Holden Captiva CG Series II (2011-2013)

When the reading it shows 53c on the screen. Turn off your car , disconnect the negative terminal only for five minutes and reconnect it back and start the car, the temperature will go back to normal reading and the AC will start working. If this issue continues to happen then replace the outside temperature sensor and it’s about $12. Good luck

rubbish vehicle – I had a very ordinary experience with the Holden Captiva. I owned a 2013 Holden Captiva and it spent a lot of time on the back of the tow truck. computer, starter motor, blown engine. worst car I ever owned. Show details

Comfortable! Drives perfectly, love it! – This has been the best car I’ve owned so far. Drives beautifully, hasn’t missed a beat! Comfortable, nice cold air. Great for road trips, either long haul or short. Love this car! Show details

Fan on after switch off – The cooling fan stays on while driving and after you switch off for about 2 minutes it eventually runs your battery out , changed temp and ambiance temp sensors no fix Show details

Love ours! – You see bad reviews or people tell you terrible things about Captivas, but we have never had an issue with ours. I have owned it for more then 4 years, driven all around the countryside, I towed a horse and float with no issues whatsoever, everywhere from small trips to huge ones. (Can tow 2 tonne, horse approx 600kg and float was about 1000kg)… Read more

It did hold it's own towing, I had no loss of power or speed etc (it did slow on huge hills a little but no different to everything else. )

On longer trips, anything over an hour, it is exceptionally fuel efficient!!

Kids loved that they are USB ports etc so they could charge electronics without handing them up the front.

With a bad back, the heated front seats are fantastic! It feels really good when your sore.

There is so many things I personally love about this car, I have only now upgraded my tow vehicle because my new float is over the Captivas tow limit, but if the captiva was able to tow a bigger load i would of gladly kept using it .

Holden Captiva biggest piece of junk ever! Holden should be ashamed – Holden Craptiva worst car I have ever bought. I have been buying Holdens since 1982 when I bought my very first car, a Holden HT Kingswood. Since then I have bought many other Holdens including a Gemini, HQ Kingswood, one of the first VL Commodores when it was released, how many other Commodores since, I have lost count of. In recent times I… Read more

even bought 2 VE Commodores, so you could say I have had a few Holdens over the years. Without doubt my biggest car mistake ever, was buying this piece of garbage Captiva. Holden should be ashamed that it put its name to this car.

I had it for less than a year, only drove about 4000km in it and started getting a DPF issue. So organised to book it in for a service, few days before getting it serviced I had noticed what I thought was a transmission issue, slipping in drive. Of course you cant just check your own fluid levels, as they make these units sealed.

Long story short, turns out my transmission is cactus. So with the help of Google it turns out this lemon of a car is notorious for having transmission issues, amongst a number of other faults. Contacted a Holden dealer to see what is going on, of course they did not want to hear anything about it and priced a replacement transmission at over $5000. Funny thing being only paid $4800 for the car in the first place.

You cant just put any second hand Captiva transmission in this model, according to transmission experts; Holden in their wisdom put up to I believe 10 different transmissions for the same model. which you can't just swap out. So obviously to further screw over the consumer, not only does Holden make a car with a crappy transmission in the first place but they make it nearly impossible to organise for a second hand one when yours dies. Thanks Holden, well done; great to see you looked after your loyal customers.

This is where our Governments fail us, you have a car that has obvious issues and there is no protection for consumers. It had recalls on the transmission but if they keep failing who cares. You contact a Holden dealer and they just fob you off. Funny thing is the car just started itself with no one in the car, when I spoke to the Holden dealer, they again just ignored the issue. So what would have happened if the car started itself at night in a garage attached to the house, I am sure carbon monoxide is healthy for humans.

Shame on you Holden, take responsibility for selling a lemon like the Captiva.

Its ok – My captiva 2010 2.4 llitres is wasting so much petrol since i bought it i cannot keep up my friends full tank they use it for up to 2 weeks long trips mine finishes so quickly although i do short trips and drive very little anyone else have the same problem?? Its a big problem for me. Also there is the petrol signs on dashboard one on left… Read more

comes up and blinks when petrol is low the other on the right side comes on most of the time and stays on although there is petrol , does anyone know what the one on right side mean??

