2009 Holden Barina Review
December 2, 2008 by Matt Brogan
2009 Holden Barina Review & Road Test
Safer, better looking, but stuck in a time warp
Model Tested:
- 2009 Holden Barina TK9 1.6-litre, four-speed automatic, five-door hatchback – $17,990 (RRP)
Options:
- ‘Style Pack’ – ABS & Alloy Wheels $1,190 (Fitted); Metallic Paint $400
Suits City Driving; Looks Good; Four-Star Safety Rating
Cheap Interior; Storage Space; Child Seat Anchor Locations
CarAdvice Rating: 
- by Rose Harris
There is no denying the fact that Holden has come under heavy criticism in the past for its woeful two-star ANCAP safety rating on the TK Barina.
The new version, the TK9 (Model Year 2009), has seen Holden rectify its safety sins and double the star rating to four and kudos must go to the manufacturer for taking responsibility and improving safety of the small car.
However, it seems to me that the added two safety stars are where the improvements begin and end, and that the Barina appears stuck in a time warp, especially when lined up against its competitors.
Let’s talk safety improvements to begin with. The body-shell has been enhanced with three clearly defined load paths to absorb impact and offset front-end collision as well as support the entire structure of the passenger cell over a larger area.
As well, high-strength steel has been used to reinforce the B-pillar and side impact airbags are now fitted as standard. With these added safety features, the Barina has come up to par with its competitors in the safety stakes – finally.
Despite the long list of safety improvements, I was still left feeling somewhat underwhelmed when I took the wheel of the new Barina.
It certainly doesn’t feel modern and the plastic’s cheap feel is quite prominent. I found myself constantly questioning why you would shell out good money for this when there are so many better options on the market in the same price range.
From the outside, the Barina looks good, it has the city-slick persona and it’s silver side air vents and front grill fit in with Holden’s new range and it looks, well, deceptively modern from the exterior.
Inside however is a different story. Holden have attempted to pretty up the insides by adding a silver trim along the dash and doors, but there is no hiding the budget feel of this vehicle.
Alex, considering you didnt even know the model of Ford you were driving (it was either XR6 or G6E turbo) your comments on how it drove are totaly irrelevant. Saying that the car you drove was “horrible” compared to the Mondeo xr5 just defies belief. You seriously wouldn’t know a good handling performance sedan if it slapped you in your naive and ignorant face.
From your tone, you obviously have a strong bias against Ford and this new FG. You would have blastered the FG even if it was a Mondeo XR5 but badged as a Falcon. Why do you think the turbo variant has just won Carsguide car of the year, and every other review as you stated notes how good a car the FG is?
Can I invite you to get out from behind your computer to visit Holden or Ford HQ to tell the engineers face to face that they produce second class cars? Because you obviously know better then they do about how they should build their cars right?. Im sure the chasis engineer would love to hear your comment on the “loads of body roll”.
Giving kudos for bringing in a 4 star car when they previously had a 4 star car and replaced it with a 2 star s#@theap is like giving Martin Bryant kudos because he hasn’t shot anyone lately. For the price you could get a decent second hand car and be a lot happier with the result. Although i’m a blue oval man myself, I can sympathize with the holden fans having their beloved icon plastered all over these cheap and nasty piles of crap. Park one outside the Holden factory at Elizabeth, SA and see how long it will last before someone takes a baseball bat to it. Shame Holden Shame!!!
Noel,
Mate you are wrong. Holden WILL NOT DESIGN a new medium sized car here. They WILL more than likely BUILD one here.
Search news.com for “holdens 4 cyl fightback”.
Unfortunately IF it happens it most likely will be a simple facelift to an existing Opel or Daewoo model.
To Conrod, I obviously don’t drive a cheap and nasty Holden as I have said in all my other comments how horrible this car is and I know an awful lot about cars thank you very much. It was an XR6 Turbo I drove because it had a cheap and nasty spoiler on the back that I don’t think the G6 E has. I do not have bias against Ford actually. I love the Mondeo, the Focus, Fiesta, Ka, Kuga and although I don’t like the look of the Falcon, from the reviews I had read I was fully expecting to blown away. I was not. It was rather ordinary.
And I know very well what a sedan with good handling is like. I know what the M5 is like, the 159, the 3 Series, XF, Quattroporte – I could go on. The Falcon was just a bit too numb.
