New Barina cheaper

Press, 9 May 1985, Page 32

New Barina cheaper

By

PETER GREENSLADE

Trentham-based General Motors set a cat among the pigeons last week when it revealed its 1.3 litre Holden Barina, a badge-engineered version of Suzuki’s new Swift, announcing that the two and four door hatchbacks would retail in basic form for $13,900 and $14,000 respectively. Those prices leave General Motors’ main competitors in the four door 1.3 litre hatchback class, the Toyota Corolla ($16,600) and Ford Laser GL ($16,090), well and

truly out in the cold, although, to my mind, the Barina appears to be a rather lighter car designed in the idiom of the IOOOcu cm Daihatsu Charade four door hatchback $14,700) and similar Subaru Justy ($14,250), both of which are three cylinder cars. On an Auckland-Welling-ton appraisal drive, the Barina turned out to be a smooth riding, quiet tourer, capable of covering inordinately long distances without fuss in each hour. The four cylinder overhead camshaft engine develops 49.5 kW at 5300 rpm and maximum torque is 103.5 Nm at 3700 rpm.

The Barina has a five speed gearbox, fifth being a long-legged overdrive that turns the car into a coward as it approaches an incline. Third gear, however reveals the self sufficient and jaunty nature of the 1.3 litre hatchbacks. It is an extremely lively and useful ratio.

General Motors has also imported 100 GS versions of the Barina. More handsomely equipped and probably marginally better performers than the locallyassembled version. I thought that at $17,000 they were rather expensive two door hatchbacks.

The managing director, Mr Ray Halliday, has predicted that Barina prices will not increase for at least five months. Time on the test run was at a premium and I preferred to taste the performance of the 3 litre fuelinjected Opel Monza and sporty 1.6-litre Opel Kadett, cars from General Motors West German subsidiary, which the New Zealand company proposes to possibly import in limited numbers, probably to add some interest to dealers’ showrooms and, more importantly, to familiarise the New Zealand car-buying public with a name that has dropped out of the local motoring scene. The first Labour Government negotiated a barter deal with Nazi Germany of butter for cars. The deal proved rancid, but the cars were good. It seems likely that from 1987 General Motors’ larger cars will come from Korea and will be known as Opel Commodores.