The 2.0 Berlina are still fairly common in the car yard, going for less than 2 grand these days for a reasonable example. The factory 3.9 BW 78 diff used to be pretty cheap at a wreckers, about NZ 150 for the ring and pinion and about 250 for the disc brake rear end, no different to any other BW diff.
Asside to the Commode Door
Ever since 1982 to about 2003, HEC (then GM-Holden) made about 170 000 per year of the Family II 1600, 1800 2000 and then the 2200 cc engines for European Vauxhall and Opels, as well as the Asian Daewoo Royale and the Daewoo made, Opel Kadett based Pontiac LeMans. Yep, Holden was on a massive export drive to servive, and the sucess of the Arab and US export of Lumina and GTO's started back in 1982 when Yank Joe Whitsell made a huge effort to drag Holden into the modern age. BlQQdy top man, as every engine received a governmet tax credit which saved Holden from bankruptcy in 1984.
The Button Plan of 1984 rationalised local grey iron production. The failure of Nissan and Holden to build the RB20 and 30 engines in Australia ment that the very popular NZ market 2.0 VL was going to need a proper Holden engine, and the Aussie made 2.0 Opel Omega/Vauxhall Carlton engine was sent to NZ, and the German Getrag manual or ZF 4-stage auto was added.
It was a great car. All VN's were 65 kilos heavier than the same spec 3.0 VL, but the VN was not much heaveir than the
The old VL 2.0 six used to do 17.5 second quarter miles.
The 82Kw 2.0 Opel engine wasn't that quick, but at 18 .3 seconds with a manual, it'd out do a 3.3 XF Falcon with 2/3rds the capacity, cylinders, and 150 less kilos.
Some of the fools that haven't driven a VN Berlina 2.0 , and consequently "bag it" with the awfull Phase 2 engined VC, VH, and VK 1892 cc engines we got here. You Aussies didn't have a 60% tax on cars over 2.6 litres like we did during the Muldoon/Lange Era, so you bought 4.2's and Brockmobiles. We sold both the fastest VH Commodore, the 300 hp, 14 second locally assembled SS, and the 21 second VH SL/X 1900.
The VN 2.0 Ei gave a very good acount of itself. The factory Holden shop manual has all the details on the NZ market VN. Fleet sales were slow because fuel was cheap, and the unemissionised 3.8 VN's over here had more power than an SV3800, so everyone bought it instead. And if not a Holden 3.8, then our locally assembled 2.0 Twin Cam Coronas by that time were still cheaper, and had were twice the car the Holden Apollo and last narrow body Camry's were. The VN 2.0 was outclassed.
Asside to the Commode Door
Ever since 1982 to about 2003, HEC (then GM-Holden) made about 170 000 per year of the Family II 1600, 1800 2000 and then the 2200 cc engines for European Vauxhall and Opels, as well as the Asian Daewoo Royale and the Daewoo made, Opel Kadett based Pontiac LeMans. Yep, Holden was on a massive export drive to servive, and the sucess of the Arab and US export of Lumina and GTO's started back in 1982 when Yank Joe Whitsell made a huge effort to drag Holden into the modern age. BlQQdy top man, as every engine received a governmet tax credit which saved Holden from bankruptcy in 1984.
The Button Plan of 1984 rationalised local grey iron production. The failure of Nissan and Holden to build the RB20 and 30 engines in Australia ment that the very popular NZ market 2.0 VL was going to need a proper Holden engine, and the Aussie made 2.0 Opel Omega/Vauxhall Carlton engine was sent to NZ, and the German Getrag manual or ZF 4-stage auto was added.
It was a great car. All VN's were 65 kilos heavier than the same spec 3.0 VL, but the VN was not much heaveir than the
The old VL 2.0 six used to do 17.5 second quarter miles.
The 82Kw 2.0 Opel engine wasn't that quick, but at 18 .3 seconds with a manual, it'd out do a 3.3 XF Falcon with 2/3rds the capacity, cylinders, and 150 less kilos.
Some of the fools that haven't driven a VN Berlina 2.0 , and consequently "bag it" with the awfull Phase 2 engined VC, VH, and VK 1892 cc engines we got here. You Aussies didn't have a 60% tax on cars over 2.6 litres like we did during the Muldoon/Lange Era, so you bought 4.2's and Brockmobiles. We sold both the fastest VH Commodore, the 300 hp, 14 second locally assembled SS, and the 21 second VH SL/X 1900.
The VN 2.0 Ei gave a very good acount of itself. The factory Holden shop manual has all the details on the NZ market VN. Fleet sales were slow because fuel was cheap, and the unemissionised 3.8 VN's over here had more power than an SV3800, so everyone bought it instead. And if not a Holden 3.8, then our locally assembled 2.0 Twin Cam Coronas by that time were still cheaper, and had were twice the car the Holden Apollo and last narrow body Camry's were. The VN 2.0 was outclassed.
