($500), onyx leather seats ($2500) and a full-size spare wheel and tyre ($350) all of which added to the base price of $47,790 to bring it to a total price of $51,140.

When we collected the car it had been thoughtfully run in by the GM Holden PR crew and had 2743 kilometres on the odometer and after adding 474.74 kilometres to that total we found that it needed 64.20 litres of petrol to top up the tank.

That all means that for our initial week in the car we achieved 13.52 litres per 100 kilometres.

Back in August when Alborz Fallah did his own personal fuel economy run in a Commodore SS we noted that Holden said the six-speed automatic SS Commodore would manage 14.3L/100km for a combined city and highway cycle.

At the end of his run, despite some unscheduled and fuel consuming delays, he managed 13.5L/100km, so where does that leave Holden’s claim that AFM is worth at least 1.0L/100km?

We need to spend a few more weeks with ‘Big Blue’ to decide on that.

Holden has been a little sketchy on information provided to the media about the new system and so far all we have is one press release which gives a broad outline of the system.

GM Holden will introduce the technology on all its automatic transmission V8 models from January 2009 and says “AFM, or cylinder deactivation, enables an eight cylinder vehicle to automatically operate on four cylinders in certain driving conditions, before restoring full power when engine demands increase.

The extent of its technical description at the moment is; “GM Holden’s AFM system is designed to improve fuel efficiency when high output is not required.

In certain conditions such as highway driving, AFM automatically closes the intake and exhaust valves in four of the engine’s eight cylinders while ensuring the engine maintains vehicle speed, effectively operating as a four cylinder.

The engine’s electronic throttle control is used to increase cylinder pressure in V4 mode so that the engine can preserve the torque, which drivers expect from a V8 powertrain.

The fuel supply to the deactivated cylinders will resume seamlessly providing all-cylinder operation when the driver needs it for quick acceleration, or for hauling heavy loads.

In the near future we plan to have a chat to some Holden technicians about the system to gain a better understanding of the intricacies of just how it all works.

Holden Commodore SS AFM
Ford Fiesta Zetec
Saab 93 Aero TTiD

Ford Fiesta Zetec - Matt Brogan

As small cars go, the recipe is usually pretty straight forward, and if I may be so blunt, is usually rather basic. Not so this time around. In fact the new Fiesta is just terrific.

I’ve only had the keys for a few days so far and it’s true what they say about first impressions – fortunately Ford has made a damned good one with this little number.

It drives exceptionally well, far better than a small car should. Every thing is fluid, responsive and smooth from the steering to the clutch and gearbox to the brakes – not to mention the hearty little 1.6-litre engine.

Although on paper 88kW at 6000rpm might not seem a lot, the light weight body and 152Nm of torque from 4050rpm certainly help keep the pace on, as does the slick shifting five-speed gearbox.

Cornering is stable, fast and a lot of fun with sharp and accurate steering that responds instantaneously to input with perfect reaction from the chassis, exemplary for a small front wheel drive.

Though it’s early days, and with mostly highway cruising to date the fuel consumption figures are a little biased, however I am achieving mid 5.0 litres per 100km at the minute, which is very pleasing considering the CarAdvice accountant is on holidays.

With pricing for the range-topping Zetec from $20,250 this is the best small car I have driven this year and is an absolute hoot as well.

I love the styling, it has a lot of space and technologically it has just about every option you could wish for in a car of this price range – and then some.

I’ll be back with an update in a week or so but until then, be sure to have yourself a safe and happy holiday.

Saab 93 Aero TTiD - Paul Maric

While David and Matt are getting around in cars which will sell in their thousands, I’ve gone for the conservative option.

I’ve been handed the Saab 93 Aero TTiD. The Aero TTiD is Saab’s all new twin-turbo diesel model in a sport chassis.

The luxurious leather interior and premium components make it a conservative cruiser. We drove the six-speed automatic TTiD earlier in the year and were a bit miffed with the fuel consumption and characteristics of the gearbox.

This time around, it’s the six-speed manual and only three weeks in, it’s already showing impressive fuel consumption figures.

