I’m not sure why I never really connected with my third car, but on three separate occasions I contemplated selling it. When an annoying front suspension knock emerged and quickly became too loud to ignore, I finally followed through and sold my Calais after two years of ambivalence.
The front suspension knock wasn’t anything that affected driveability or safety but it alternated between a repetitive, loud knock, much like the sound of driving over a series of hard speed bumps, and a hiss akin to an electric kettle coming off the boil. I had registered to become an Uber driver and was ready to start driving passengers around when the noise started to occur. My plans to earn a little extra money on the side had to be put on hold, for obvious reasons.
I went to my regular mechanic and was quoted just over $AUD1,000 to fix it. Seeking a second opinion, I went to another mechanic and was quoted $1,500. Oh dear. The Calais had around 170,000 kms (105,000 miles) on the odometer when I bought it in September 2014, higher than I would have liked but I considered the car overall a good deal given its price and condition. But by 2016, my car had over 200,000 kms (124,000 miles) on the clock, therefore having surpassed what I consider the psychological high mileage barrier.
On a lark, I sought the opinion of some dealers who offered as little as $4,500 for a car valued by Redbook as being worth at least $8,000. One dealer justified this lowball trade-in value by saying the GM 3.6 was known for eating timing chains. While that may be so with some of these engines, mine had been trouble free but for an incident in 2015 wherein a radiator hose burst, leaving me stranded and requiring the installation of a new radiator.
You can see where Holden designers received their inspiration. I believe the Calais is better proportioned than this A6 and wouldn’t look out-of-place with a European badge on it.
The Calais was frustrating me more and more to drive and I didn’t want to sink money into repairs that I wouldn’t recoup upon selling the car. While I had always loved the way the Calais looked inside and out, there were certain flaws that had always bothered me and after the suspension noise had started these flaws were now infuriating. Despite solid build quality overall, I hated the sound the doors made when they closed as there was no solid ‘thunk’; a minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless. But that was nothing compared to the aggravatingly stiff ride of the car, owing to the use of the Commodore SS and SS-V’s FE2 suspension tune in 2006-07 Calais models.
On the plus side and rather amazingly for a large sedan, the handling on the Calais was brilliant. The steering was meaty and well-weighted, turn-in was crisp and the car stayed flat in corners with no perceptible body roll. Taking the Calais for a spin around Mounts Nebo and Glorious was a delight, and I would pop it into the excellent manual shift mode and have an absolute blast in the twisties. The problem is, I needed the car more for commuting than I did for mountain drives. And on my daily commute on Brisbane’s mediocre roads, the stiff ride bothered me.
I had found myself longing for my old Falcon, a car I had always adored and had sold with great regret. As I wanted a Calais replacement promptly, I didn’t have time to do my usual list-writing and extensive research. Instead, I scoured Carsales, set a maximum price of around $10,000 as with my last two cars, a maximum age of 10 years (so I could drive it for Uber), and left all the other parameters untouched. I was approaching this process with an open mind and no specific preferences, although I did hold out hope for finding a 2007 Honda Legend (Acura RL) in my price range.
My finds included: a Holden Cruze 1.4 turbo, fully-loaded and with a dramatically slashed price due to the owner’s pending overseas move; two Mitsubishi 380s; a Renault Fluence; and a Suzuki Kizashi. The critically-praised Kizashi proved to be a disappointment, with a dull interior, an oddly springy and uncomfortable ride but a rorty and delightful four-cylinder engine. One 380 had disastrously faded paint, while the other was a lowly base model in refrigerator white. The Fluence was a wildcard, but I decided not to go ahead despite its lengthy features list because nobody knows what a Fluence is and it would have been hard to resell (for reference: it’s a Korean-built Japanese car with a French badge). It also didn’t help that the owner had no clue how to respond to messages. Finally, the Cruze was only two years old and dirt cheap but I just didn’t click with it and didn’t want to be stuck with another car I didn’t love.
I even revisited the same old well and looked at two Falcons. One was a mid-range FG G6, but the interior quality disappointed and the price was too high. Also, beige velour trim? What was Ford thinking? Finally, I looked at an earlier BA XR6, like my old one albeit with an automatic. Inspecting it on the dealer’s forecourt, I realized that perhaps I had romanticized the first car I had ever purchased. The doors? They didn’t close with a solid ‘thunk’. The features list was short. Some of the interior trim pieces were cheap. Then, I remembered that the Falcon had always rode about as stiff as the Calais. The Falcon I had put up on a pedestal had really been no better than the Calais in anything other than low-end torque. In the space of just a few years, I had put on rose-tinted glasses.
