The Holden "Curze"

[Pedro]

Unhappy Holden Cruze owners have renamed it the Holden Curze. Read what they have to say about their “Curze” purchase on “Not Good Enough”

http://www.notgoodenough.org/viewtopic.php?t=39332

[Smoke Pursuit]

Yep... wait till these cars are 4 - 5 years old then see how they are going.

No manufacturer is perfect, we bought a Dud LS Focus back in 2005 and the easiest solution for me was to trade it in at the time and to prove a point to my local Ford dealer we went and bought a VE Calais V8.

These new Holdens - Cruise / Captiva / Spark (Barina) are all hit and miss cars, sure you can get a good one but theres always going to be high risk buying Korean cars.

Another point to mention is the fact that with all the government / fleet sales on Cruze its going to get smashed resale wise... 2 years and they wont be worth half what people paid for them new simply because Holden has so many fleets / governments hoodwinked by the diesel model.

[burnz]

one post their states hot air threw the air vent on 38* days, but wont use the aircon..
what does he expect??

[Fireblade]

Originally Posted by burnz

one post their states hot air threw the air vent on 38* days, but wont use the aircon..
what does he expect??

He states he gets 38deg hot air through the vents on 25deg days, and he wont use aircon, why should he on a 25deg day?

[Smoke Pursuit]

Originally Posted by F6 FOON

He states he gets 38deg hot air through the vents on 25deg days, and he wont use aircon, why should he on a 25deg day?

Correct..

The fresh air is all coming from the engine bay it seems!!

Daewoooooooooooo.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by Pedro

Unhappy Holden Cruze owners have renamed it the Holden Curze. Read what they have to say about their “Curze” purchase on “Not Good Enough”

http://www.notgoodenough.org/viewtopic.php?t=39332

Ok... so 9 owners over the past few weeks have said they have had issues with a new car.

Ho hummmmm I was expecting pages and pages of posts.

How many thousands and thousands of these cars have been sold???

Every new car has teething issues.

I do recall a certain brand that has had rust appearing in a join in the boot lid for the last several years even over 2-3 design revisions...

Territory ball joints?

Did you type in "Ford" into the search or only Holden???

[psychoticgroove]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

Ok... so 9 owners over the past few weeks have said they have had issues with a new car.

Ho hummmmm I was expecting pages and pages of posts.

How many thousands and thousands of these cars have been sold???

Every new car has teething issues.

I do recall a certain brand that has had rust appearing in a join in the boot lid for the last several years even over 2-3 design revisions...

Territory ball joints?

Did you type in "Ford" into the search or only Holden???

Rightly pointed out mate, good on you.
This Yellow Festiva can hold its burn-out alright

[burnz]

Originally Posted by F6 FOON

He states he gets 38deg hot air through the vents on 25deg days, and he wont use aircon, why should he on a 25deg day?

why wouldn't you??
25* day will give around 50+* temps in the cabin..how long will it take the vent to draw the residual heat out of the dash??

[Mr Hardware]

I predicted Camira II

looks like I was right

[bobthebilda]

I havent been in one, but have been a pedestrian when a few have taken off from the lights etc, and am quite suprised with the noise they generate, to get going again. You dont tend to notice it with the cruzes more refined competition.

I assume they havent got the mix right with engine and car size. Might not be an issue in The cooler climes of South Korea, but if you want to be running the air conditioner all the time in australia, then maybe they need to warn buyers that stopping at traffic lights etc, could be detrimental to the enjoyment of the car.

[glavas]

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

I havent been in one, but have been a pedestrian when a few have taken off from the lights etc, and am quite suprised with the noise they generate, to get going again. You dont tend to notice it with the cruzes more refined competition.

I assume they havent got the mix right with engine and car size. Might not be an issue in The cooler climes of South Korea, but if you want to be running the air conditioner all the time in australia, then maybe they need to warn buyers that stopping at traffic lights etc, could be detrimental to the enjoyment of the car.

from what my old man told me when he was over in korea in 1952 is that it gets very hot in summer and cold in winter.

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by glavas

from what my old man told me when he was over in korea in 1952 is that it gets very hot in summer and cold in winter.