Is it possible the one I was driving was wrong? I don’t know. I didn’t particualrly want to drive another one so I didn’t. I know what body roll is and that car had it.
As for cars guide car of the year, how exactly did that car deserve to win over the XF, the 135i, the Accord, The EVO or the A4. I’ll admit that some of those cars were just never gonna win but the ones I just listed, especially the Jaguar, BMW and the Mitsubishi are definitley better than the Ford and the Audis a better all rounder.
Alex…..as i said before you DONT KNOW WHAT A GOOD CAR IS if you think the FG XR6 Turbo is crap like you say. YOU DO NOT KNOW MUCH about cars if you have this view because you SO SO wrong !! Too late to say you dont hate Fords because you DO hate them if you cant see the FG is a great looking well engineered car……..so go away. Go to the Holden blogs where you can wank over bogan Commodores to your hearts content…….Bye Bye !!!
Alex……Heard the news? FG FALCON XT won the BEST LARGE CAR AWARD …….and it was praised for its handling and road holding quality interior safety(5 stars of course) performance fuel economy ……..need I go on? There you go ALex…..show what you wrote about the FG is TOTAL CRAP !!!! lol LOSER ALEX !!!
Actually Conrod, I hate Holdens with a passion. I’d still rather a Falcon about a thousand times more than a crappy Commodore but the Falcon is hardly the 5 Series competitor people are trying to crack it up to be. And why don’t you go away, I’ve been commenting on this website for a long, long time and I hadn’t seen your name until a couple of weeks ago, unless you’ve changed it from something else. I don’t think that you know all that much about cars considering you seem to think the Falcon is the best car in the world. It shows that you’re not very cultured in the cars you have driven. And by the way, it’s funny how it starts winning all these awards just as sales are seriously lowering. I’m just saying.
Oh, and Conrod, are you fourteen years old by any chance? Not many people of a driving age would write thing such as loser, lol or do repeated question marks to try and emphasize something. Just a bit childish no? And of course the fact that you appear to be getting mad over the fact that I don’t like the Falcon.
Ahhh, Bret you are wrong. I didn’t say Holden were building a medium sized car here, but a “small car”
What I did say is Holden is evaluting importing the Insignia medium sized car next year and building a small car the year after.
Please re-read my post carefully….and slowly.
Actually Alex, I own and prefer the Commodore over the Falcon anyday, and so it seems do most Australians.
Don’t give in to these 14 year old trolls
Holden are getting the old Vectra assembly line [at teh other end of the fatory] ready to build a small car – possibly by 2010.. Hopefully the Insignia will replace the Epi-crap
Hey guys, just read up on the new Ford Fiesta the other day, and guess where that will be built ?
To all you Ford fanboys out there knocking the Barina, standby for the Holden boys to get you back……..
STAY TUNED
;)
TOMTOM your a tooltool………..
You trying to tell us its getting built in the Daewoo factory????????
Holden ,Ford …..who cares,the Barina is crap in any ones eyes if your a true car lover. Even Holden lovers hate the piece of junk!
Peter…….No..most Australians dont really prefer Commodore over Falcon. Nearly all Commodore sales are FLEET sales where it doesnt matter if a car has a crappy engine and transmission and crap plastic interior because they just thrash them and give them back. And its obvious they are not selling many because they are shutting down the line for an extra month. This is the prelude to the end of Holden…….
TomTom The difference between a Barina-woo and the Fiesta is that the Fiesta is a good car regardless of where it is built. The Barina-woo could be built in any factory in the world and it would still be crap because its a crap car anyway.
Holden WILL NOT build a small car in Australia because they have invested all their money in the Commodore. They simply cant afford to tool up and make another car. This is just Holden media diversion to take the focus (No Pun intended) off Ford building the Focus here in a few years. Holden dealers are shutting up all over the place…..isnt it great !!!!1
mr pin,
how you doing dingo???
Ahhhh Gudgeon Pin, maybe if you bothered to check the facts you would know then that 85% of Falcon sales are to fleet and 70% of Commodore sales are to fleet, so which ones sell better to private buyers ?
And which one sells much better each month again ?
LSD, you are wrong, Holden is building a small car in Australia with a budget of $500 million and it will be designed here, unlike the overseas designed Focuss.
