Holden Problems

You might like your Captiva but we need to compare it with its direct size and price rivals. On that basis, the Captiva runs a very poor third to the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe in many areas, including ride and handling, quietness, quality and warranty.

Assuming you have the Holden extended warranty you should be covered in the event the sunroof failed due to faulty workmanship. I've never heard of the problem you experienced before, so it's hard to speculate on the cause. If Holden does reject your warranty claim then request them to cover it under goodwill.

For starters, the extra warranty is from the dealer who sold you the car, it's not from Holden, and so it's not a factory warranty as such. I generally don't believe these extra warranties are of value; dealers sell, or occasionally give them to you to make more money or to sweeten a deal. The Holden factory warranty is sufficient to cover whatever might occur in that first three-year period.

Auctioning it, parking it on the nature strip with a "For Sale" sign in the window. In my view none of those are the best way to sell your car. The best cars of this type sell by word of mouth within club circles, the cars that don't scrub up well with the people who really know these cars end up in auctions. Contact HSV and Brock clubs and tell them about your car.

If you're towing on the flat and not overloading the transmission you might get away without upgrading to the cooling package, but if your short distances include hills you should upgrade it. If you don't you're putting the transmission at risk of overheating and being damaged.

It's an easy choice for me. I'd go for the VFII SS-V with the new Corvette engine. It's a new high-water mark for Holden and, in any case, all the XR8s have already been allocated to owners.

The limited competition provided by Ford-Holden-Toyota is having little if any effect on parts prices and that won't change. Is the headlight price on the MX-5 just an excuse to get the car you really want?

I've just been driving the latest Chrysler 300C and it's much improved and definitely continuing beyond Commodore and Falcon. It's not as good as the VFII, which you should choose next, but would work for you once Holden becomes an import-only brand.

I couldn't recommend either one, both have issues with their transmissions as your homework suggests. I would urge you to look at similar models from brands such as Mazda, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Kia.

It's the old story; it's either a problem on the fuel side or one of the spark side. My inclination is to check the fuel pump, Commodores had problems with the in-tank pump, and I'm thinking it's not supplying the fuel.