As part of Holden’s concerted effort to release 24 new or refreshed models by 2020, the venerable Barina has recently come in for a significant refresh.
Damian O’Carroll reports.
Part of the local Holden line up since 1985 – it was even being assembled in New Zealand at one stage – the Barina has, like all small cars, faced the pressure of a shrinking small car segment, while small SUV’s explode in popularity.
Which, of course, means the Barina has in-house competition in the form of the also recently refreshed Trax, but Holden hasn’t left the Barina to wither on the vine, giving it a new face and a few other tweaks for 2017.
Starting with that new face, it has to be said that the new look is a huge improvement, and the old nose was actually a good looking little thing to begin with!
While a big car face on a small car doesn’t always work, it does work very well indeed on the Barina. Added to the new face, the new alloy wheel design looks particularly good as well.
Up the back things don’t work quite so well, however, with the new taillights looking okay on our black test car, but the gloss black surrounds are a bit heavy-handed on other colours.
The Barina has also had a light refresh on the inside with the interior looking great and being nicely laid out. Holden’s excellent MyLink touchscreen infotainment system still dominates the dash, but this time comes complete with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which are both beautifully integrated.
The seats are comfortable and nicely supportive, but there is still WAY too many hard plastics used that cheapen the experience, while the artificial leather is a bit cheap feeling as well.
Out on the road the Barina’s 1.6-litre engine is powerful enough and relatively refined, but still has an unfortunate tendency to get thrashy and coarse up in the revs, while the six-speed automatic transmission is still horribly slow-witted and clumsy.
Which is a massive shame, because the chassis is actually capable of being rather fun on a spirited drive and boasts excellent ride quality for such a small car, while the steering has good feel and is nicely weighted.
The Barina is an attractive, well-packaged small car that is brilliantly comfortable and impressively capable on the open road. It is just a shame that the engine and transmission aren’t quite up to the rest of it.
Just a tad more refinement in the engine and transmission department would hoist the Barina up to a similar position that the smaller Spark holds in the segment down. We could even forgive the attractive and well laid-out interior’s hard plastics if this were the case.
Still, the Barina does still have a lot of upsides, with its excellent seat and ride comfort, as well as the brilliantly integrated infotainment system.
You also get an impressive amount of equipment as standard, with the LT coming with cruise control, automatic headlights, rear park assist, a rear view camera, LED daytime running lights, 17-inch alloy wheels, heated seats, keyless entry and start, fog lamps, a leather steering wheel and gear shifter, and a trip computer.
Considering that the cars directly above (Trax) and below (Spark) the Barina in the Holden range have such good engines, it is just disappointing that the Barina still has to soldier along with a unit that isn’t quite as good as it deserves.
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Specifications
Body type 5 door hatch
Drive Front-wheel-drive
Engine type Inline four-cylinder petrol
Engine capacity 1598cc
Max power 85kW @ 6000rpm
Max torque 155Nm @ 4000rpm
Fuel consumption 6.6L/100km
C02 emissions
0-100km/h n/a
Front suspension MacPherson strut
Rear suspension Torsion beam
Roof rack No
ABS brakes Yes
Airbags 6
Stability programme Yes
Air conditioning Manual
Lap/diagonal belts 5
Satellite navigation No
Electric seats No
Burglar alarm Yes
Boot release No
Cargo cover Yes
Boot capacity n/a\
Wheel type 17-inch alloy
Spare tyre Inflator kit
ANCAP rating 5 Star
Price $25,990
