1980 Holden Gemini TE review from Australia and New Zealand
"A good first car"
What things have gone wrong with the car?
Boot floor rusted.
Leaked out of every door and both front and rear windcreens.
Differential and gearbox are on their last legs.
General comments?
A rough and unrefined, but economical and thrashable first car. It's cheap to run and cheap to buy.
Mine was an already very thrashed example but continued to run and never left me stranded except at home where it had trouble starting on cold mornings. These were its good points but
I hated the car and thought the bad outweighed the good.
The terribly designed, simple live rear axle setup gives a jerky, bouncy and uncomfortable ride.
The 1.6 with only 50 kilowatts and a 19.5kg/kw power to weight ratio leaves a lot to be desired. I always felt in the way of the other cars behind me when the traffic lights went green despite using all five forward gears.
Other inadequacies of the car included the inadequate heater, lack of sound insulation, pedals too close to the steering wheel, early brake fade, I could go on but what do you expect for a 2 grand car?
Recommended reviews
| Fantastic car to drive... Heaps of fun |
|
| The car handled and drove like a dream, but its reliability to run %100 all the time was an issue |
| Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? | Yes |
| Year of manufacture | 1980 |
| First year of ownership | 1998 |
| Most recent year of ownership | 2000 |
| Engine and transmission | 1.6 sohc 4 cylinder Manual |
| Performance marks | 2 / 10 |
| Reliability marks | 8 / 10 |
| Comfort marks | 2 / 10 |
| Dealer Service marks | |
| Running Costs (higher is cheaper) | 8 / 10 |
| Overall marks (average of all marks) | |
| Distance when acquired | 185000 kilometres |
| Most recent distance | 217000 kilometres |
| Date of Entry | 3rd January, 2001 |