Faults:

Hydraulic tappets.

ECU.

Throttle body.

Rust.

Erratic idling.

Gear box (16000 AUD rebuild).

Steering.

Air conditioning.

General Comments:

After fighting the Vectra and Holden for five years to iron out the build quality and reliability issues, I finally surrendered after I collected the car from the Holden main dealer.

After they had had a second attempt at fixing the gear box, and I drove it home, on arrival smoke was pouring from under the bonnet. They had forgotten to tighten the union into the power steering pump, and the power steering fluid had blown out. Also some of the gear box to engine block bolts had only been fitted finger tight; I was told that apprentices were used for refit work.

Faults:

The vehicles water pump blew at 54000km and was replaced under warrantly however the replacement water pump failed the next day and had to be replaced a second time.

At around 60000km is started to get difficult to change into first gear, I took the car to a independent gearbox specialist and was told the gearbox internals had been destroyed. This is apparently is a very common problem with the Vectra's because of a design flaw.

68000km the alternator failed and had to be replaced.

General Comments:

I this it is totally unacceptable that Holden is now advising Vectra, Barina & Astra owners that the cam-belt should be replaced at 40000km.

Faults:

About a year after we got the car something went wrong that kept making the car stall when you accelerated off the mark too quickly. Then about a year after that, the camshaft-timer went, and then after that, the starter motor went.

General Comments:

The car has a really gutsy motor, although it is a bit slow off the mark. Once you get her revving there's no stopping her. At highway speeds it would be as good as your modern day V6, and I personally have had it at 205km/h on a flat stretch of road and 220km/h on a downhill stretch of road.

Unfortunately the car is let down by its small, hard front seats, how ever the rear seats are comfortable for 2.

Not only is the engine gutsy, but it also sound. Great at high revs.

Faults:

Vehicle refused to start.

Negligence in Dealership Warranty Servicing.

Vehicle began losing all power including steering and motor then stopping.

General Comments:

The car is great to drive, handles well and looks great.

Due to mechanical problems appears to be a "lemon".

Only options for servicing appears to be Holden Dealerships, as they are not willing to provide information to mechanics / auto electricians.

Faults:

The following is a list of all of the problems we have had with this car along with the odometer reading:

2487 handbrake not holding

3343 handbrake not holding

6823 handbrake not holding

12392 erratic idle and stalling

13810 clunk in windscreen wipers

13810 erratic idle and stalling

14539 click in wipers

14539 clunk on start

23597 creak in seat

34055 clunk in steering

43176 tyre wear and noise

48114 tyre wear and noise

49575 handbrake not holding

51562 clunk on start

55802 erratic idle and stalling

55802 squeak in steering

55802 tyre wear and noise

58082 r/h/f door handle catching

58082 tyre wear and noise

61250 erratic idle and stalling

61250 reverse light not work

61250 tyre wear and noise

62836 tyre wear and noise

64391 clunk in steering

64391 erratic idle and stalling

64391 tyre wear and noise

64391 tyre wear and noise

64603 clunk in steering

65411 faulty auto windows

65411 squeak in steering

65411 tyre wear and noise

89246 Coolant level indicator on

94600 erratic idle and stalling

94654 erratic idle and stalling

? clunk in steering

? clunk on start

? creak in seat

? erratic idle and stalling.

General Comments:

Don’t touch it!

We have had over seven types of fault with this car, with all of those faults being addressed multiple times by Holden dealer mechanics. The most significant being the stalling problem.

It has been addressed six times and is currently being addressed again. On the fifth occasion, a new re-designed IAC valve was installed. It lasted just under a year until it caused our car to stall in the middle of a four-way intersection. This was a life-threatening situation.

It should be noted that the day before this life-threatening situation, the stalling problem had been addressed by Holden dealer mechanics during the car’s 90,000km service. We were told the idling mechanism was fixed, clearly it wasn't!

During the first two years of owning this car, we had it in the repair shop on average one day a month. Currently, it’s back in the workshop for five working days, to have four outstanding problems addressed.

The following is a summary of the key problems and the number of times we have had them dealt with.

Idling mechanism (8) ; clunk in steering (5) ; clunk on ignition (4) ; handbrake not holding (4) ; knock in steering (3) ; tyre wear and wheel noise (10) ; click in wipers (2) ; failing reverse light (1) ; and creak in seat (2).

Clearly, Holden believes that these faults and having this number of faults with a car is acceptable.

Readers probably wonder why we haven’t rid ourselves of this car. Holden insists they can fix these problems and it has only been over time and with patience that we have put up with this lemon car. We now have no confidence in Holden being able to fix these outstanding problems, in particular, the stalling problem.

We decided to buy an Australian-made car to support our local industry. We will never buy a Holden again and will think very carefully before we buy another Australian-made car.

Clearly this country needs lemon laws.

Our advice … don’t touch a Holden Vectra!