Ask The Guide

As a ballpark figure you could ask $14,000-$16,000.

A Holden dealer, or an auto electrician should be able to sort it out for you.

The most likely cause is a faulty neutral/park start switch that prevents the car from starting unless it’s either in Park or Reverse.

Being without a car for seven weeks is completely unacceptable, and their apparent reluctance to return calls makes it even worse. Talk to the ACCC and try to have them intervene on your behalf.

Injector wear is prevalent on common-rail diesel engines with the high fuel pressure and rapid cycling. A diesel mechanic should be able to check the injectors for leakage.

I don’t believe it’s necessary to have paint protection, today’s paint coverage is so good it doesn’t need anything extra. Added to that there’s no real proof that paint protection does anything.

All vehicles sold in Australia must comply with our ADRs, even when the relevant rules and regulations in their home countries require a higher level of performance than ours do. But the rules applying in some countries are not up to our level, so while you could argue that it should be enough for cars from major car producing countries, like North America and Europe to comply with their domestic rules and get automatic entry to the Australian market, there are other countries that are not so well developed and to let cars in without testing to our standards would be risking the safety of drivers in this country. Remember too we have the added complication of being a right-hand drive country, which affects a car’s crash performance.

Performance brakes generally wear out faster than regular brakes; one of the reasons is that the disc rotors are often softer. That means more frequent machining of rotors, and ultimately more frequent replacement.

Halfway on the dipstick suggests that it doesn’t need topping up, try waiting until it gets to the lower mark on the dipstick and see how far that takes you. Holden, or any other carmaker, won't tell you how much oil consumption is ok with their engines, but all engines use some oil. There are two basic reasons an engine might use oil, leaks, or burning. Leaks can usually be seen and easily fixed, burning isn’t so obvious and is more costly to fix. If it is burning oil you should see some evidence in the form of blue smoke from the exhaust. Go along with Holden’s recommendation and do the test.

The 12-month warranty is designed to give you confidence in the car, but if you’ve completely lost faith in it then it could be best to sell it and move on.