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Toddler78
21-12-2006, 12:14 PM
My girl friend is looking at buying a 04/05 barina, the last of the euro built ones. I had a quick look at it last night and it looks pretty clean, but just after some peoples thoughts on what to look for as in knoewn problems, is there any thing in particular I have to look for in regards to these. I dont want her buying a lemon but I have no knowledge on these cars any help would be reatly appriciated.

Delft Maloo
21-12-2006, 12:23 PM
Mate i had mine for a year in which i had done over 30,000 klm and had no problems at all. fantastic little car great on fuel and full of good standard features. doesnt go to bad for a 1.4ltr either. i had the very last model only a couple of months befor they brought the daewoo junk out. as far as i know they have been a great reliable car over the last couple of models with no serious faults.
Good luck.:thumbsup:

csv rulz
21-12-2006, 12:35 PM
when my GF gets her licence we will definatly be getting her one of these.
There an absolute ripper of a little car. Its a shame that they arent feasible for holden to import anymore.

LOE
21-12-2006, 01:16 PM
I'm with these guys... much better car than the dawoo that replaced it.. I don't know of any problems they had, just a great little car.

I sold heaps of them as a holden salesperson and had great customer satisfaction...

Pulse 8
21-12-2006, 01:34 PM
You will not find a better car for the money than those little XC Barina,s.
We bought the last of the 05 Euro,s this time last year just as the Korean crap was coming onto the lots.
Just an unbelievable package. Tight as a drum and 650 - 700 Kms to a tank with a combination of city and country driving.
Even the doors have a nice solid thud when you close them unlike most of the others in that class.
Absolutely no dramas with it and dont even consider any thing else as you wont get Euro through GM again.:thumbsup:

volt
21-12-2006, 01:57 PM
My wife drives an XC Barina she bought new when they first came out (mid 2001). It's about to hit 90000km's and is still going strong. I would not hesitate to get another one, it's been a good little car.

The problems we have had:

Problem with lock barrel that caused the key to not turn in ignition - Holden fixed this at no cost to us even though the car was 4 years old. The later cars had a different shape key to offest this.

Small water leak at water pump seal(as in so small I didn't even realise until holden pointed it out) - Fixed under warranty.

Coil pack died at 60000km's - took ages to get the problem properly diagnosed by Holden, but when we found the actual problem, only took me 2 minutes to fix.

Problem with gearshift (hard 3rd-2nd gearchange)- will get it looked at next service.

Air-conditioning compressor seized - total of $900 later, all good. (not holden fitted, but genuine compressor)

Things you should probably be aware of are:

The brake rotors are very soft and if you don't use soft pads, they will get chewed out extremely quickly.

To save money they put drums on the backend of the later models instead of discs (not a big issue really).

Short gearing on our manual means at highway speeds, the car is revving at 3200+ rpm (about 3500rpm at 110kph).

Toddler78
21-12-2006, 03:55 PM
thanks guys for your feedback, I think she has her heart set on the car I just dont want her to blow her money on a piece of cr@p, it made me suspicious that they couldnt get her the previous owners details and on the sales sheet in the windo they list Holden Pty as the last owners but have put there they think it was a renta car only done 33K kms and as I said very clean, hardly even a scuff under that little piece of plastic that sits under the front bumper,that usually cops a hiding. it was on the lot for 11990 but had been reduced to 10990 which I think is a good price, there is another barina on the lot with 26k kms for 2 grand more this was a CD which I believe is a higher model??????? this one had no badge on the back to indicate whether SXI, SRI or what ever

thanks guys for your feedback, I think she has her heart set on the car I just dont want her to blow her money on a piece of cr@p, it made me suspicious that they couldnt get her the previous owners details and on the sales sheet in the windo they list Holden Pty as the last owners but have put there they think it was a renta car only done 33K kms and as I said very clean, hardly even a scuff under that little piece of plastic that sits under the front bumper,that usually cops a hiding. it was on the lot for 11990 but had been reduced to 10990 which I think is a good price, there is another barina on the lot with 26k kms for 2 grand more this was a CD which I believe is a higher model??????? this one had no badge on the back to indicate whether SXI, SRI or what ever

I have the vin number so I will give that to my uncle that works at a holden dealer to dig up the history of the car

hell-met
21-12-2006, 04:46 PM
Great car, Wife and I just got rid of one with 137k on it. Only replaced 4 tyres and front pads at 125k.
.
Had a gear shift problem between 2-3rd. It was the shift linkage from the selector to the gearbox inputs.(Cheap plastic ball and socket arrangement from factory) Replacement was $380(trade-no labor)
.
I actually miss the little barina:limpy: as it was fun to thrash around.
.
I looked it up and the Dealer had $12500 on it but only gave me $7500. Buy one private.