My beloved Sooty, shortly before her passing
I continued to lower the price of my Calais online and even paid for an ad on Carsales. I fielded the occasional phone call from slow-talking, tedious buyers who never ended up inspecting the car. In the interim, I purchased a replacement car. The eventual buyer contacted me via my free ad on Gumtree (of course). He was a nice, young Estonian man who appreciated my honesty. I even showed him the quotes for the repairs and told him about the one other issue I had experienced (the radiator hose incident). Being without wheels and relying on his friend’s ute, he was eager to seal the deal and so was I. The next day, he came by with his friend and paid me in cash; he had negotiated a lower price, but it was still well above the dealer’s insults offers. With that, the Calais was gone. Coming so shortly after losing my last grandparent (my mother’s mother) as well as my 16-year old cat, Sooty, whom I had owned since I was a child, I had no tears to shed for a car.
My initial article on my Calais was clearly written too early during my ownership. That initial glow of enthusiasm elicits a shaking of the head from my present-day self. Having learned from this, I shan’t discuss my current vehicle with you just yet.
I had purchased the Calais in somewhat of a rush and initially loved it before its flaws became more apparent. My adoration turned into ambivalence, even if it was a fundamentally decent car and with some truly praiseworthy attributes. Its replacement was similarly purchased with haste but, for the first time, my acquisition of a car came with little excitement or fanfare. The replacement was an exceptionally sensible, practical choice that has stirred no emotions. I have decades ahead of me in which to buy exciting cars that ignite my soul. In the meantime, I have a car that drives well and doesn’t sound like it’s about to fall apart. At this point in my life, that’s good enough for me.
Related Reading:
My Cars of a Lifetime: #1 – Holden Astra; #2 – Ford Falcon; #3 – Holden Calais
Jim Klein’s Cars of a Lifetime: 2014 Chrysler 300C V8 AWD
I always liked the clean styling of these Commodores (and the U.S.-market Pontiac G8). I’m familiar with some of the issues you had over the past year with this car and I’m sorry your ownership experience was less than perfect, especially after the excitement you had when you first got this car.
Here’s to a less dramatic ownership experience with its replacement, and to a more exciting car in the future!
Yes, owning a car that you don’t love but isn’t bad enough to get rid of is a sort of vehicular purgatory, and I have been there. I spent 8 years in big GM rwd C bodies and while there was nothing wrong with them, they just didn’t press enough of my pleasure buttons. I liked them, but I didn’t love them. And having had cars that really satisfied me, it was difficult to get used to just settling.
Some of us really do expect a sort of relationship with our cars. And after having had a really great relationship or two, anything less is just . . . less. I hope your new car makes you happy over the long haul.
I bought a new 2009 G8 with the 3.6, pretty much the same as the one you just sold. I also had repeated problems with the suspension. As well as the:
Door Locks
AC Compressor
Electoral System
Door Locks Again
Top End of the Engine
Suspension Again (The control arms specifically which were replaced 3 times in 90,000 KM)
All that said I still really liked the car. It handled exceptionally well for a big car, more than adequate power and had a very comfortable interior with some of the best seats I have ever sat in. Plus I always found it to be very attractive as well.
I ended up trading it in on a 2012 Volvo S80 because the wife never got used to driving a rear wheel drive car in the snow. I really like the Volvo but it doesn’t have as much character as the Australian Pontiac and isn’t nearly as fun to drive.
Instead of AUD when talking about Australian currency, you should use the term Dollarydoos, that way everyone in the world would know what you are referring to.
Nice write up William. My condolences regarding your grandmother and kitty.
The Holden looks quite good, but I can certainly understand why you grew tired of it.
Shocking how similar the Falcon is styled to the Holden, especially in the greenhouse.
Blame V8 supercar racing they wanted aerodynamic sameness so they got it.
At least you were able to sell it privately with relatively little hassle and for a decent price. In my experience selling any nicer, non-beater car to a private buyer is like getting your teeth pulled out one by one. Some of the people you have to deal with on those classified sites are almost worse than just turning it over the dealership and losing thousands.
