General Comments:

If you're wanting a hatch that is so reliable it's a joke.

I bought one new. Driving it for 4 years daily, about 220 KM a day .

Never stopped one except this...

Must do timing belt every time scheduled, including water pump and thermostat while you're there.

Must do fuel pump once in its life.

Must do alternator once in its life.

Battery must be changed once.

Not so serious repairs:

Indicator stalk - change it as soon as you buy, they have a fault in the switch and catch on fire.

Globes burn out regularly.

Accelerator pedal starts to become soft and loose, and eventually cracks off.

The pedal sits wrong and the full throttle is not full any more, thus becomes less responsive. A big fault they never told the buyers about.

Small problems are:

Paint fades if left out.

Rotors need changing, maybe twice.

Seats are sad, buy a Recaro seat instead. My back is sore every time driving it.

For performance upgrades on the 1.6 litre:

DIY UPGRADES...

Change the gear knob to a longer knob so you able to hold the shifter in your seat; the original is too short and fat.

Cut out the plastics that cover your radiator for more cool air underneath.

Monthly do a fuel injection cleaner with any additives.

Remove spare wheel.

Remove back seat.

Fit an Elantra twin fan radiator.

Fit an Elantra airbox and drill holes underneath the airbox.

Fit an Elantra fuel rail.

95 Octane fuel every time only...

Now they do 0/100 in 9.6 seconds. With these fast easy mods your new 0/100 is 8.999 seconds.

Faults:

Radio aerial snapped off, brakes needed maintenance.

General Comments:

I live in a very hilly city, and the manual gearbox Getz is totally useless on the hills. It is a heavy little slug with an engine that never really delivers.

I have lived with smaller cars all my life, and the Getz is the most disappointing car I have ever owned. Not as economical as you would think (probably because it is too heavy) and as dull as you could get. The only things I liked about it were the intermittent wipers and the glasses case.

Faults:

Hard to shift in reverse, from the factory.

Electrical problem prevented starting once in a while.

General Comments:

This car is cheap and underpowered. Although it didn't break down on me, the 1.3L SOHC motor started to sound harsh and tired after a couple of years' use, mainly due to having to rev hard on every take off to keep up with traffic. Slow up hills.

Faults:

Driver's seat made a clicking noise when going around a corner.

Driver seat (cloth) began to lift in the middle.

Lots of paint chips.

General Comments:

I bought this car, having downgraded from a 4x4 Toyota Kluger mainly due to the cost of petrol. I decided to buy it brand new, and opted for an S Automatic due to the fact it would be mainly city driving. Oh, well, that was my first mistake.

The 1.4 Auto is horrendously underpowered, to the point of being dangerous. I knew that I would have to sacrifice some power moving from a V6 to a 4 cyl, however I expected the Getz to at least be zippy around town. There were numerous times where I planted the accelerator pedal to the floor and it took 2-3 seconds for the car to register. Occasionally, mainly on hot days or when I had the A/C on, I would plant the foot and nothing would happen for 4-5 seconds, and when it did eventually shift down, it felt dangerously underpowered.

I found myself having to switch off the aircon numerous times, even on flat straight surfaces, in order for the car to build up speed. I found it difficult to keep up with other cars, and out of all the vehicles I have ever driven, this attracted the most road rage from other drivers. I think it was due to the fact that a) it's small and b) it's so slow that it annoyed so many drivers.

I also had major issues with vibration from the engine when cold -- it felt like a 1980s car, and made it feel very poorly built. I had it for a year and a half, and was so happy to see it drive away (to a P plater mind you).

Don't buy a 1.4 litre Getz!!

By the way, I missed the engine power so much I bought another Kluger. Happy to pay the higher price for fuel to feel safe and keep up with the traffic!!!