Holden Barina 2003 Problems

There are any number of possible reasons, from a shot battery to a faulty starter, and a multitude of other things in between. Take it to a mechanic and have it checked.

The jury is out about E10 at the moment; it is supposed to be satisfactory for modern cars, but there are too many reports like yours that suggest that's not quite right. You could run the Barina on premium unleaded and not have a problem and that's probably the best thing to do if you are concerned about ethanol.

Yes, any competent mechanic can do it, there’s no need to have a Holden dealer do the work.

Yes, it is worth checking. It could just be leaking and need new seals, but it really depends on the rate of the leak. If it’s leaking at a rapid rate you should be able to see oil on your driveway, if it’s not it might just be that you need to check it once a week and top it up as needed. If you are worried take it to your dealer, or an auto transmission specialist.

Reliability and resale should be the key factors in your decision, given you're doing about 30,000km a year. That's considerably more than the average, and in three years you'd be clocking up close to 100,000km. With that in mind I suggest you go for a Japanese brand with a reputation for quality and reliability. That way you are more likely to have a trouble-free run and have a car that will be highly valued on the used-car market when you come to sell it. The Lanos and Accent are both built in Korea by companies whose credo was cheap, cheap, cheap. While the reliability of their products wasn't necessarily poor, their cars weren't built as well as their more expensive Japanese-made rivals. The Korean makes don't hold their values as well as the cars from Toyota, Mazda, Honda and Nissan. I'd consider a Nissan Pulsar, a Mazda 121, Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla, all of which are good, robust cars with good resale potential.