Video 2017 Holden Astra "Don't Buy" Warning | Auto Expert John Cadogan | Australia

Astra’s not such a bad car, simplistically. The detail design of the interior is not as good as a Mazda3 or Hyundai i30 - dollar for dollar. Nor is it as space efficient. Despite all three being the same size, you get 10 per cent more cargo volume in an i30, and 13 per cent more in a Mazda3. If you’re thinking about breeding over the term of ownership, that might be significant.
The 1.4 turbo petrol engine in the cheaper models is OK - it’s comparable with the 2.0-litre non-turbo engines in equivalent Mazda3, Impreza and i30. But Astra has a nine-month service interval, where Mazda, Subaru and Hyundai all have 12 - this is significant if you’re a low-mileage driver.
Unfortunately, Astra’s 1.6 turbo petrol engine requires premium unleaded. And even though it demands this more expensive fuel - which pumps up the ownership cost considerably - it does not deliver any more performance than the Hyundai, which runs happily on 91.
The price of fuel is very important to many new car buyers, and while there’s a general obsession with fuel economy, a lot of buyers - maybe you - forget to check the minimum octane requirement.
Astra also has a space-saver spare wheel and tyre. That is completely unacceptable on (quote-unquote) “Australia’s own” carmaker - nice job dismissing the needs of everyone who might drive long distances in regional areas. Jesus. What happened to core values. Did we fall over on them in the shower, suddenly?
Holden has done a great job on the suspension tuning - they’re pretty good at that. So at least the Astra is set up for Australia’s crap roads. And it looks OK - except for the sedan, which is as ugly as a Honda City - and that’s profoundly ugly. Still - a subjective assessment there. The only one in this report.
Owning a car is not a three- to five-year road test by you. It’s a serious, medium-term financial commitment. You are locked into that car for your mobility. And this leads me to the main reasons not to buy the Astra.
Firstly: Holden is terrible at customer support, and renowned for selling unreliable cars to uninformed Australians. Holden has been so bad at this, for such a long time, that the corporate watchdog, the ACCC, recently attempted to put Holden’s head in a vice via a court-enforceable undertaking to comply with the legislated consumer guarantees.
You know a company is behaving badly when the ACCC issues a press release (August 3rd) entitled “Holden undertakes to comply with consumer guarantees” - I couldn’t make this up. Like, in what universe is it newsworthy when a company agrees to comply with legislation. It implies that compliance with the law up to this point was only optional.
What sort of limp-dick regulatory environment declares it OK to fail to comply with legislation? Consumer guarantees exist to protect you - with a right to refund or replacement by ensuring that there are minimum requirements like fit for purpose and reasonable durability.
For many years Holden has treated these guarantees as completely negotiable. It’s absolutely immoral. Like, you’re a king when you’re on the showroom floor, but a slave in the service department.
People always accuse me of bashing Holden, and to those critics I would say: A bash is where you deliver intentionally, a tsunami toxic fiction. However, these are facts. You cannot bash someone with the facts. The ACCC’s action is a fact. Easily verifiable, like the rest of the facts here, should you wish to investigate independently.
So, with its head currently in the ACCC’s vice, Holden admitted the breathtaking panorama of its consumer misrepresentation, and its widespread breaches of consumer law. This is a fact. The e-mails I have received for years from Holden owners at the end of their tether - left completely out in the cold - they’re facts. And I would not want you to walk a mile in their shoes.
Doing battle with a corporation such as Holden, in court - is a soul-destroying, financially debilitating exercise - even if you win. Then, Holden will attempt to slap you with a gag order - a non-disclosure agreement - just to shut you up. I’m told this remains standard operating procedure at Holden even today.
Lastly, you need to consider Holden’s protracted slide to obscurity - 147,000 sales in 2007. Fast-forward 10 years: 94,000 sales last year - that’s Nagasaki on the morning of August 10, 1945, commercially. And there’s no evidence Holden has stopped the bleeding, having just fired one in 10 of its dealers. Things are looking very bleak for Holden’s future.
And then there’s the French, and the entirely unknown way Peugeot-Citroen ownership of Opel will play into Holden’s future product. Both these facts play into the risk of depreciation disaster, which Holden Cruze owners today feel only too acutely.