I’ve noticed the same pattern with dealership quotes – even with a nice car, it seems like they offer about exactly half the “retail” or even “private party” value for any trade in. But the experience selling privately is so time consuming and unpleasant that a lot of people will eat thousands of dollars and spare the hassle just to avoid it. So the dealers can continue to get away with insulting offers, and keep profiting massively on late-model used cars.
Even for a beater car, it can be a giant PITA. That’s one of the reasons I donated the Alero rather than tried to sell private party when the time came–I didn’t want to deal with the sort of people who are looking to buy a $500 car on Craigslist.
That may sound a bit elitist, but I stand by my statement. I was once one of those people (well a $1k budget but still) and I don’t think my current self would have wanted to deal with my 15 years ago self!
Dealers always lowball its how they make money, they also know most of the faults cars have and the cost of repairs, Ive seen a few Falcons offered cheap lately on FB buy it b4 I wreck it for parts page all needing $1500 worth of suspension repairs now it seems Holdens suffer from the same problems that were unheard of twenty years ago.
William, your decision to rid yourself of a car that you no longer felt attached to, and that needed a significantly expensive repair, sounds like a good one. Once the initial enthusiasm fades, one’s tolerance for being nickel and dimed diminishes accordingly–a four-figure repair makes it seem like the right time to cut and run. While not an identical situation, my daily commute having more than doubled is making me consider the economics of my ownership as well. While the Crown Vic has cost me very little over the 3.5 years I’ve had it, putting 300+ miles a week on it in work commute alone is causing some neglected issues to bubble to the surface, and I need to figure out what my “magic number” is for a car that didn’t cost me anything, but isn’t worth much at this point either!
Not to rain on your as yet unannounced new car parade, but I do want to offer a bit of a cautionary statement on “decades ahead of me in which to buy exciting cars that ignite my soul.” While you undoubtedly have many decades ahead of you, priorities have a way of changing as you age, in ways that you may not like. Part of my logic in trading the Marauder in on the Forte back in 2011 was “well I’ll just get another car just as great in a couple years–I’ve got time.” Fast forward five years and, even though I’m doing much better financially, that time when I get another exciting car seems farther away now than it did then.
There’s a lot to be said for a comfortable, reliable, and drama-free ride–that Kia has been nothing short of exceptional at the 5 year mark and I don’t regret the purchase. But, while I don’t know your current life situation, I do know that significant others, home purchases, family plans, and the like can reshuffle your priorities before you have time to blink. I’m not quite old (about to turn 36) but much of the optimism I had as a younger man has been challenged or redirected in the past 10 years. Or maybe that’s just what passes for maturity.
I have had a similar experience since giving up my vw addiction. Sometimes I miss messing around in the garage, but not when I am late for work. So far there has been much less of this sinced I switched to Nissan and Toyota. I think I am getting older and wiser or maybe I am turning into a lazy old fart…
Thanks for linking to my COAL The Chrysler 300C that I sold for much the same reasons. Liked it a lot when I got it, really cannot fault it at all, it worked wonderfully and was extremely reliable but in the end it just didn’t do it for me so I sold it after a year (described in the subsequent COAL’s to that one).
Sometimes one gets fixated on something and has to try it. It doesn’t always work out. I’d happily recommend that car to others and would be happy to rent one or have someone else in my family get one, just didn’t work out for me personally. Sounds like a similar issue to yours. At least we get say we scratched that itch…
Interesting how you got sick of your Holden, I was shopping new cars in NZ when I got invited to my brothers wedding in Hervey bay, I rented a 06 Commodore in Brisbane and drove up, the lack of low end torque made itself obvious when using the cruise control every slight rise prompted a downshift so I turned that off and just drove it, I was impressed by the fuel economy at average 119kmh I was using 7L/100kms better than my 2.0L Toyota in NZ but the stiff uncomfortable ride and very average handling put me off ever buying one, when I did change cars it was into a 98 406 Peugeot superior in every way to the ‘Aussie’ redesigned Opel, After some months in the Pug my daughter and I got taken out locally by my sis and bil in a brand new XR6 falcon rental, what a piece of crap clanking suspension on a car with less than 1000 kms racked up and an awful ride, the base model Ford was withdrawn from rental fleets here, my BIL who at the time worked for Ford just said ‘drive one you’ll see why’ with then threats of closure they didnt need the bad publicity of a very mediocre car hurting sales where the better handling XR models might generate some sales, My brother recently bought a 09 XR8 with a FPV assembled V8 engine and loves it, plenty of power he reckons.
