Faults:

The Barina is a UK Corsa badge job.

Bought our December 2004 Barina SXi in February 05. An unwanted prize with 00025 kms on the clock.

Now driven to 105,000 kms on the clock. Completely standard with no add-ons fitted.

A good car to drive. Has consistently returned 6 liters to 100 kms.

Haven’t bothered with services, but do change the oil and filter every 15,000 kms. And check the items specified on the service schedule. This has included a change of plugs with gap checking with one air filter change. Tyres changed at 70,000 kms.

Windscreen wipers stopped and were fixed under warranty. Now due for a new set, which have just been bought on UK eBay.

Bad and poor points:

Engine became noisy about 70,000 kms – timing chain tensioner – this is just a nuisance, as it costs so much to fix. A bit too much road noise from the tyres.

Seats now feel soft and lacking support.

At 102,000 kms, the first and second gears would not select. I am indebted to:-

http://www.corsa-c.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?245430-Common-Mechanical-Problems site and the associated eBay seller who is mentioned.

The local GM garage quoted NZ$383.00 for the GM part – still the plastic variant and $45.00 to fit. The 19.95 pound sterling part from eBay was NZ$81.00 with postage, and the garage pushed its fitting cost up to NZ$95.00. The linkage is a bit stiff – I presume that the mechanic didn’t fully follow the instructions.

GM Holden – completely uninterested, and I am astounded that they should let the fault, obviously well known to them and which does concern safety, remain unfixed. I would not consider another GM car due to this attitude.

General Comments:

Good build with air con, alloys, mudflaps.

Faults:

I bought my SRI from work (A Holden Dealership, I won't name it) about 1 year and 4 months ago, and so far I have had to replace the following.

BODY CONTROL MODULE.

ABS CONTROL MODULE.

AND NOW MY COMPRESSOR FOR AIR CON.

Grand total plus labour, nearing 4 grand LOL.

I'm just lucky all the above parts were covered by my warranty.

But my speedo used to hit 220kms when I was standing still in the car park, and it was adding kilometers to the clock as if it was traveling at that speed. (still have to contact Holden over this matter) because it added over 1000ks to the clock when it was doing it.

But it's all fixed now touch wood LOL.

General Comments:

The car is a good car once you get around the computer and ECU problems, but I'm sure there are a lot of other manufacturers out there that have similar problems.

The car handles great around corners with minimal understeer, a bit bumpy over pot holes (don't drive over them) and railway tracks, and the front spoiler is very low, so watch out for those concrete blocks in parking spaces.

Punchy 1.8 ltr motor is responsive in almost every gear, and good on fuel provided you don't have a lead foot.

Faults:

A squeak in rear brakes upon getting in and out of the car, took to Dealer and they packed brake backing plate with grease which stopped the problem for 2 months.

Damage to fuel line after servicing, lost all fuel and sat by side of road waiting for 5 hours for a tow.

Noticed left back tyre wear on inside of tyre and having a solid axle this should not have occurred. We were told to get a wheel alignment ourselves as Holden would not do this for us. Found it was 2 degrees negative camber and 7 degrees toe in, which means the whole back axle and locating bars were bent and had to be replaced.

This has since led to the steering column and now the steering rack having to be replaced and it is not hard to draw a connection there.

All in all we have had 27 visits in the 2 years we have owned the car and are still fighting Holden over the rear brake squeak, the unadjustable hatch and the tyre wear that has been created that they don't want to own up to. They state that this is normal for this vehicle. Yeah right!

General Comments:

The car drives well and has only broken down when the fuel line was blown off as the clips were broken, it has good economy and looks good, but with the multitude of warranty problems and the warranty about to expire we are wondering how deep our pockets will have to be to keep this car running safely. Plus the squeak is driving us crazy.