Holden Barina Problems

The Barina is fitted with a safety device that prevents you from removing the key from the ignition when the engine is running or when Park is not engaged. To remove the key you have to put the auto trans into Park and switch off the engine. According to Holden this is to prevent the car rolling away in the event you leave the car parked on a slope without the handbrake being applied. Holden advises it is a common feature on all cars sourced from Opel, like the Barina. As for premium unleaded, I wouldn't waste your money. Your car is tuned to run on regular unleaded and that will be fine.

IT IS possible the clunk will go away. I don't think you're doing damage, but if it's still there when you take it back for the first service, mention it again to your dealer.

Reliability and resale should be the key factors in your decision, given you're doing about 30,000km a year. That's considerably more than the average, and in three years you'd be clocking up close to 100,000km. With that in mind I suggest you go for a Japanese brand with a reputation for quality and reliability. That way you are more likely to have a trouble-free run and have a car that will be highly valued on the used-car market when you come to sell it. The Lanos and Accent are both built in Korea by companies whose credo was cheap, cheap, cheap. While the reliability of their products wasn't necessarily poor, their cars weren't built as well as their more expensive Japanese-made rivals. The Korean makes don't hold their values as well as the cars from Toyota, Mazda, Honda and Nissan. I'd consider a Nissan Pulsar, a Mazda 121, Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla, all of which are good, robust cars with good resale potential.

WHY are you having your car serviced before you need to? Why 39,900km instead of 45,000km? Generally, modern cars consume pads and discs at a faster rate than older cars do, and European cars generally consume them at a faster rate than locally produced cars. It's largely to do with braking performance, as well as the switch away from pad materials containing asbestos, which are outlawed for health reasons. Ask to see the discs and have the dealer show you that they need to be replaced, including having him measure the discs in front of you. I would be sceptical about claims they're worn out at such low mileage.

Have you noticed how well your car stops compared with those you were probably running around in 20 years or more ago? That stopping power has come courtesy of a number of improvements, including greater friction between the rotors and pads, and that has been achieved by softer pads and softer rotors. That unfortunately comes at a cost of increased brake wear in general and the need to replace rotors on a regular basis where we once almost never needed to.

Some AM stations don't have a very strong signal and that, in combination with the tiny roof-mounted antenna on the Barina, leads to problems. The longer the antenna the better the reception, but modern cars don't have long antennas that would solve your problem. It would be worth checking the antenna connections and mountings again to make sure water hasn't got in. And check the signal amplifier at the base of the antenna. Finally, unscrew the antenna, insert a coat hanger in its place and check the reception with that. If it improves the problem is with the antenna, so see if you can find a longer antenna.