It’s extremely driveable and is a pleasure to take on long distances drives.

Fuel consumption so far is sitting at 5.4-litres/100km, which is a combined cycle of highway and city (mainly highway at the moment). Our silver Swede will see some more highway kays around Christmas before it gets relegated to city duties.

Stay tuned for more information on the Saab 93 Aero TTiD, so far, I’m very impressed!

Cupid Stunt

Merry xmas all friends and foes. Enjoy the Turkey
Still Xmas eve (morning) here in blighty and believe it or not i’m supposed to be working.

Sorry to say that that top picture of the Commodor looks like a late ninties Astra.
Sweet Saab though, cannot wait to hear more about it.
Simon

The new saab would seem to have impressive performance (132KW, 400NM Manual) considering its a 1910cc engine. A 0-100 of 8.5 seconds is good but not ground breaking. The 125KW TDI Passat is listed at 8.6 and has been around all year, albeit at 1968cc, it has a moderatly higher capacity.
The VW still outshines the Saab in consumption at 6.6 instead of 7.6L/100ks combined cycle.
On top of all that its substantially cheaper.
I guess it all depends if you have a soft spot for Swedes or Germans!
Congrats to them for marketing a decent oiler.
Tom

I’m surprised Holden didn’t provide you with the SS-V, its well known the standard SS is just the new age SV8.

And its also well known that in the current climate, no one pays even close to RRP on a v8 holden.
Escort_Ghia

Cupid Stunt i actually put my hand over the back of the VE and your acctually right it dose but its ok there both from the GM famaly
Iz

I’ve always had a small fondness for SAAB cars, and how they were decidedly left-field.

Will be very interested (and interesting) to see how it pans out in the coming days. Pity it isnt a SportCombi variant though, the wagon personally I think looks better =)
Andrew M

Ill be interested to hear how the commy with DOD performs on the juice.

so what does the price premium for DOD work out at??
also interested to hear how smoothly it switches over.
its a rough idling engine to start with
Mash85

Andrew M im pretty sure there is no price premium for DOD, as i understand it, Holden are making it a Standard feature of V8 Autos
SamR

I will be interested in how the brakes pads and rotors wear on the Ford Fiesta Zetec.

Lets see if they last more then 30,000km although if you are doing mainly highway miles they should last.
Flow

I don’t understand this. Why try to save petrol on the V8 model when those buyers are least likely to care about the cost?

I drive a 2007 SSV and I get an average of 18l. I don’t care about the cost – the company pays. If I did, I’d be driving a 4 cyl.
AAA

THe front of all the Euro Ford cars look like snake heads
Reckless1

I’m curious how the AFM works – supposedly it closes the valves on 4 of the 8 cylinders.

My simple understanding of this means you have 4 pistons compressing an air mixture (no fuel, no spark)but creating heat and forcing the active 4 cylinders to create enough extra power to turn over a 4 cylinder compressor (which has no usefulness).

I’d think it’s much more likely that the exhaust valve is held open and the cylinders are filled with exhaust gas in an adaptation of EGR.
Reckless1

The outside styling of the Fiesta looks OK, but I don’t know that I could live with the garish dash.

The speedo/tacho look like a pair of Dame Edna’s glasses looking at you, and the centre dash looks like a cheap stereo set like you find at Markets selling Chinese manufacturer thirds.

The red information panel should be in front of the driver, not in the middle of the car.

The dash has no class.
http://www.caradvice.com.au David Twomey

Reckless 1, the description of how the AFM works is straight from Holden. We want to talk to some of their techs about the intricacies of the system in the near future.
riceboy

whether you pay for your own fuel or not, I think it’s good to preserve petrol so that our oil reserves lasts longer!
Duck

“Sorry to say that that top picture of the Commodor looks like a late ninties Astra.
Sweet Saab though, cannot wait to hear more about it.”

How does the Commodore look like an older Astra?
Alex

Duck, I think it’s the position they took the picture in as I see it too. It’s only that picture though, I don’t think Cupid meant that the Commodore looks like the Astra. It just looks a bit like the previous Astra sedan in that picture.