Toddler78
21-12-2006, 04:49 PM
Great car, Wife and I just got rid of one with 137k on it. Only replaced 4 tyres and front pads at 125k.
.
Had a gear shift problem between 2-3rd. It was the shift linkage from the selector to the gearbox inputs.(Cheap plastic ball and socket arrangement from factory) Replacement was $380(trade-no labor)
.
I actually miss the little barina:limpy: as it was fun to thrash around.
.
I looked it up and the Dealer had $12500 on it but only gave me $7500. Buy one private.

Ideally thats what I want her to do to save a grand or two but even private sales are asking simular money. $380 trade doesnt sound like it was a cheap linkage, sounds like an expensive $hitty linkage, thanks for your imput especially about the tyres as I was wondering how long they should last.

planetdavo
21-12-2006, 05:50 PM
Main problem was the manual linkage. $380 is the complete linkage. There is a repair kit that's half the price. Almost everyone buys that.
Occasional coil pack, but not much else goes regularly wrong.

Mikhael
21-12-2006, 06:50 PM
The XC Barina came out around April 2001 and my mum bought one at the time, which she still uses.

It's now over 5 years old and has never been any problem, a great little car that still looks good even today.

It goes like the clappers and runs on the smell of an oily rag. She loves it.

Can't recommend these Barinas more, they also won Car of the Year in 2001 !!!

OPPYLOCK
21-12-2006, 07:09 PM
If your girlfriend can make the stretch I would highly recommend the SRI with the 1.8. Better brakes, suspension, wheels and engine obviously.
My wife had one for over 2 years and we had absolutely no problems with it until 55000km when two cars and a truck took it out. Tough little car as my wife walked away with only a minor cut. ARI 157 gave his life for hers and he is sadly missed by both of us.
As others have said they do have very short gearing and 110km is ok but anything over that on the freeway is uncomfortable. They are quite noisy little buggers but not annoyingly so.
Forgot to mention, it won its category in bang for your bucks three years in a row and the fourth year Holden could not supply one but the journo's said it would have beaten the competition making it the most successful category winner ever.

SSBarney
21-12-2006, 07:18 PM
it made me suspicious that they couldnt get her the previous owners details and on the sales sheet in the windo they list Holden Pty as the last owners but have put there they think it was a renta car only done 33K kms and as I said very clean, hardly even a scuff under

If ur buying from a car yard of course they can get the previous owners details. If u buy it watch the service history suddenly appear with the past owners details.
Consider two possible reasons why they might want to hide those details,
1. possible commercial use such as hire car, delivery car and so on.
2. smashed and repaired (perhaps why is in good nic) and they dont want u contacting past owner.

I was done by our local Harrison Ford with this con once before.

Marco
21-12-2006, 08:04 PM
there is another barina on the lot with 26k kms for 2 grand more this was a CD which I believe is a higher model??????? this one had no badge on the back to indicate whether SXI, SRI or what ever

Most XC Barinas won't have a badge on them telling you what they are, except for the SRi. The exception is that for the 2003 model year, Holden decided to take the Barina upmarket ($16,990 IIRC) and gave them things like 16" alloys and rear headrests and some other things I can't remember right now. For that model year, the 3 door became the SXi and the 5 door became the CD. For 2004 (I think), having sold about three 'upmarket' Barinas the previous year, Holden decided cheap was the way to go again, pulled some of the content out, dropped the price to $13,990 and dropped the badging again, so you had just the Barina 3 door and the Barina 5 door.

The complete failure of the 'upmarket' Barina, by the way, is a very good example of why the Daewoo-built cars make excellent business sense for Holden. People won't buy an expensive B-segment car, and Holden can't make money selling a European B-segment car against the Koreans at Korean prices.

My wife and I nearly bought one of the last 2005 Euro Barinas for her to drive around in, but the non-availability of ABS held me back. Probably would have bought a Getz with ABS if we'd decided to go ahead with it, but we went down the one-car route instead and pocketed the savings ever since.

planetdavo
22-12-2006, 05:55 AM
I was done by our local Harrison Ford with this con once before.
Buyer beware.
ALWAYS ask ALL questions BEFORE signing a contract. If something doesn't sound right, walk away......

masterSTi
22-12-2006, 08:05 AM
The XC is a great car for the $$$.

If you are interested my wife has her 2005 XC Barina with only 6,400km for sale.

Asking $11,500.

Its a 3 door in star silver. Car is as new. She is selling because she is upgrading to a AH Astra SRi Turbo coupe.

Cheers

MasterSTi

Toddler78
22-12-2006, 03:26 PM
Thanks guys for all your input, as stated earlier I think she has her heart set on it but I too am concerned that this may be an interstate rebirth as it does have SA plates but no rego and is a good price and havnt got previous owner details????????

like I said I can track the original owner down through my uncle and get the story from them as although it is a great car it does sound suss