And for those that can’t wait, the Fiesta is being built in a crappy factory in Thailand, so should we start calling it the “Fiesthai”
I wouldn’t buy one of these 3rd world built crappy Fiestas either, at least Korea ain’t a 3rd world country hahahahaha
Noel…didn’t think anyone could get confirmation from Holden regarding their small car plans. To be honest I figured the speculation was another Holden marketing exercise, as when journos have tried to get confirmation Holden couldn’t come to the table.
Take your word for it as I presume you are an insider?
why get this hunk of junk whne a mzda 2 or getz are years ahead.the barina is the commodores grnada and if i had a choice i would go and buy a second hand XC barina instead of this.MY major concern is wtf holden is doing. when daewoo left chevrolet shoul shave been introduced for this rubbish then holden could keep the euro modelds and seel them for a premium and become more of a honda company.But as they didnt do that in the next 5 years holden will have 3 deisng languages.. Korea [chevy in USA and europe]…Europe[opel/vauxhall in europe.Saturn in the USA] an then commodore [holden in oz pontiac in USa] so holden will be selling beatuiful insignias and caprices alongside barinas and vivas.
Just for the record, Holden faired better in sales last month than Ford.
Holden sold 4400 Commodores and Ford only sold 2600 Falcons.
Holden is also reporting good business this month with their price reductions, with some models hard to get.
Barina sales have also increased which reflects the improved safer model being released at $13,990 driveaway
Take away fleet sales and you have the Corolla in front with the Mazda 3 just behind. So when people spend their OWN hard earned money, the Commodore isn’t Australia’s favorite car.
WRT Ford building the Fiesta in Thailand. Don’t forget the Honda Accord (non Euro) and the majority of our commercial utilities are made in Thailand and not all of them are of dodgy quality. The quality of the finished product will be dependent on how ‘fussy’ the parent company is on what comes out the other end, not due to where it is made. With the Barina I guess GM are happy to let a car of that quality being shipped to the dealers…
The Commodore and Falcon, while not world beaters in quality etc, are good, solid cars considering the size of our market and represent outstanding value for money and are something we should be proud of. However I would never buy either of them because they do not suit my current situation. :-)
Devils Advocate: WTF? the only real reason the Corolla is currently in second place just behind the VE Commodore is because of fleet sales.. the majority of which to rental car companies – some of which turnover their fleets more often than government departments.
If you want to talk private sales… I would say that going by sales figures over the past coule of months that more and more private buyers who are looking for a hatchback are buying either Mazda 2/3s Ford Focus or VW Golfs as they look better; offer more features; better performance and are just as sanfe and reliable as the Corolla which is supposedly the benchmark for the Hatchback sector.
The Corolla used to be Toyotas “bread and butter car” but they have lost focus and in that time its rivals have closed the gap and in some areas they have overtaken it
Why should you not take fleet sales into account, Devil’s Advocate? It’s like saying your favourite footy team was beaten on the weekend just because the other mob kicked more goals.
So unfair.
If it’s soccered through, it’s still a goal.
Exactly Golfie car companies and dealerships are prepared to do almost anything to get a sale…and if that means offering extra [optional] features at no estr cost or massive discounts so be it..
I mean a mate of BMs Brother recently bought a Voodoo VE SS Ute [having been for a ride in BMs brothers SS Ute].
When he was in the dealership placing his order; the Salesman said “what do I have to do to close the deal?” the guy said “18 cases of Pure Blonde in the back”. The salesman asked his manager came back and said Okay….deal”
Noel,
Please read the following quote from GM-H:
Mr Reuss was confident the GM GLOBAL platforms could be used by Holden in an economically viable way to produce a competitive vehicle. “It could be done in Australia in a cost-competitive way,” he said.
Don’t expect an Australian designed small car to be built here. What you can expect is a locally facelifted, probably Korean designed (engineered), small car built here.
I’m happy with the bite I got!! ;-) I thought the name would give it away! I am just giving another perspective which some blinker wearers on this site are too naive to accept. The Corolla, even after taking away fleet sales was still the biggest seller in the last survey I saw. It is just there are more fleet Commodores. I think including non-fleet sales as well as total sales is a valid tool that should be made more public. It can assist you in choosing which car you may want to buy as cars used in fleets generally have poorer resale values. Just look at the resale of a Commodore Omega!
