Holden Captiva 2008 Problems

$1000 does sound like a lot of money to fix an oil leak; I reckon a local mechanic could do it for less. The cost aside I would accept the deal, the car is out of warranty and an oil leak is not something I would spend time and energy fighting over.

You have to fix it, it's worth virtually nothing with a damaged engine, so there's no way around spending the money. But I would be very keen to find out what caused it to fail, and whether it's perhaps a manufacturing fault that has caused it.

The Captiva is an SUV, which means it's relatively heavy, and you pay a dear price in the form of tyre wear for hauling around all that weight. Getting 45,000 km from a set of tyres isn't a bad effort on that car. The tyres you have used previously are quality brands, so you won't do much better by switching to another make. If you wanted to change brands you could try Michelin or Bridgestone.

I would also urge owners who have the same problem with their Captivas to contact Holden and register their concerns. There is little doubt that the Captiva has a problem with wheel alignment that results in rapid and uneven tyre wear.

Yours is not the first report we've had of Captivas pulling to the   left, and so far we know of no fix for the problem. We referred your   complaint to Holden who have checked their complaint system, but they   tell us that there are no reports relating to your car in their   system. They have asked us to supply the dealer's name so they can   follow it up further. If you supply us with the name we will pass it on.

I believe there is a problem with premature and uneven tyre wear on the Captiva, we’ve certainly had a number of reports similar to yours. The fact that the dealer wants to fit bolts to the rear suggests that’s to fix an inherent problem, and yes I would approach the dealer to have the work covered by the warranty. Tyres, of course, are not normally covered by the warranty, but what you are talking about is unreasonably premature wear.

We are keen to hear from readers with abnormal tyre wear in Captivas, because Holden knows enough to fit suspension-adjusting bolts in later cars.

FIRST, the fuel consumption is clearly good, so that's a plus. Your gripes are typical of what you can experience with a smallish outfit that doesn't have the clout, and sometimes the willingness, to press the factory to get things fixed. Adding to your possible woes is the change in local distributors to Sime Darby, the Peugeot distributors for Australia. I'd guess the old distributors have little interest in fixing problems like yours and the incoming distributor may have little more interest in fixing problems left over from the old people.