Limited Cash Adventra VZ LX6 or VYII LX8??

[XUV]

yeah 2nd one is and with a closer look , yep the black one is too , i usually look at the bonnet , VY11 is much nicer anyway .

What is your budget ?

[macca_779]

Can't say for sure as I was looking exclusively at avalanches. But all of those items are in the VY2 update HSV except for that memory card thing and I don't believe brake assist


iPhone 5

[danza7]

Not very much at all! lol

As its a second car, probably don't want to spend too much but want something and from the looks of the prices on these LX8s, you can get a pretty good one for the low teens!

[Pickles]

Geez, they've dropped in price sinse I last looked at 'em.....if ya get a good one, they'd be great buying around those dollars.
Cheers, Pickles.

[danza7]

Depends obviously on kms and age I guess! I don't know how many kms is reasonable though? I don't really want it to exceed 140-150k kms though. I just see some of them with high 180-190 or anywhere up to 240-250k! I think with those larger kms you might find a few areas that need assisting?

I'm only speaking as having owned a VT Calais and that had its fair share of problems after about 140k+!

[macca_779]

Concentrate on the transfer case and front half shafts for leaks. If they're fine everything else is normal commodore stuff.


iPhone 5

[John L]

I just went through this same process, and ended up buying a VY2 Avalanche. So far the only mod is an edit, but chasing an exhaust at the minute.

From your VYII / VZ list - I can tell you that the VYII has all of the items listed. As far as I can tell there are some minor cosmetic differences between VYII and VZ (in both Adventra and Avalanche). On the Adventra - the VZ has the black plastic insert on the front stretching across the fog lights - where on the VYII the fog lights are in the painted section of the bumper.

The Adventras have different binnacle gauges - on the VYII they're an ascent and roll indicator, but in the VZ they're volts and oil pressure like the Avalanche. The only other change are different sway bar links on a VZ.

I drove my father's VYII Adventra before buying the Avalanche. It was on injected LPG and it makes a fair difference at the pump, especially around town. My Avalanche is running between 16 - 20l/100kms around town, and 12-14l/100kms on a country trip. I don't think you can go in thinking mods will significantly reduce this. The big difference between the 2 for me are the brakes - the Adventra's brakes are too small in my opinion, but the Avalanche brakes are great. I was quoted around $3K (I think) for an upgrade to bigger brakes.

I can't answer the higher km's question, but mine, and my old man's one have just a shade over 100K kms on them - but seem to be holding up well.

Hope this answers some questions for you.

[XUV]

Depends obviously on kms and age I guess! I don't know how many kms is reasonable though? I don't really want it to exceed 140-150k kms though. I just see some of them with high 180-190 or anywhere up to 240-250k! I think with those larger kms you might find a few areas that need assisting?

I'm only speaking as having owned a VT Calais and that had its fair share of problems after about 140k+!

with most of them being around 8 yrs old and a daily driver , even at 20k avg k's a yr , that's 160k , even at 15k a yr it's still 120k

get one from a dealer , holden cert , 3yr warranty and fill it with syn oil , better still ask the dealer to include this .

[Alex81]

My in laws have a VZ V6 Adventra, if you are going to tow anything it will chew the through the fuel as the in laws are currently getting just over 350km to a full tank towing a caravan. Other than that it not too bad around town but has a decent road presence when on the high way.

[planetdavo]

Many people aren't aware that the early VZ Adventra's still looked like VY's. They can easily be identified by a VIN starting with 6G1Z, whereas VY's start with 6G1Y. The early VZ's that look like VY's are missing option code TID, which is the code for where the visual changes were introduced. It's not on any plates on the car, but is within the option codes dealers can check.
Remember that you are looking at vehicles many years old now. If you get too hung up on looking for a very specific model, there is quite a chance you will bypass a very clean lower spec/slightly older option and buy a less than wonderful later VZ one. VY Adventra's were all 4L VIN's, meaning they had the vast majority of the upgrades that continued into VZ. A small number of things were specific to VZ, but I HIGHLY recommend you just buy the best example of any variant you can find.

[danza7]

This is all good info, thanks heaps for it, making the picture a fair bit clearer. Is it true that half of the specs mentioned aren't even in the LX8 and only (for some reason) apply to the LX6? I've read that somewhere but not sure how true it is... I understand for one that the paddle shift gear changing is only on an LX6 VZ, not the LX8 VZ! I wonder what else they've stuffed up on?

[planetdavo]

There were a few things specific to V6 models (like the paddle shifters), as they have a more "modern" spec driveline than the V8's with 4 speed auto.
Note my post above regarding minimal changes is about V8 models rather than V6's, as I don't believe you are really looking too hard at the V6's (and they weren't fitted to VY's anyway).

[XUV]

This is all good info, thanks heaps for it, making the picture a fair bit clearer. Is it true that half of the specs mentioned aren't even in the LX8 and only (for some reason) apply to the LX6? I've read that somewhere but not sure how true it is... I understand for one that the paddle shift gear changing is only on an LX6 VZ, not the LX8 VZ! I wonder what else they've stuffed up on?

The L,C,SX6 Went on for an extra yr till '06 , where as the L,CX8 were canned in '05 .

And a few options could only be done with the newer 5 speed ie paddle shit and hill decent button ,
but the Cross trac program in the 8 has hill decent at 4kph in it .

[danza7]

Interesting note about the paddle shift and the hill descent. Not quite sure what it actually does though??

What about the sunroof replacements apparently required by Holden on all Adventras (with sunroofs obviously)!

Seeing as all LX6 and LX8s had sunroofs, they would have had to replace quite a few...? Did everyone have to have theirs replaced?

[XUV]

Hill decent , push the button b4 going down an offroad hill , gully etc and just steer , no braking needed on your behalf .

the sunroof thing was across the range , it had to be checked and repacked to seal properly , my mates VZ Thunder Crewie had to have it done .

You can check recalls as the put a sticker in the front drivers door jamb , mines got one from when they recalled the brake lines .