You people need to stop complaining…This is the modern world. The next barina/aveo/corsa/gentra will be designed by holden and opel mainly and be built in Korea. Korea now makes good cars and as you can see with the captiva its a well built car. Holden has done a good job at imrpoving the Barina. With upgrading the saftey to 4 stars and infact this car appeals to young people very well because it is affordabel and stylish. And now it will appeal even more including their parents. This current Barina is really only a tempoary car and expect to see the next generation late next year. Plus may I aware you what would you rather have your child go out and get for their first car, a beaten up old Toyota with a 1 star saftey rating or a brand new Holden Barina with a 4 star saftey rating and is just as relibel. I think we should be great full that car companys are trying to make affordabel cars for every one.
igot a sv6 and at the same time got a $13990 barina for my wife as i didnt want her to drive my sv6.guess witch car had all the warrenty problems and was an absoloute pig to drive and had a cheap and nasty interior?why the sv6 of course i have never owned such a peice of crap as this car.i now own a mazda 6 very nice.and the barina well it just gets on and does the job it was designed for to and from work and shopping.not 1 warrenty claim and a build quality not much below the $40.000 sv6.not great to drive but at $13990 its never going to be a drivers car.has holden lost the plot?after 7 months of owning that sv6 i would say yes.
For what it is, it seems pretty reasonable ecconomically, although I don`t know the specific details of it all. Seriously though, check how badly crammed the poor sod`s gonna be who has to climb into the back seats…Hope he`s not anywhere above 5 foot cause if he is, time for a leg amputation.
Nic, are you really that gullable, or think that others are?
The next barina IS another Daewoo.
Holden had nothing to do with improving the Barina from 2 to 4 stars – it was Deawoo.
Noel,
Told ya so!
Daewoo designed 4 cyl to be built at GMH Elizabeth.
Only minor cosmetics and “localization” changed for Aus.
I Had a ford KA pice of crap all $18,000 had it for 5 year and it fell apart around me traded it in on a wonderful 1985 merc 190e with 159,000 ks on the clock.
and what wrong with it after having it 18 mths now a Big Fat 0 and all it cost me wast $5000 and yes the parts are cheep for it to.
there is not one thing wrong with after 24 years of being on the road. i have alway had new cars, but i would have this is by far the best car i have ever had.
i know one thing that most of the cars that cost 4 or five time thats will not be as good as in 25 years time.
one only has to read European Motoring Magazines or Check Out Pictures of the Opel Corsa in the Car Rental Parts of Travel Brochures to Britain and Europe to see where Holden went wrong going Daewoo to replace the XC series Barina even before it’s replacement came out in Germany.
i just bought a barina and loving it. the safety features of every car now a days is an advantage. I been driving for 14 years with my old car that doesn’t have all those features now and never had an accident. I’d say no safety features can replace a safe and sensible drivers. And I say wherever the car is made if you dont take care of it youll have lots mechanical problem with it. So my suggestions, have it service regularly and dont pust it over the limit, youll enjoy it for a long time. By the way my old car wes a korean made so i got no problem getting a barina.
I have Chevy Aveo Limited Edition 1.2 SE 4 Airbag ABS 90 HP in Turkey, but here, they are from Germany and also have the exact quality of Opel technology. The price you wander is 25.000 Turkish Liras that equals to $24.000 .Comparing to Volvo, Merc, BMW, yes, its a piece of crap I agree with that but to people who have limited budgets, quite ideal car, where all cars take you where you wanna go. I also agreee to what Marie is saying driving sensibly saves you. I pay $ 5.00 dollars for per gallon, the worlds most expensive fuel. Aveo is the ideal small car you could get.
Holden Barina is attractive from the outside. Better than old model. Interior not too bad. Epica takes 1st in that. Overall not a bad car. Next one hear within a year. Go Holden!
it is a sad day that i purchased a new 2009 holden barina but what a relief to get rid it
after many countless battles with holden and the dealer i have given up in disgust and sold the thing
problems at 1000km replaced throttle control sensor 2500km replaced complete rear axle assembly then never ending battle with the dealer to fix the steering as it was a real country car wanted to go bush all the time finally fault was mm sort of corrected at least i could drive in a straight line .hey i dont drink
all front steering bushes need to be checked
when reporting a knock in the motor the answer was oh holden are aware of this problem and are working on a fix for it but just keep driving
gearbox syncros well enough said
fuel economy forget it 8.5li per 100 from a 1.6li thats not ok
the barina is a poorly built car with very little quality control and
holden should have put a bit more thought into the handling, noise control and economy