The Statesman is a large car, that's obvious. Having said that, it's time to look at the car in relation to it's position in the market.

Whether the visual aspects of the Statesman are appealing must remain the domain of personal taste, as it is quite clear that the car is a design compromise. Just like the current Commodore, the designers have included styling which includes straight lines and curves. Some will like this contrast, others will think the styling is confusing and nothing short of a contradiction. But as with all styling, it's deliberate and may even point to the styling features of the next model. For example, new luxury General Motors cars in the USA are heavy looking with bold straight lines. I suspect General Motors executives will order these styling features to be incorporated into the next Statesman. The inclusion of such features in the most recent Statesman update may be there just to make the visual impact of the next model a little less dramatic. I hope I'm wrong!

From the outset, it became apparent that the comfort level provided by this big car is excellent. That's clear as soon as you're underway, even in city traffic. The seats are adequately sized and with, seemingly, an indefinate number of seat settings it's very simple to choose a perfectly comfortable position. Then you simply enjoy the environment as you drive along.

The Next Car Team selected a Statesman with the standard 3.8 litre V6 engine and 4-speed automatic transmission as the subject vehicle for our 7 day test. It was used throughout Melbourne during 4 days. For the other 3 days, we took the car along the Great Ocean Road to Warrnambool, then returning to Melbourne via the Princes Highway. In total, the team drove the car more than 1,200 kms. All told, this makes it easy to pass judgement on the Statesman, as we certainly have had all the opportunity anyone could ever need to assess one of the nation's most popular large cars.

Performance is adequate, the handling is quite predictable, the steering is very good, the ride is enjoyable and the braking is just fine. All this equates to a driving experience which is as easy as it gets. There's no complications, there's no excitement either, but there's plenty of comfort and best of all, an abundance of ambience.

Because of it's size, there are often problems in finding a suitable parking space in a city environment. Parking assistance is provided by Holden's 'rear park assist' which has an audible tone when reversing. This beeps when you're close to something behind you. The beep becomes continuous when you're too close for comfort.