I love the look of that new Saab, but I think I would rather the wagon or the convertible. The thing that still stops me from buying a Saab though is the resale value (you’d have to be in for the long haul) and the horribly dated interiors. I think the Barina’s interior, although not as good a quality, is more modern looking and that’s really saying something. I think if I was to buy a Swedish sedan, I would buy a Volvo S40 R Design with the turbo engine. It looks and drives very well for a Volvo.
Allan D

This may be a stupid question, but does the SS with cylinder deactivation running in v4 still sound like a v8?
JEYKL & HYDE

afm works by allowing increased oil pressure to “collapse” 8 of the v8′s 16 valve lifters.the pushrods then don’t open the valve’s.cut off the fuel to those 4 cylinders,and presto..
Aykan

I think AFM is great for Holden to do. But the only thing im confused about is that Holden says the V8 Auto with AFM has 260kW compared to the manual with 270kW. And here on this review im seeing 270kW aswell for the auto. Somebody help me out!
JEYKL & HYDE

aykan,

the manuals(no afm) are 270.all the AUTO’S(AFM)are now 260
http://caradvice.com.au OSU811

THE SAAB, actually looks really good in that colour on those wheels. probably the pick of all the saab models, being a sports diesel with a man transmission!!I do think the wagon version looks better…
Andrew M

Jeckyl,
how much power when running on 4???
JEYKL & HYDE

andrew,

it will only work on light load(eg cruise control),power is only one tenth of a second away anyhow(you can’t power on in v4 mode)…
Paul Maric

Andrew M:

I’ve been driving around in the SS for the past few days – David will elaborate on this further in his next update on the car.

You can’t accelerate in 4-cylinder mode. It seems to switch to 4-cylinder mode when the instantaneous fuel consumption gets below 10-litres/100km.

Once it’s in 4-cylinder mode, the lightest throttle input sends it back into 8-cylinder mode. So you technically can’t accelerate in 4-cylinder mode.

On top of that, it’s very obvious that the AFM Commodore has only 517Nm of torque. It feels like a slug in comparison to the regular SS. It’s something that everyone who has driven it has noticed.

As you’ll see in David’s updates, our 0-100km/h tests will show you that it’s also considerably slower than a regular SS.

Fuel consumption so far has also been less than impressive.

In my opinion, it’s been quite disappointing, but only time will tell!
Matt

Yeah you tell us all P Maric , lol ! Your telling me you can tell between a peak torque output of 517Nm vs 530Nm ? come on . Im sure if it was Ford that released a Dod or AFM setup you would be giving it 5 stars .
Paul Maric

Matt:

Yes, you can certainly feel the difference.

My colleagues will attest to that with the next update of the car scheduled very soon.

In fact, as you will also see from the 0-100km/h results we’re publishing, the SS we have is significantly slower than any other SS we’ve driven.
summerschool

look hideous! ugly euro tail lights.. what a phase
RockafellaQEistein

not one to boast,
but my New FG xr6 turbo ute (manual) got 7.8 L/100 on a recent trip from coffs to newcastle (although due to road works I avg 84kmh) – I get about 8.7 L/100 @ agv speed of 110 and it will beat an ss every day of the week but how I miss that V8 sound.
Andrew M

So it only switches to 4cyl when the instantaneous fuel consumption falls below 10L/100k???

how useless is that. the only time this vehicle would reach that low is down a hill where it doesnt matter if its on 4 or 8 anyway.
no wonder its no good. it would probably be worse with AFM due to the lower torque
Shak

Paul wheels recently tested a Calais AFM and said that no difference could be noted and that the performance times are the same. The system works by cutting oil, fuel, and air to every second cylinder. the valves on each cylinder stay shut to minimise pumping losses.
Shak

Paul Maric, ur AFM SS commi is pre production and had the first calibration of AFM as stated by wheels, but the production versions will come with the full arsenal of 530 Nm but with 5 Kw less pwr. Although 5 Kw isnt very noticeable.