They may have extremes sometimes, but in general, as obtained from a website -

The South Korea climate during the short summer is hot and humid. The average temperature in August ranges from 20 degrees centigrade to 26 degrees centigrade. This is hottest time of the South Korea climate. The average temperature of Jeju in July is around 25 degrees centigrade.

Like I said, I havent been in one, and dont know what they sound like internally, but when i hear them on the road, I expect to turn around and see a 50cc moped with a 150 kilogram person on it.

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by glavas

from what my old man told me when he was over in korea in 1952 is that it gets very hot in summer and cold in winter.

1952!! global warming has taken over since then

in 1928 the winters here were so cold the river froze so hard they went ice-skating on it. now it doesn't get cold enough to snow. true story and less than 100 years.

as for the cruze, i take a lot of those complaints with a grain of salt. i mean perhaps the car wouldnt' start because he didn't put it in park? a lot of people seem to write a car off for the smallest of complaints or one offs. sure its' bad that a car needs a head replaced or whatever, but it's a volume product, it's probably a very low percentage that fail and we get pist because we were the one that got it.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

1952!! global warming has taken over since then

in 1928 the winters here were so cold the river froze so hard they went ice-skating on it. now it doesn't get cold enough to snow. true story and less than 100 years.

In 1970's the world was being warned that we were gonna go into another ice age and that if we didn't burn fossil fuels we were all doomed.....just remember global started because we were all gonna freeze to death.

As for the Cruze there isn't really anything there to make it a huge issue with the cars...yet.

[tweeked]

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

1952!! global warming has taken over since then

yeah, they are saying it has got nearly half a degree warmer since then

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by Mr Hardware

I predicted Camira II

They even sound the same.

[XRtowcar]

Um, OK i'll admit it.
I've been in one, but i'm not proud of it OK.
Wasn't my fault, friend rolled up to pick me up for a lift and didn't tell me his Hilux was the panel shop getting fixed.
Car is basically built cheap, not quick, not class leading, not horrible.
Wouldn't buy one though.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by glavas

from what my old man told me when he was over in korea in 1952 is that it gets very hot in summer and cold in winter.

Your old man is correct. I have spent 4 Winters in Korea where the temp range was a steady neg 15 degrees to neg 5 deg depending on year (loved it) I did 1 Summer there and that was enough! 30 degrees and very humid.

[GTpilot]

Originally Posted by burnz

why wouldn't you??
25* day will give around 50+* temps in the cabin..how long will it take the vent to draw the residual heat out of the dash??

guys I used to work with bought one, it lasted 2 weeks before he had to bail out of the car one due to smoke coming from the vents. the heater system had caught fire.
holden "repaired it" took them 3 mths to do it though

[jason_85]

I bought one... got the auto diesel version. No issues what so ever.

Of course there will be people who have issues with a new car. The thing is you don't see everyone who was "happy" with their new car get on a forum and say that, and if they did it would make a few posts about bad experiences worthless.

[Auslandau]

As the Holden loving Paul Gover said last weekend on the car show on 3AW when someone asked if they should buy a Cruze ..... "No ... they are a bad car with way to many better cars on offer."

In saying that though, I dont hold these type of websites in high regard in deciding what is good or bad

[bobthebilda]

Interesting to see a main spread written about the curze in the saturdays cars guide (newscorp papers). I wonder if when the locally made curze goes on sale, the ads are going to feature the very important fact written in the paper that the curze has only 25% local content. Hyundai advertise that they use australian iron ore, maybe all Hyundai models are more locally mad ethan the curze will be.

Also interesting to see that after the lancer dropped to $20990 and the mazda3 dropped to $21990, that Holden are now starting to offer the curze at $22990 with $1000 cash back. The price drop you have to have, but dont want to admit it.
You can almost hear the gnashing of the teeth at fishermans bend.

[kezzer]

What do you expect for 20k-30k?? I spent more then that on my falcon and its been back for warranty issues 5 times now!! And they still can't work out what the coughing/gargling sound is at any speed under 100km/hr in 6th gear. Quite annoying.

[glavas]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

Your old man is correct. I have spent 4 Winters in Korea where the temp range was a steady neg 15 degrees to neg 5 deg depending on year (loved it) I did 1 Summer there and that was enough! 30 degrees and very humid.