LIKE A CHALLENGE? – Too good to go to the scrappy for $600 but unreliable starting, burning coolant and no credible or financially viable solution and with only 105,000kms on the dial my daughter was happy for me to take on the challenge! Bad reputation and I believe well earned! Having said that, there are plenty of them on the road here and it has more sensors and… Read more

options than many more expensive models. When up and running, it sits on the road well and does all you ask. My first task was to stop the coolant loss, so a bottle of Nulon Head Leak sealant repair was added. At first seemed ok then coolant loss resumed. So, ever the optimist (and cheapo), I added another. About 12,000km later still good! (Checked monthly). A couple of dead battery/no start episodes revealed a battery issue which, due to the extended warranty, was replaced free of charge! (With 1month left on the Warranty!!!) As the Blower/fan was also unreliable, I got one from a scrappy and touch wood it has performed well ever since. You need the fan for the Aircon to work so it is a Must! These vehicles need to be run properly and not only for the school and shops run. I have made the effort to do reasonable distances whenever I use it and touch wood it seems to like that! I don't use it daily, but after a year I have a fair amount of confidence in it now, though a Temperature Gauge instead of RED Thermo indication when hot, is a real risky way of operating in a hot climate. Given the options I would not buy one as the unreliability/fear factor and expensive repair options would deter me. Too many mechanics go to the fault code analyser and if that doesn't fix it they are stumped. Despite spending good money my daughter was told, "it's Not the EGR" and as they later left it running on idle for a long period they also said it's not leaking coolant! For now it is a cheap "use occasionally" option and has moved large loads when asked. Strangely, I like it or is it the challenge??

Dont buy this is a piece of crap – I am driving a 2.2tdi 2012 Holden Captiva. This car does not have power and really slow to respond to the throttle. Its really heavy on diesel I am not even getting 9km/l. My Captiva have 75000 km on the clock and the transmission failed. Do not buy Show details

Auto Transmission total meltdown at 127,000klm.. Holden don't want to know about it – My wife's car. 2013 model, 127,000klms. Dealership carried out the 130,000klm service, and skipped the now known to be crucial 120,000klm auto oil change service because they serviced according to time rather than distance. Transmission total meltdown failure. Have had oil laboratory tested, and found to be well within DX6 specification… Read more

and clean, apart from huge amount of metal fragments. Numerous exchanges with the dealership and Holdencare, but all to no avail. Next step is N.C.A.T. I'm not paying an $8,000 repair bill for a piece of junk that is a VERY well known and documented failure with this product. If anybody can add any supporting evidence or experiences, would be much appreciated.

Bad buy – Paid 8500 5mths later 3000 for transfer now shift problems. Drops hard going down shift between 4th to 3rd, it's like goes into early.I don't want to be up for a gearbox now.

Run away – It has been nothing but trouble since purchase. Transmission went at 40,000 kms and was replaced under warranty, it went again at 93,000 kms and replaced 2nd time out of warranty. After warranty expired the transmission went again and had to pay $7000 to have it replaced out of pocket. I am working with a group of other captiva owners to SUE… Read more

Holden for selling a faulty product. Spent nearly $20,000 on repairs for this vehicle and it has only done 130,000 kms.

Amazing car to drive but – I have now had my 2014 Holden Haptiva 5 LT for a bit over 2 years now. I have originally bought this vehicle as my knees were not doing well and im a 6 foot 7 bigger bloke so getting into a low car is a no go for me. I was suprised at the room it had for the driver. My head did not hit the ceiling and my knee did not hot the steering wheel like it… Read more

did in vehickes like the mitsubishi ASX, Nissan X-trail and even the nissan patrol so needless to say I was happy to find a cat that finally fit and was cheap. By far it has been the best car to drive, it handles incredibly well, the air conditioning is amazing and it's incredibly comfortable for tall and bigger people. There has been some downfalls though, within the last 2 years I have had the left window motor stop working, the stereo stop working, altenator belt become loud, front bushings split and both front shock needed to be replaced. Keep in mind this car has only done 77,000kms to date. Thankfully as it was always serviced with Holden and they have noticed it was not right, they put in a request and got all of that fixed up under a special consideration warranty. The only issue I have with it now is that it's using 13L per 100kms (which is annoying as it's only a 4 cylinder).

As a recap, amazing space for a large and tall driver, amazing to drive/handle, to many faulty parts and uses a lot of fuel.

