Large Car Under $60K: Gold Star Value Awards

The Big Three battle it out in time-honoured tradition

1. Holden Caprice
THE Big Three vying for podium spots sounds like Mount Panorama in the 1970s, but also describes our sub-$60K large sedan class. Not only do Holden, Chrysler and Ford duke it out, but so do the three mainstream fuel types: LPG, diesel and petrol. The clear winner here is the Lion and LPG, but the finish was closer than many of the great Bathurst battles. There was just 0.04 of a percent between first and second, and 0.05 from second to third! That’s incredible given each car has a different set of strengths. For the V6 Holden, the biggie was the low cost of LPG, but a fair 55 percent resale and nine-month service interval also helped.

2. Ford G6E Ecoboost
THE four-pot Falcon certainly doesn’t do it on the strength of its three-year resale – 39 percent, ouch! – leaving the Blue Oval to rely on cheap insurance and a 12-month service interval.

3. Chrysler 300 Limited
BUMPED to the bronze by a gnat’s knacker. Resale and insurance are the big Yank’s key wins; six-monthly service requirement and a middle-of-the-road diesel bill its defeats.

Notable classmates: Skoda Superb Elegance 191 FSI, Toyota Aurion Sportivo ZR6 / Number of cars crunched: 5