Any progress reports on Daewoo Barina & Viva

[astra03]

Just as a matter of interest, I know a number of you work at Holden dealerships around Australia. As the above mentioned Daewoo sourced vehicles have been on the road for a little while now, are there any progress reports on how they are fareing realibility or common fault wise?

[Red AH SRI T]

we have had the odd one or two with a few very small problems, but nothing major, eg Air con not working. But these are very small issues and things that aren't uncommon on all makes/models.

As for peoples predictions that there would be major faults/reliability issues, nothing yet has arisen.

[astra03]

Black AH, thanks for your feedback on issues regarding the two cars so far. As you say the faults you have seen will happen to any make/model, so it looks like so far so good....

Just interested to hear how they are going, must admit in my daily travels here in Brisbane seen many more Viva than Barina. Am almost due to have the 60k service done on my Astra G and the dealer has some Viva in their courtesy fleet. Will see if I can jag one for the day and see what it is like first hand..

Cheers....

[CJB]

Those new Barina's are very very zippy. :)

Not seeing many Viva sedans around. A few wagons, but mainly the hatches.

[oneightoo]

i see the barina sedan in the city quite often.. ugly lookin thing..

[CJB]

i see the barina sedan in the city quite often.. ugly lookin thing..

actually, I reckon the sedan is better then the hatch. I am waiting to see someone who has done it up. A nice black one.

I think the car has potential.

Perhaps Holden should have renamed it from Barina to something else, because its hard getting use to thinking Barina and sedan in the same thought :p

I reckon they are ok cars - especially since no cars these days seem to be built to last.

[oneightoo]

yeah but you also like the OC..

[EL BURITO]

there is a modded blue barina hatch driving arround Joodalup black 17's cannon exhaust lowered wth underbody neons.

[CJB]

sounds nice.

I saw a lowered orange one at the spit a few months back.

Looked sweet.

[blueraven]

yeah but you also like the OC..


really? that explains alot...

[imay]

I know this is not directly linked to the initial topic, but found this interesting while chatting with a Holden dealer earlier this week:

Barina "is selling well, despite the safety criticism."
Viva "is OK, but not selling as well as Astra (TS/Classic model)."
Astra diesel turbo will "walk out the door."
Astra SRi Turbo "stand in line, order one now and wait."
Tigra "can't give them away."
Vectra replacement "can't see them doing any better than the Vectra."
Holden (Daewoo sourced) SUV "will probably sell, but a lot of people are turning to smaller cars with the petrol scare."
and . . . Holden's future "critically depends on the success of the (new)Commodore!"

Sounds like things aren't rosey in GM-H land.

[oneightoo]

i watched a doco last night on the abc about cars in china.. apparently GM is doing awesome over there.. not that that has anything to do with the subject..

[MatsHolden]

Tigra "can't give them away."


There's been no marketing campaign for the Tigra, so can't expect it to move big numbers. And yes Holden's future does depend on the success of VE, as it's this car that Holden makes most of it's money out of, domestically and through exports.

[CJB]

with the Tigra, I know I have no sales training, and am not in a position to really know what I am talking about :p

but, I think Australia isnt a nation for the Tigra really.

Ok maybe I wont go as broad as the whole nation, but certainly my area is not a Tigra area. When I say that, I mean the people... I notice the very few I have seen are driven by older people.

As well as the lack of marketing - I just think we arent really interested in those cars, probably because they arent very practical.

I am having trouble trying to say it how I think it in my head, so that whole thing, might not make sense :D

[Red AH SRI T]

Obviously you boys aren't in the Tigra's target market, because there has been quiet a large marketing campagin on the car.

Mostly in womens and gay men's magazines, and roadside billboards.

The tigra was never bought here a volume car for holden. They only have a target to sell 1000 a year. Its here as an image car

[oneightoo]

well in my hood, the only people driving the seater sports cars are driving the 2 seater sports cars that cost over $100k..

tigra is a seater right?

[MatsHolden]

Also the Tigra is essentially a 35K Barina. And yeh it's a 2 seater.

[oneightoo]

Obviously you boys aren't in the Tigra's target market, because there has been quiet a large marketing campagin on the car.

Mostly in womens and gay men's magazines, and roadside billboards.

The tigra was never bought here a volume car for holden. They only have a target to sell 1000 a year. Its here as an image car
does it reach its target?

[oneightoo]

Also the Tigra is essentially a 35K Barina. And yeh it's a 2 seater.
thought so..

[CJB]

Oh I see....

I need to catch up on my Cosmo reading! :p

[MatsHolden]

does it reach its target?

Nope, read it somewhere the other day, or may have been the dealer that told me.

[MatsHolden]

If you were going to spend 35k, you could look at getting an Astra SRi Turbo.

[imay]

There's been no marketing campaign for the Tigra, so can't expect it to move big numbers. And yes Holden's future does depend on the success of VE, as it's this car that Holden makes most of it's money out of, domestically and through exports.

