Readying The Fleet

The Age

Wednesday August 13, 2008

Barry Park

The addition of a diesel engine should broaden the Epica's appeal, writes, Barry Park.

HOLDEN has repackaged its Epica mid-sized sedan little more than a year into its life in an effort to attract a very different kind of buyer - the fleets. The car maker isn't shy to admit that the revised Epica line-up is designed to steal sales away from Toyota's fleet special, the four-cylinder Camry.

It has even tweaked the ageing Daewoo platform that underpins the Epica to meet fleet buyers' expectations, including adding a fourcylinder engine - a turbocharged diesel - to the options list.

The Epica has struggled to sell in the face of stiff competition, so Holden hopes the revisions will help a few more of the cars roll out of showrooms.

The model line-up has significantly changed. In a nod to the fleet buyers' demands, six airbags are now standard on all models, as is electronic stability control.

The Epica was unique in that it offered two Porsche-derived, six-cylinder petrol engines to customers: a 2.0-litre (105 kW of power and 195 Nm of torque) and a 2.5-litre (115 kW and 237 Nm).

However, the slow-selling, entrylevel 2.0-litre petrol version has gone, replaced with an Italian-designed, Korean-built, 2.0-litre, 110 kW, 350 Nm, Euro IV four-cylinder diesel that it shares with the Captiva soft-roader.

Also on the retired list are the Epica's old five-speed manual and automatic gearboxes. The only one now offered is a six-speed auto with tap-up, tap-down gearchange function.

A major exterior tweak is the Epica's rear end (above right), which now looks slightly like the Honda Accord or possibly a Saab 9-3. It's an improvement over the old model's dowdy looks, although some more work on the front end would help.

We didn't get to drive the petrol version of the Epica for this relaunch. Holden claims the overdrive function on the new six-speeder delivers an extra 14% in fuel savings at highway speeds, reducing the 2.5's fuel figures to 9.3 L/100 km and 210 g CO2/km.

We drove the diesel - in $29,990, base-model CDX (below) and $32,990, upmarket CDXi guises (above). The extra spend on equipment for the CDXi adds features such as rear parking sensors, 17-inch alloys and a trip computer.

Holden added bigger springs and retuned shock absorbers to the front of the Epica to disguise the extra weight of the cast-iron diesel engine block. And all models get active steering - with reach and rake adjust - which helps with shopping centre car park manoeuvres.

There's a little diesel rattle at low speeds, but on the highway the rev counter's needle hovers around 1600 rpm at 100 km/h. On our short run from Daylesford to Trentham, we recorded a 5.6 L/100 km and 148 g CO2/km fuel use against an official combined rate of 7.6 and 201.

It's impressive, but somewhat removed from what we'd expect from real-world figures.

Holden claims prices remain unchanged for the relaunch of the Epica, although that depends on how you look at them. The demise of the $25,990, base-model, 2.0-litre petrol model resets the $27,990 2.5-litre petrol as the new entry point - $2000 more than the old benchmark.

The diesel engine adds a further $2000 premium, so you could argue prices have moved up, even if more gear is included as standard.

Regardless, the Epica suddenly has more appeal. Holden's strategy to build a car demanded by the fleet buyers should also produce some benefits to private buyers.

© 2008 The Age

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