I can only hope so. Trying to start an engine with an obvious and large fuel leak like the one you’ve described is really tempting fate. This leak needs to be fixed before attempting to start or drive the vehicle as it’s a major fire hazard.

Even turning on the ignition will have the pump spraying fuel everywhere from the leak, so I’d disconnect the battery until the hose is repaired and the leak stopped. There’s a chance the computer has detected the lack of fuel pressure, but whether that’s what is preventing the engine turning over is another thing. You may have multiple problems.

On the surface, the two bootlids look very much alike. In shape, they may well be identical, but there's a catch. In 2012, Holden switched from the fully-imported Cruze to a locally built version of the same car. Which means that the two versions were painted in completely different factories (different countries, in fact) and the chances of two blues or reds or even whites colour-matching exactly are pretty slim.

If you look at the locally made Cruze line-up, you'll also see that many of the colours were shared with the Holden Commodore range (built in the same factory). The other thing to consider is that the paint on these cars was never stellar quality, and a decade or so of varying UV radiation exposure might mean that even two bootlids that started out the same colour, may not be now.

Compare the two bootlids in strong sunlight to gauge whether the colours actually match before committing to the swap. That said, if you do manage to match two bootlids in an identical colour, it will be a lot cheaper than having one resprayed.

This model Holden Cruze is well known for transmission failures. Symptoms include the inability to select gears, a complete loss of drive or, as you have noticed, flaring in the gears. Unfortunately, this often mean the entire transmission is unserviceable.

Holden did extend the transmission warranty on these cars to five years or 150,000km, but even at that rate, your car would still be well and truly out of warranty. The first step, however, is to have the car scanned to see if the computer throws up any transmission-fault codes which could tell more of the story.

In some cases, these cars also experienced failed transmission coolers which allowed the transmission fluid and engine coolant to mix. If that’s the case, you might be able to get away with replacing the radiator, but historically, many of these cases also caused the transmission to fail.