At this point thus is still a great car to me and plan to continue at as my ever day driver.

Rate no stars for Holden it’s self and Craptiva – Brand new car 2013 Dealership service terrible the literally broken something on my car every single time I’d pick up my car turn around take it back once I didn’t even get out of drive way. Complained about losing power couldn’t fault it , told them making a noise couldn’t hear it , not driving normally cane back driving fine that how they… Read more

drive , Transmission failed luckily only 2 years old so it was replaced.

Then car felt like it was going to stall all the time , felt like engine was shaking I even said is it loose car running rough , they said it’s fine couldn’t fault it. Every month I’m calling same issue nothing we can do . Engine light starts coming on all sane issues take it in didn’t pull fault code we’ve reset it come back if it happens again a day later go back can’t fault it. This continues for years. Now it’s only 7 years old and it needs new engine timing chain has stretched. Do some research oh it’s a known fault usually u know because your car runs rough , engine light on , engine shakes , feels like it will stall oh and they did find metal shavings at one point said They didn’t know what that was.

Now needs new engine and only thing they emailed to me won’t take my calls they said I serviced irregularly my fault the timing chain has stretched.

Lemon Alert – Has anyone heard the saying you only spend your money once . Well i can relate to this . I bought my CG Captiva 2.4 Litre petrol brand new in June 2013 . Never missed a service and was always serviced on time . On December 28th 2018 after 5.6 years and the car had only completed 65k . I have been told that the car needs a replacement engine .… Read more

Unfortunately this has occurred outside the warranty period of 5 years . After 22 years of car ownership this is the worst car i have experienced . Do not Buy second hand as most of these cars would have had engine and transmission replacements . This is a nasty piece of work . I will never EVER buy another Holden product again

Total utter lemon - you have be warned – We bought a brand new Holden CRAP-tiva in 2012 - To date it has been back to the shop with multiple issues (mainly electrical) and now the transmission has crapped itself. Phoned up Holden going hello this is a regularly serviced car with you - Has 85k on the clock (for a diesel is still running the motor in) Holden: We are sorry but you are no… Read more

longer under warranty (We understand that BUT this car is regularly serviced with you and has continually been in your workshop with many issues in the past... Sorry but we can fix the car but that will cost you up to $7k... WTH... So people as you can imagine I will never ever buy a Holden again in my life, If my kids want a Holden as a first car I will wash there mouths out with soap. If my review stops someone buying a CRAPTIVA then I have saved you thousands

Love my car – I purchased my 2011 lx diesel awd second hand with less than 100xxx on the odometer. It is a great car paint work in great condition also inside and out is great what more could u want! Engine runs fine no mechanical issues. A lot of people are complaining about this car if you're looking to purchase second hand check the log book history to see how often it was serviced because if you look after your car it will look after you..simple.  Show details

Absolutely hate it now – Bought car from new. great car for 4 years. Then all went to crap. Problem after problem even blown transmission. Stranded on side of road twice with children last due to fire under bonnet, should have watched it burn completely would be free of all problems and the fight with Holden. Thankfully all has happened under warranty and extended… Read more

warranty so hasn’t cost me anything. Holden still insist on replacing parts. car will not return to my household.

Fan running after switching off engine – Hi 2013 Diesel. After turning off the engine, it appears the fan continues to run for up to a minute. The series 2 drives very nicely, has plenty of power and stops nicely also. It’s just the fan running on, but not all the time It’s very noisy when it happens if parking in traffic. Any advice please. KP  Show details

Fantastic reliable – Had Captiva for 4 years we’ve done 50000 on top of the 140000 it had on it when purchased, only just spent money on it recently for just the usual wear and tear. Great car runs well interior is very nice, done many long trips without any issues, reliable car.  Show details

Fantastic Car – I absolutely love my Holden Captiva lx. Brand New straight off the showroom floor. Love the leg room compared to other cars I've driven. It's been very economical whether it's long distance or just running around town. Handles well very light steering for a medium suv. Very little road noise. This car has taken everything we've thrown in it. 7 seater so plenty of room for the family. Wouldn't trade it for the world.  Show details

Terrible a total lemon – We bought our 2012 glx diesel captiva brand new and have had continuous problems with it. The motor has been taken out 6 times now. It has been served religiously and at 130,000 kms it now has over $7000 just in parts (not including labour) to repair the auto transmission amongst a bunch of other things. We paid $55,000 which is pretty much money… Read more

down the toilet now as it’s worth nothing within 6 short years. We have had to pay extra at each servicing for several things like broken bearings, door handles, reverse screen etc. the lady at our servicing Centre laughed and said it’s not worth fixing and to have a nice weekend. Thanks a lot Holden. We will never buy from you ever again.