In my long experience of fixing cars, if one were to want a vehicle that gives long service with few repairs, a GM car may not be the best choice.
That teal Barina will outlive the next 5 cars you get lol. I had mine for 22 years and I still see it driving around, can’t kill those things
Modern GM cars = front suspension problems
All GM cars of all time: front end problems. At least in the old sleds it was cheap to fix.
Nice looking car! I guess that was our Pontiac G8? I can identify with you that an annoying noise in an otherwise satisfactory older car can present a quandry: how much money do you put into quieting an annoyance when it actually functions fine? I bought my 2007 S550 two years ago at 150,000 miles on ebay, for less than trade in. I repaired a few simple flaws myself and was very pleased until….you guessed it…..a very annoying groan/creaking began from the front end. All the time. Over any surface, no matter how smooth.
I put up with it until recently and decided that after two years and now 170,000 total miles some money to quiet the creak was worthwhile, as the car continues to be completely wonderful otherwise. It turned out to be the upper control arms/integrated bushings and $200 parts and $250 labor later, it is quiet as a mouse and the steering feel is vastly improved as well, a day and night difference really in how well it tracks.
It’s annoying when you get a car you can’t really connect with. I can really sympathise with you there.
My ’05 Mazda 3 was like that, but in the Mazda’s case what caused the trouble was the unbearable road noise on country roads where I spend most of my time. I came to understand why they put audio controls on the steering wheel – you have to use them so much to drown out that ever-present tyre roar. Changing tyre brands didn’t help; it was even noisy on Michelins.
It was quiet in town, where you couldn’t use that great handling and grip; but out on the open road in between corners there was that ever-present awful noise. Maybe Aussie bitumen is different from the rest of the world, as road tests seem to hint at, but that’s what I have to drive on, so when Jane got the Mini, a friend from church bought the Mazda as a graduation present for his son. I wasn’t sad to see it go. I’d wanted to like it, and it had a lot going for it, but ultimately we have to drive the reality, not what we imagine the car to be.
That seems to be a Mazda thing Ol Pete my BIL had a new 6 wagon when they first came out it was his company car for work he liked it but I found it noisy to ride in after my 93 Corona every loose stone it ran over banged against the under side like there was no sound deadener sprayed on it and that was on city streets just going over road works I’d hate to be in it on a gravel road.
Yes, when the initial glow and thrill die away, then the true test of the car is a hand. Kind of like with people. Some are keepers, some aren’t. 🙂
It’s interesting hearing the real-deal with cars that Americans tend to idolize just because we can’t have them.
Last year I got to drive both the Falcon and Commodore on a four day road trip around New Zealand. I started out with a late-model Commodore Sportwagon 3.6 that drove very nicely, handled great especially for a wagon. It seemed quite modern to me as well, although I prefer older cars personally. I drove it from Greymouth to Picton on the south island and then had to leave it with the rental company when I took the ferry.
On the north island i got a late-model Falcon XR6 which I loved. I drove it in a hurry from Wellington to Napier as fast as possible and it hugged the road and felt far more powerful than the Holden 3.6, which in that torque-less way of modern cars seems designed for big horsepower numbers but feels disappointing in normal driving. The Falcon looks rather plain-Jane and the interior is noticeably less modern, but the 4.0 straight six is a jewel of an engine and the car is totally sorted. It was easily my favorite to drive and if I was to move to the Antipodes I’d be buying one.
They are pretty good. It helps that they are under square with a Bore: 92.26 mm (3.6 in) and Stroke: 99.31 mm (3.9 in).
In comparison the Holden 3.6l V6 has a bore of 94.0 mm (3.70 in) and a stroke of 85.6 mm (3.37 in)
I love the VE shape. For me it’s the best Australian shape since the HQ. It’s sharp, dynamic and really well proportioned; just wish they’d done a full-volumed wagon.
Even if it’s not a keeper, it’s a nice notch on the belt.