Yeah my dad was in the army over there during the war.he reckons it's a good country very hilly he says..

[OZF6]

Daewoo are awesome, don`t hate!

[Danny]

Originally Posted by kezzer

What do you expect for 20k-30k?? I spent more then that on my falcon and its been back for warranty issues 5 times now!! And they still can't work out what the coughing/gargling sound is at any speed under 100km/hr in 6th gear. Quite annoying.

Spot on.

Every Car has its issues. VW Golf GTi's have a universal exhaust rattle. Falcons have driveline shunt (admittedly its soaked up a little with the 6 speed), Commodores have shocking base V6 engines, and BMW M3 E46's have exhaust rattles and some niggling rattle drama's

Our 07' X5 has had issues here and there, as have the F6 and the XR6T. My old Renault never had a problem in 4 years from new, and Mum has a Cruze Petrol, that has been fantastic. Lads and tarts, you wins some you lose some, no matter what the vehicle.

for $20k, it feels great inside, has soft touch materials, Auto down windows with the keyfob (Falcon?), auto lights and wipers (wipers Falcon?), CD/MP3 standard with iPod, trip computer and Climate control.

As someone who spends and who has spent a great deal of time In european vehicles, the cruze is a very impressive car for $20k if not the quickest, or best handling thing on the road, it feels solid, and shouldn't be discounted because it is korean, OR because it is a Holden..

EDIT:- So 9 people whinged about their Cruze. Some people are prone to piszing and moaning about anything and everything thats not 110% perfect. Being a builder I know this ALL too well. I wonder how many niggles these same people would be whinging about should the car have been a commodore or shock horror a base model falcon which near costs $40K these days...

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by glavas

Yeah my dad was in the army over there during the war.he reckons it's a good country very hilly he says..

It is the only other country I would (or could) ever live in long term. I have been there 5 times in 5 years for work and am contemplating a move there for 6-12 months in the next year or 2 with the wife before we have kids.

Had my brother not been getting married in Jan I would be going there again to teach for the month of Jan with my wife (also a teacher) to escape the Sydney heat.

About 2/3rds is mountainous / hilly terrain. One of the most popular outdoor sports is hiking and a bunch of us fine strapping young 20-something teachers were put to shame on a steep and snowy hike when we were overtaken by a 60-something lady with stocks pretty much jogging past us... up hill.

There is a lot of mis-information about South Korea as well. Most teachers I prep for work there by email / phone prior to their first visit assume it is like Vietnam / Thailand / China where it is all dodgy and unsafe.

Sorry to stray off topic, but it is a country I am very passionate about.

Edit: One problem with South Korea... Ford Forums doesn't work there :( :(

[pauljh74]

Originally Posted by Danny

Some people are prone to piszing and moaning about anything and everything that's not 110% perfect.

While it is fair to expect a car to be put together reasonably well and not break down repeatedly from new - part of the problem is that some people have say $15-$20k to spend and think, I'll buy a cheap new car with a warranty - because warranties are so fantastic and make my car invincible. They don't consider buying a decent low km, 3 year old car that was designed and built better to begin with for the same money. Perhaps a used Honda or Mazda may have been a better pick than a Holwoo. In 10 years the better cars will likely still be going stronger.

[NAFairlane]

As an Employee of a Holden service department i get to drive and service these cars on a daily basis. As said above all cars have teething problems and just general things that go wrong frequently, no car is perfect. (falcon and territory lower ball joints, diff bushes, heater flaps and shafts, HIM modules)
Yes the petrol auto is very gutless and makes a lot of noise without going anywhere, the petrol engine is from the astra but is detuned to allow better fuel economy. However the manual diesel model is a great car to drive. They have a nice modern interior, the exterior looks modern and stylish.
They arent as bad as some people point out, theres just a few bad stories that get taken out of context and exaggerated a fair bit which happens with all cars.

[FalconXV]

I suspect its because the GMDAT factory in Korea is the world supply of GM small cars, making several times more than our factories, for example. The more you pump out the harder it is to manage consistency. Also I suspect the average wage is lower, which is also bad for quality.
When the Cruze starts being built here, I expect quality will improve. The European imports were sh*tboxes too.