1999 Holden Vectra CD from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

I have had the steering shaft and valve body (power steering related) replaced three times (most recently a month ago, out of vehicle warranty, but still under part warranty).

I have had the IAC (Intake air control) motor replaced three times. The fault causes the car to stall when downshifting - a very dangerous thing when moving through a roundabout.

I have had every window/door trim (external) replaced at least twice. The trim warps and lifts off at the door opening edge, usually breaking a clip in the process.

The timing sensor for the motor camshaft has been replaced twice (engine fault light comes on and stays on).

The car has very poor paint finish - the worst faults were fixed under warranty by a panel beater, as was the driver's side front door that wasn't aligned properly.

The latest fault involved the drivers side door lock failing. This was not covered under warranty.

I expect more things to fail and cost me more money. I have no faith in this vehicle.

This is the first new Holden I have ever purchased and whilst a very nice car to drive, I will never buy another.

The next car I will buy will probably be the new Mazda6.

My wife has owned a little Mazda 121 Metro, from new, for the same period of time I have had my Vectra (4 years) and has never had a days problem with it.

This sounds so much like my car (my review is here also for a 1999 Vectra CD sedan - "worst new car purchase/decision I've ever made") - the main trouble for me (and I assume a lot of other Vectra owners) is that, apart from the initial (and in some cases, quite bad) paint and panel problems, none of the other problems started to crop up until 15,000 km or so (the first really bad one for me was the IAC stalling problem with my stalled vehicle just rolling out of the way of oncoming traffic on a fast moving roundabout).

As things start to fail, you put your faith in the warranty system to fix them up; after all that's what it is there for - but the constant returns, the recurring and dangerous design faults (the IAC and crank angle sensors stalling vehicles in varying (sometimes life-threatening) traffic situations) eventually wear you down.

This model Vectra will need to have at least the IAC motors, intermediate steering shafts, crank angle sensors, and prematurely wearing engine cambelts replaced on a regular basis for the operating life of the vehicle. A hidden cost for the original owner (considering how regularly these parts fail, Holden's 2 year, 50,000km part replacement system should see the original owner past any cost of repeated failure as long as they own the vehicle) but a real cost to the second hand buyer who will unlikely be aware of the history of the car they are buying and subsequently pay for these faults when (not if) they occur.

I believe you will see an increase in the amount of negative reports on this website as more and more 'out of warranty' Vectras hit the used car market - especially when irate 2nd hand owners are forced to pay for the continued maintenance on the failure of these 'design fault' parts.

The Vectra will have to go down in history as one of the biggest Holden lemons since the Camira - they just cut back on what would have been loud and angry protests by fixing any and all of the symptoms (but not the cause) of anything that went wrong under their 3 year warranty. The warranty system has basically helped Holden keep the scope of these problems pretty much off the radar. At least websites like carsurvey allow people to get a better view of this scope.

These comment to me are an echo of my own experiences.

I cannot believe that Holden have not been forced to do a recall on these vehicles.

I believe that Holden do not know how to fix the problems, it appears to be 'Trial and Error" and even though I have managed to get my faults fixed under warranty still - the car is now out of warranty, but with the same ongoing issues.

This has proved extremely costly with loss of work time and getting taxis to and from the Service area to work.

Every time it fails it is another module to be replaced even though it is generally the same problem - stalling.

Two weeks ago it again began stalling, was taken to Holden (on the trip it stalled 20 times) and I was told all it needed was an adjustment of the idling.

Yesterday the engine fault light came on (again) so its another visit to the Service Department. but prior to going

I am taking my car to an Auto Electrician who specialises in Bosch Computers (which is what the Vectra has) to get an independent assessment and hopefully shed some light on my problems.

Like everyone else I am a regular at the Holden Service Department and know staff on a first name basis. The Workshop Controller told me a year ago "that after all my car was of an age" - it was 3 year old, but his suggestion was that I should get rid of it - a comforting comment.

I believe from reviews by a NZ consumer group that there is another problem looming with the Camshaft, so much of an issue that they lobbied for recall, but Holden reduced the replacement recommendation from 120,000 to 60,000 in NZ, but not so here.

I believe these cars are a potential death trap due to the stalling issues and am becoming afraid to drive mine. I guess the situation comes where one must cut ones losses get rid of the lemon and get some piece of mind.

We have a 1997 Vectra. Generally it has been a very reliable car. It has now done 150000K and is all working fine.

We also had a phase of this stalling on idle etc. Noted that it temeded to happen on wet dark nights when moving through slow traffic stop/starting a lot. The Holden dealer kept changing sensors and always the fault would stop for a while and then come back. In desparation, I also had a fiddle around the throttle bypass soleniod arrangement, which also fixed the problem for a while.

Shortly after the battery failed. (It was 4 years old). Repalced it and all the funny electronic faults disappeared and now has been two year since any trouble.

It appears the battery had a shorted cell and when the engine revs dropped while there was a high loading the voltage dropped to below the level required to make the computer stuff work.

It would have been real nice if the service guys could have figured this out before they cost us hundreds of bucks changing sensors.