4th Jan 2012, 17:09

After a couple of years with this car, there has been no problems of note. There was a small oil "weep" from the turbo, but this was fixed under warranty and has not happened again.

*note*

This review was for the manual Astra diesel only. The auto is not as good. Less power and higher fuel consumption. Check the specs carefully.

11th Sep 2016, 04:52

I know this is a late reply, but secondhand cars are a bit like that.

I just returned from Melbourne and was fire affected. Needed to come home, big problem, no car, and as a driving instructor, that makes daily work a bit hard. Had virtually no money at all and had limited ability to get finance. Looked at Japanese imports (crap imports) and at this one yard was a Astra CDTi diesel and a Cruze. The Cruze rattled and just looked like a pile of problems and I couldn't blow my money, then there was this little white turbo diesel. Yeah, that worried me, but I enjoyed the drive. I thought I would get bored driving it. It is an ex government car and still smells new, 60,000km on clock (it's September 2016), and in NZ we have to purchase diesel km, would have to check the price, but you normally buy lots of 1000 which I think are about $100, not too bad given diesel is SO much cheaper than petrol. Being an instructor I do the km, so I took the plunge.

People have mostly told me they are rubbish, then I mention it's the diesel one and they shut up... I'm worried about the timing belt (anyone know when it should be changed?) and as it was last serviced by a non Holden mechanic it has the insp light on, but I intend to send it to Holden and the yard will reset it tomorrow. Is there anyone in NZ who owns the NZ new version of this car?

One week in, I love it, I prepare my students for driving a small car, but get used to the gritty reality of a diesel as many of us here end up with meaty 4WDs (you need them here). For its age and km a week in, NO COMPLAINTS, but I would be keen to hear from others who have had or have this car... remember this was previously a health board car and spent most of its days in an underground carpark - now she will discover the road.

I have purchased an extended warranty, and to boot the mileage is paid up to 86,000, which means it came with about $3000 worth of mileage on the clock... should help me out somewhat. The dealer said he was to add miles, then looked at it after the papers were signed and said 'you know how much is on that thing??'. Think the thing that annoys him is he could have claimed the ks back and sold it with a thousand on it, not 26,000! Have a look at my Facebook page for a photo. Joanne Malster.