MY wife is English. But that’s OK. In the modern world, it’s actually quite acceptable.

When we were married, many moons ago, her family and friends travelled from the UK for the wedding and while they were here, a lot of them stayed in the holiday accommodation at the Peli-can’s Nest on Wynnum Esplanade.

Every day, without fail, they would all gush about how beautiful the area was and tell me how envious they were that we had such a slice of heaven to call home.

I, in turn, would then give them a quizzical look and say: “What are you talking about? It’s only Wynnum.”

It was the same old place where I had grown up, and yet they were talking about it like it was some tropical oasis.

The memory of that time came back to me one night as I sat in my darkened driveway, having just hit the “off” button to silence the 2016 Holden Commodore SSV Redline and put it to bed for the evening.

After a few days of me downplaying their visit to “paradise” by declaring “it was only Wynnum”, one of our guests pointed my head towards Moreton Bay to help clear my perception.

“See that?” he said. “That’s a tropical island, that is. See that? That’s anoth-er one. That’s another one there, and another one there.

“See that? That’s the ocean about 50

metres from my feet. There’s people out there sailing and fishing. Over here, there’s a big beautiful jetty where peo-ple take walks.

“There’s fit people running along the front taking in the view, kids playing and families having picnics.

“Everyone can see how beautiful it is here, except you.”

And he was right.It may be cliché, but familiarity does

breed contempt. When you see some-thing every day of your life, it is so easy to take it for granted.

So as I sat in the dark for a few mo-ments in the new Redline, I again felt guilty for forgetting to appreciate just how good we have it here.

We all grew up around Commodores. We see them every day. They’re nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to make you stop and turn your head.

We dismiss them as Dunny-doors, or Bomb-a-dores while flashy European makes catch our eye like a pretty ex-change student at highschool.

It is not until someone makes you take a fresh look that you begin to remem-ber just how bloody good this car is.

Let me tell you, this car is tremen-dous. And for what you get for less than $60,000 when compared to other makes, incredibly good value.

Driving it is a pleasure, and beyond that just good fun.

When you need it to be polite and

VF II COMMODORE SS V REDLINE. The Courier-Mail’s MICHAEL WESTLAKE goes for a spin in Holden’s flagship - the VF II Commodore SS V Redline.

Let me tell you, this car is tremendous. And for what you get for less than $60,000 when compared to other makes, incredibly good value.

“

EXPERIENCE OUR EXPERIENCE

civilized, it has perfect road manners – all the while with that 6.2L V8 engine burbling away like a happy baby playing with its food to remind you it only needs your command to unleash hell.

It is wonderfully tech savvy. The auto-matic parking assistance is brilliant.

All you need to do is tell it whether you want to reverse-park or parallel park.

The car will do all the hard work, as well as provide you with instructions for the bits you have to do yourself (like braking) so you can at least feel like you are contributing to the process.

It has more radars and sensors than Amberley Air Force Base, all keeping a lookout across every angle of the car and warning you of obstacles – even slowing traffic.

While on the Air Force, the Holden’s fighter plane-inspired head-up display – which projects a digital gauge onto the windscreen in front of you – is just terrific.

You can keep an eye on your speed, revs, even the music track playing from your phone when you connect it to Holden’s MyLink media system, without having to drop your eyes down to the dashboard.

Not only that, it uses the car’s GPS to show you the speed limit for the road you are on as well.

Inside is roomy, comfortable and lux-urious; the boot is almost Tardis-like in its enormity for a sports sedan, and the ride is firm and assured.

It holds the road like your mother ironed it to the tarmac for you, and has paddle-shifters for when you want to have some fun in sports mode, meaning you can make the engine and exhaust note crackle and spit like you have dropped a frozen chip into a deep fryer every time to drop back a gear or two.

And the engine. Oh my word, that engine.

This new model has had a bump-up in size and power from the previous Red-line model, with the 6.2-litre V8 replac-ing the 6-litre motor and bringing and extra 44kW of power along for the ride.

This new power plant generates a massive 304kW – that’s around 407Bhp if, like Daryl Braithwaite, you still measure happiness in horses.

The technology in the car extends as far as the bi-modal exhaust. You can use the touch screen in the dashboard to adjust the settings, turn off the sports exhaust and get the car to lower

your voice.It seems a little like getting your fa-

vourite toy for Christmas and leaving it in the box to look at for mine.

You will have to ask someone else what it sounds like in “quiet mode”.

But in full voice, it is majestic. Like I said earlier, if you just poke around on the school run, it will purr like a sleep-ing kitten.

But when you put your boot into it, it is like you’ve put your head in Mufasa’s mouth and yanked his tail at the same time.

The only real down note to the car was the slightly melancholy feeling of knowing the brilliant beast is the last of a dying breed.

This is the end of the road for the Australian-made Commodore. They will be no more.

Once the top of the food chain, local-ly-made V8 sedans have become the dinosaurs of the Australian road. We’re watching their extinction before our eyes. And that is a massive shame, be-cause they were probably pushed onto the endangered list in the first place by all of us forgetting just how good they were / are.

There’s a reason why most little kids are fascinated by dinosaurs growing up. They’re like these mythical monsters – all big teeth, sharp claws and ferocity – only made more legendary by the fact they actually existed.

Every kid fantasises about what it would be like to own a dinosaur of their own – a growling, untamed beast to make the other kids jealous – rather than just looking at pictures or standing

AT A GLANCEPRICE $56,690 excluding on roadsWARRANTY3 Year / 100,000kmsCAPPED SERVICINGLifetime capped Price ServicingSAFETY5 Star ANCAP safety ratingENGINE / TRANS6.2L LS3 V8 petrol engine including a 6 Speed Automatic Transmission with active selectFUEL ECONOMY12.9L / 100km

beside one in a museum.Pretty soon Australian drivers will

know just how they feel.

Michael Westlake.

BARTONS CAPALABA103 - 115 Redland Bay Rd

BARTONS.NET.AUPH 3198 1188