Holden Problems

Perhaps another victim of a low-cost battery. Holden's Sean Poppitt says: "It's unfortunate Mr Garrett has experienced an issue. We've escalated this to our customer experience team and will do everything we can to assist."

The towing capacity for an unbraked trailer is 750kg and 1200kg for a braked trailer.

The car with the lower kilometres can be an attractive proposition, but it's a Cruze and should be avoided as they have a terrible history of unreliability. The Yaris is smaller and it has done more kilometres, but it would seem to be a much better bet.

Yes, I believe you can, and should approach Holden with a request to contribute to the cost of replacing the transmission, perhaps even to cover the whole cost of the job. It is a flaw with the transmission, as we have seen with so many others with that model Cruze. Go directly to Holden’s customer service people and lodge a claim. But you will have trouble with getting money from Holden if your mechanic has done any work on the car.

There’s no way of checking it easily. Take it to an automatic transmission specialist who will be able to check the transmission and diagnose the problem.

Both the CX-5 and the Tribeca are good choices; they're capable, well built and reliable. Others to consider are the Kia Sportage and Sorento. While they are Korean like the Captiva, unlike the Captiva they're very good cars, well built and reliable.

Wow, that is a major change of direction. Before you make such a change I would suggest you actually test drive each of the cars you're thinking of to see if they really suit you. The Mazda MX-5 is a two-seater and not very practical for instance. It's hard to advise you because we don't anything about what you want from the car you buy. If it was me I would probably buy the MX-5, I would have no problem with a two-seater.

There's certainly a problem with it. If it's not overheating it must be leaking. Have the radiator checked for leaks, check the radiator hoses and clamps, and check any fittings on the engine that have coolant flowing through them.