Update on Frustration on wheels – In Oct. 2017 at about 104,000Km's the transfer case failed and was out of warranty. Upon removing it I found the larger of the two gears that send power to the rear wheels had lost all its teeth. The oil that came out was like a metal soup as all the missing teeth were ground into a powder suspended in the oil. My thought was that the hard-facing… Read more

on the gear had failed ( if it was ever there), this thought was supported by some other mechanics as well. The smaller gear was largely undamaged. This gave strength to the thought of faulty manufacture. I was lucky that there was a replacement transfer case in Australia, it was the ONLY one! It cost me $3,000 and took two weeks to come from down south. I also found I needed to replace a CV joint as it was on the way out and as I had it apart I replaced it. I bought a pair of Drive Shafts complete, (GM parts) from an after market supplier for about half the price I could get one shaft alone in Darwin.

I took clear photo's of the failed gears and sent them to Holden Customer Care, as I and mechanics from other brand car dealerships considered this was a manufacturing failure. I was told by Holden Customer Care to take it to the local Holden dealer in Darwin (there's only one) so they could report on the condition of the gears. I contacted the dealer who demanded that I bring the vehicle in to them as well as the failed transfer case, why I don't know nor have I been told why. Also it had to be booked in as a job for which I was going to have to pay to have them look at it.

As it was the wet season the failed transfer case got rained on and developed some surface rust on some of the parts.

When I collected the vehicle ($70.40 later) they would not give me the report as "they had to check something on it, we'll e-mail it to you and post the copy".

As it was I was in a hurry I accepted this and left. They e-mailed it a few minutes after I left by the time on the e-mail. Below the result;

Customer advised the transfer case was previously replaced and holden are requesting a dealership to look at it and possibly take pictures Taken photos of transfer case. Could not diagnose due to the condition of the transfer case i.e rust, and corrosion. Transfer case should have been left it vehicle for correct diagnoses to have taken place. Photos have been sent to holden for further communication with customer.

I have requested copies of the alleged photos twice in person at the dealership and by e-mail to the dealer and Holden Customer Care without success to date. This is despite a personal undertaking by the Holden brand manager. I suspect the service department told him to "Buzz off" or words to that effect. He is a decent bloke despite who he works for.

I was contacted by Holden Customer Care who told me they would do nothing for me and then told me they had shown the photos I had sent them to their experts and then repeated the above comment from the dealer almost word perfect.

I was asked why didn't I bring the vehicle to the dealer when it failed. I replied, why would I pay about $180/hour that they charge, (estimated $2,000 plus) when I can do the job in my own workshop?? I also said I had no faith in the quality of the workmanship coming from the dealer workshop.

The question is do I try to fix the problems with the vehicle, do I sell it to someone I don't know, or do I run it until it dies completely and drop it off at a scrap yard ??

I don't believe there were any photo's taken and if there were they probably bear out what I have said about the problem. I also feel that there has been some very careless dealing with the truth undertaken by some of the people involved or is it ducking for cover (I'm being polite).

Money Pit!! STAY AWAY Don't Buy One – Owned 2011 Captiva 7 LX top of the range SIDI 190kw with 6 speed Transmission. Only good thing it looks great! Bought car second hand with 65,000kms. Transmission went at 98,000kms a long with transfer case. Holden replaced transmission due to launching a special program knowing that 6 speed transmissions are poorly designed. If we were not… Read more

covered it would of cost us over $9000 to fix. This special coverage program will only cover for 5 years 150,000kms. So if you are one of the unlucky people who own one after 2016 you are sitting on a time bomb. Very annoying that such a nice looking vehicle inside and out was so poorly made. When we got ours back there was a long line up of the same vehicles at service department. Also catylac converters go engine light was always coming on door handles break. Very heavy on fuel ours was using 14.1 liters per 100kms. Please save your money and buy anything but a CRAPTIVA.

