1998 Holden Barina Reviews

Passenger side door locking mechanism had to be replaced, at a cost of $600.

Plastic fittings inside car, keep falling off.

Air-conditioning refuses to work.

Windows won't wind all the way down.

Back seat continually gets stuck when adjusting, and mechanisms have to be replaced, which is expensive.

A very reliable little car mechanically wise. It has never broken down.

Fixtures inside the car tend to fall off, but this doesn't effect the actual reliability of the driving.

Tends to be very sluggish driving. A real lack of power.

Very good turning circle. Can fit easily into small parking spaces.

The small foot pedals and cabin size suits a small person. Probably really meant for girls. My male big feet tend to catch on two pedals at once. Not much elbow space at all.

Since new, minor things have gone wrong... up until now. The air con hardly works, the car, when driven for roughly 45 minutes gets too hot, and stalls whenever the clutch is depressed, then the speedometer needle drops, so I can't tell what speed I am doing. The lights under the air con controls don't work anymore, also the rear window washer sprays water inside the car. The obvious exterior problems of fading wheel arches and interior seat hinge covers (3 door) fall of when seats are put forward. There is so much more I am sure, but for now this will do.

Seriously consider something from Japan first.

Only general wear and tear. Replaced the halogen headlights with normal ones when one blew (too expensive to replace halogens).

Paintwork had faded and bubbled and had some touched up after purchasing it.

Flares had started to go white. Painted them with tire black, good as new now.

This car is really comfortable and surprisingly powerful (until you load it up with people). Feels a lot bigger than it is and it holds the road really well. It is a dream to park with the power steering. A very economical car and really pretty too!

Only a few minor electrical items such as rear bulbs and switchgear lighting.

Regular servicing items such as brake pads, tyres, battery and wiper blades have been replaced, however no major items have given any trouble at all, despite a high mileage.

The rear wheel bearings are beginning to get noisy and will need replacing within the next 50,000km.

This car has been completely reliable and still travels approx 800 - 1000km per week.

Performance is adequate for my type of driving, however I have found that it gets a lot worse in the hot weather. This is nothing to do with the air conditioner, as this is on nearly all the time. It just seems much more sluggish when the temp gets above about 28 degrees C.

Paintwork on my silver car is looking pretty shabby, with quite a bit of fading and scuff marks.

Economical to run.

It is like new, however, it stalled on me once on a round about for no unknown reason. The car has been professional checked and is fine. But nothing major has gone wrong with this car. I am very happy with it. I have been able to rely on it for long distances.

This car is great, very cheap to run and perfect for me because I'm only a small female, however, the pedals are ridiculously close and everyone who drives it has to take off their shoes so they don't press the brake and accelerator at the same time.

Where to start?

The car felt bad from the start, I should have known what was to come, as when trying to accelerate I found that my right foot hit either the inside of the wheel arch or the brake pedal. My left foot would also hit the steering column when depressing the clutch.

The gearshift was terrible, both notchy and rubbery. I have never felt anything like it.

The wheel arches were faded.

The air conditioning never worked properly.

The lights in the heater controls blew and the mechanic had to break the switches just to get to them.

The car overheated at lights. Turned out the radiator had become blocked because the coolant in the cars didn't mix well with Australian water and turned into a sludge of some kind. The radiator had to be removed and flushed out.

The car overheated again. This time blowing the head gasket. Again the radiator was blocked. Got a new radiator. When the mechanic re-fitted the head, the front pulley was not tightened up properly and came off while driving. The car died. Turns out the lower crank gear also came off and the belt for the camshaft came off too. The car was towed to the dealership. It turns out the engine now had bent valves in the head so it had to be removed again.

The rear wheels were partially dragging and wore out the rear shoes in 20,000km. Rear shoes and wheel cylinders were replaced. Shoes were not expensive, but the wheel cylinders were well over $100 each.

There's more, but I just can't remember. Perhaps I am trying to block out all the bad memories of this car.

This is the worst car EVER made bar none. Terrible to drive and a disaster waiting to happen.