2014 Holden Barina Pricing and Specs

There are literally hundreds of reasons for a modern car to simply refuse to start. However, there’s one way to perhaps tell if the starter motor is the problem or not: When you turn the key, does the engine crank over? If it does, regardless of whether it starts or not, then the starter motor would appear to be fine.

If the engine doesn’t crank, the starter motor might still be okay, but you might have a flat battery or an electrical problem. Even a problem with the automatic gear selector (in the switch that that prevents the engine being started in gear) can cause a no-crank situation even though the starter motor itself is fine.

A good mechanic should be able to run a few tests and figure out pretty quickly what’s going on and what’s wrong. They will check the fuel system, ignition system and, of course, the starting system, and work it out from there.

Based purely on your symptoms, a broken clutch is the most likely cause. When a clutch loses the ability to fully disengage the engine from the transmission (through either wear or damage) the gears can become very difficult to select. Sometimes they will engage with a crunch, at other times you may not be able to select them at all.

This is a different problem to a worn clutch which has lost its clamping ability and is slipping, but the ultimate fix is the same: A new clutch assembly.

There’s no hard and fast rule on this stuff, and the lifespan of a car will depend heavily on how it’s been serviced. Any car that has been ignored and abused will have a shorter run than the same make and model that has been meticulously maintained and serviced. And this difference can literally be hundreds of thousands of kilometres.

However, it’s also worth keeping in mind that this model Barina was a Daewoo by any other name (and not a particularly good one, at that) and was designed and engineered as such. Even a well maintained example is probably going to be getting pretty long in the tooth by the time 200,000km have been clocked up. Common faults include dramas with the engine and transmission and many owners simply find that the cost of repairs is more than the value of the vehicle itself. At which point they get scrapped and recycled.