I understand all that mate, and I'm not knocking Holden (this time anyway) as a manufacturer, importer or exporter. I was just rather taken-aback that a salesman would comment so candidly on the product he is selling. Again, he wasn't knocking the product either, just passing honest comments and expressing his concern about the future of Holden as we know it in Australia.
As he said, the 3 up-coming models (Commodore, Vectra replacement and SUV) will, as Mitsubishi found, be hitting the market when the ignorant average Joe in the street is overly worried about the price of petrol.
The biggest thing in his favor is that you can buy a new car for about the same price as a good, low km, used vehicle. So people are still knocking on his door . . . at this stage.

[MatsHolden]

I understand all that mate, and I'm not knocking Holden (this time anyway) as a manufacturer, importer or exporter. I was just rather taken-aback that a salesman would comment so candidly on the product he is selling. Again, he wasn't knocking the product either, just passing honest comments and expressing his concern about the future of Holden as we know it in Australia.
As he said, the 3 up-coming models (Commodore, Vectra replacement and SUV) will, as Mitsubishi found, be hitting the market when the ignorant average Joe in the street is overly worried about the price of petrol.
The biggest thing in his favor is that you can buy a new car for about the same price as a good, low km, used vehicle. So people are still knocking on his door . . . at this stage.

Yeh, that is a surprise... an honest salesman? lol. I'm sure Holden is slightly concerned about the mindset of people in terms of petrol prices.

[EL BURITO]

If you were going to spend 35k, you could look at getting an Astra SRi Turbo.
Tigra would be nice (and no i am not gay) think an SRi is a bit more manly

[Gildo]

My mum has the tigra, very very happy.
feels similar to my car before i started to mod it.
im pretty sure it shares 3/4 of the same chassie, just with the rear extended to hold the drop top. And just new pannels. drives identically just around 100 kg heavier.

[EL BURITO]

My mum has the tigra, very very happy.
feels similar to my car before i started to mod it.
im pretty sure it shares 3/4 of the same chassie, just with the rear extended to hold the drop top. And just new pannels. drives identically just around 100 kg heavier.
is it silver too

[entice]

hrmm.. but the commodore is in a very different situation to the 380.

The 380 is clearly disproportioned, as if one team designed the front, and teh otehr the rear. It is also a radically different car to the Magna. The commodore is an "evolution" (and I use that term lightly) of an existing lineup that hasd enjoyed market leadership in sales over the past 10 years.

Big families will still need big cars with big boots.

Perhaps the commo/falcon/aurion will pick up sales that the 4wd's are losing???

[180HOA]

be hitting the market when the ignorant average Joe in the street is overly worried about the price of petrol.

That's a bit harsh. Petrol is getting expensive, and it'll only get more so. Personally I think it's good to fianlly see something (petrol prices) making the average buyer think about what they really need, rather than what they'd like to impress the neigbours with. I think most ignorance has come from manufacturers like Ford and GM. Skyrocketing energy prices and declining interest in large cars have been on the cards for ages. If any manufacturers get caught out by these things it's only because they've had their head up their a$$es for the past ten years...

[MatsHolden]

But think about when Holden would have started developing VE, would have been back when petrol was only say 80c if not less a litre. Petrol prices over the last 18 months have gone up something like 40c which no one could have predicted such a rise in so little time.

[180HOA]

A lot of people predicted it. We've known for about as long as we've been using oil that it's a finite resource. The problem was knowing when prices were going to really take off. Nearly ten years ago Holden paraded about a hybrid version of the VT Commodore to try and pretend they gave a damn about environmental issues. Instead, they gave us Monaro, Adventra, Crewman, et al. If the hybrid powerplant had been anything other than lip-service, surely they could have got it production ready for VE, and I bet it would sell.

I know economic reality kicks in, and the books may not balance on things like this (until you miss the boat)... Toyota realised it with the Prius, and sank a lot of money into it. Now, Toyota and Lexus have a serious jump-start on most other manufacturers in hybrid technology.

GM, on the other hand, buried its head in the sand, and now, in all the GM empire, can't even rustle up a turbo diesel to suit a Commodore. Hell, they can barely muster up a decent non-SUV to sell in the USA.

I know everyone has been caught off-guard by oil prices, but shouldn't motor vehicle manufacturers be on the ball here as much as anybody? We've always known it was only going to be a matter of time before we started seeing real signs of oil shortages - yet GM (the US and Australian arms) seems to have made no attempt at all to put themselves in a position to adapt.

[PaulyJ]

I think that regardless of petrol prices, all manufactures should be putting money into cleaner alternatives, exactly like what Toyota, and also Honda is doing.
In regards to fuel prices, diesel engined Opels have been around in Europe for ages, in all models inc our Barina's, Astra's and Vectra's. Only now has Holden bought in a turbo diesel, but why has it taken so long? I'm sure if they had a diesel model in the Astra G range, sales would've been a lot higher.

[Red AH SRI T]

diesel is only just taking off now in Australia because the quality of our diesel fuel was much much lower than that of europe. All of the modern high tech diesels require low sulphur fuel and australia couldn't offer that until recently

[PaulyJ]

ahhh fair enough then, guess that makes sense.