BUYERS only have a little more than two years to get into an Australian-built car before the manufacturers – Ford, Holden and Toyota – close their manufacturing operations for good.

While Ford 's final Falcon went on sale in late 2014, the VF Commodore that lobbed in mid-2013 featured more extensive changes over the VE that it sis based on.

Holden has tweaked the Commodore and is calling it a model year 2015 update, with a few changes under the skin, so we thought we would give the top-spec Calais V V8 a run.

The South Australian-built Holden is a world-class grand tourer offered at an astonishingly low price compared with equivalently specified European, Asian and American rivals. Buy one before it’s too late.