1994 Holden Barina Swing from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

I brought this car only 3 months ago. All of the following happened in a 2 week period of purchasing My 1995 Holden Barina Swing.

Immediately on Purchasing this car and driving it home from the yard I brought it from, the car started to overheat.

Vehicle became very sluggish and would take forever to pick up speed, especially on take off.

Upon starting car, it began to run very rough, blow smoke and heavy fumes and idled very low, however would clear up after driving for a few minutes.

Car began to overheat with in a few minutes of starting it and would constantly stall once temperature became to high.

Became extra thirsty on fuel, often taking $60 a week to run. A high price for a 4 cylinder considering I only drove it for 10 minutes a day to work and back.

Water pump gave way and became lodged under my timing belt.

Timing belt then wore out and became very noisy and finally snapped and left me stranded on the side of the road.

Finally had timing belt and water pump replaced only to receive the car back running on 3 cylinders with an explanation that there was no apparent reason as to why it was doing so and could not find out why or rectify the problem.

Overheating came back again and now have to get timing belt and water pump removed again in order to reach the thermostat and change it.

Purchased this vehicle for what I thought was a reasonable price at the time, however after only owning it for a such a short time and due to all the problems with it, I am forced to sell it for well under 3/4 of what I brought it for.

Me personally, I would never spend my money buying another Model of this Barina ever again.

Inside of car has reasonable space a leg room for such a small car.

Becomes a little unstable if going round a corner quickly.

Accelerator, brake and clutch pedals are a problem for someone with long legs and big feet. pedals are positioned too close together and can end up hitting the wrong pedal regularly if not extra careful.

Paint work is very good and for a 11 year old car has not faded at all and still looks great considering it hasn't really been garaged.

Heating and air conditioning are acceptable and both work fine with out taking too much power from the engine.

By the sounds of it mate you didn't check the car well enough before handing over your money, its obvious the car yard you bought your car from knew all along the car was a heap of junk. They saw you coming a mile away!!! My wife has owned a Barina for just on 10 years now and it has never given us one ounce of trouble. I personally wouldn't own one myself... my car is a FORD XY/GT.

We had one of these. My wife bought it new and racked up 120,000 trouble free kilometres before selling it and moving on. Similar reliability experienced by a friend who also has one.

Bullet proof, economical motoring, but, they couldn't pull the skin off a roast chook.

Nothing wrong with the barinas perfect little cars for what they are only problem with the cars is that I found is a sticking iginition barrel causing the starter motor to start while I was driving cooking the guts out of the starter.

Mate, I had almost the same problem. What you said basically just resurfaced feelings of anger towards the Holden Barina (had to sell it to the wreckers for $300). Mine was a Barina Wwing and a piece of crap, but my friend who had one (wasn't a Swing) was heaps better, much more power, and far more economical.