Great car – I cautionally purchased the 2013 captiva lx nearly 5 yrs ago brand new after hearing concerns about the earlier model. However, my car has been prefect - touch wood. The only thing that happened was last year the turbo outlet pipe split and I lost power. An easy fix and car back to normal. The car has all the bells and whistles for a cheap… Read more

diesel 7 seater. I had a medium entry ford tertitory which had heaps of problems and costs alot more than a territory. The captiva in power mode has plently of power and the open road has good passing power. My version of the 'craptiva' is all good and will be buying another one soon.

Great value but so many issues – Driving experience is ok, the seats are quite rigid and the leather is not very soft. Suspension is rough. This cR has been subject to some major warranty claims within its first two years of life and the servicing cost for this car (Captiva 7 LX DIESEL) is skyyyyyyyy high!  Show details

2012 Holden Captiva 7 SX Diesel – We have a 2012 model Captiva 7 SX diesel, bought new in early 2013. We have had our share of problems, but overall, it hasn’t been the disaster that others have experienced. And when compared to other cars (Ford Rangers come to mind), it really hasn’t been that bad. As a car, it drives well, but don’t expect to carry anyone over 4 foot tall… Read more

in the 3rd row. But for a young family they are fine. 2 child seats fit in the 2nd row fine. Air conditioning is not the most efficient, and the 2nd row has only a tiny amount of air flow under the front seats. The 3rd row gets nothing. But for the occasional use as a 7 seater, it will get you by. Plenty of room in the front for tall adults. Reasonable on fuel, and will get 35 mpg on the highway without trying, and pretty good around town too. Boot space is OK, but obviously only if the 3rd row seats are folded down. Visibility is good. Easy to park and easy to drive. Plenty of power as well.

Most of the problems we had were under warranty, and I would suggest that by far the biggest issue is the service offered by Holden Dealers. Problems we have had were:

Air conditioning didn’t work 2 days after we bought it. Ours was one of the first to play up, so the dealers took a while to solve it. Was a simple reflash of the PCM to fix.

Driver’s seat belt started to fray early and this too was replaced under warranty.

The DPF failed to regenerate, and the dealer had to force a clean. It does seem to need regenerating fairly frequently but this can be partly due to what quality of fuel you use.

Engine had an oil leak, which meant the engine had to be removed to repair it, but this too was under warranty.

Starter motor wiring – this was a Clayton’s recall by Holden - they only fixed it if the car broke down. They didn’t fix the issue properly on our car though and we had to revisit this at our own expense.

If someone was to buy one, I would recommend the lower spec models, as they have less electronics to fail or go wrong. The 15000 km oil change interval is a bit of a stretch, so if you’re capable, do an oil change every 7500 kms and the engine will be better for it. Get a transmission oil change as well at some stage. That oil doesn’t last forever. And steer clear of cheaper branded fuels.

At around the 80000 to 100000 km mark, get the intercooler hose to the throttle body replaced before it fails. And get an auto electrician to fit a decent earth lug on the main earth wire from the battery to the engine block and clean the connection. This is one of the causes of the battery light coming on. Do this and you should have a reasonable run.

Expect to have to replace rear shocks and possibly front control arm bushes before 100000kms. Keep an eye on the brake master cylinder for leaks too.

But for what they cost new, it does the job.

Transmission problem – Hi i have a hole in my transmission my mechanic has asked me to replace it, very hard to get it. I found one but its 7 seater mine is 5 seater the model is same 2011 captiva 2.2 diesel awd So will it fit in my car. please help  Show details

Amazing affordable family car – The 7 seater Captiva is an amazing family car and has a lot of space, never had a problem with the car and has never broken down on me. Looks good, very comfortable in long drives and very smooth. I read many bad reviews about the car but my friend recommended it for a family car and we love it.  Show details

2012 LX – At first we were scared to purchase a captiva, all the bad reviews, what people have said 'craptiva' etc... I have friends who have purchased a captiva and have had no problems and recommended it. I was against it, but the wife loved it and we got ourselves a craptiva 2012 LX, top of the range. The sales person said pre 2012 were the issues; I… Read more

hope they were right. Recommend the diesel, tried the petrol no guts, diesel has the power, just make sure to service every 6 months being diesel. Leather seats, 7 seats, blue tooth, heated seats, air con is great, built in nav man, sun roof. Enjoy the ride, fingers crossed.