By EWAN KENNEDY
14 May 2001

Despite its name the Holden Apollo was built by Toyota at its Melbourne factories, not by Holden. It was the result of a joint venture between the companies that made sense at the time, but which quietly fizzled out in the mid 1990s.

Apollo is a Toyota Camry with styling changes and some variations of standard features. It was less successful on the new-car market than the Toyota original and for a while sold for lower prices as a used car. As the two models have aged prices have come to depend more on condition than which badge is attached, but Toyotas are still our preferred choice.

As an Australian built car the Apollo had changes made to its suspension and steering to improve road feel and toughen it up to suit the harshness of Australian bush driving. It’s light and easy to drive in the suburbs and being smaller than full-sized family cars is simpler to park in tight spots.

Apollo was a small-medium car in its earliest days, but from the new model of March 1993 was only one size down on the big Holden Commodore (which in turn had a clone sold as the Toyota Lexcen). The Apollo/Camry actually has a larger boot and a better centre-rear seat than the Commodore because of the space efficiency of front-wheel drive.

Apollo is sold as either a four-door sedan or a five-door station wagon. As mentioned, the sedan has an excellent boot, but the load area of the wagon is spoiled by the intrusion of the wheel arches. If child safety seats are installed the wagon’s luggage area is compromised by their upper locating straps. The Commodore/Lexcen wagon does it much better.

Engines were all four-cylinder units from the car’s August 1989 introduction until the larger body of March 1993. The early fours had a capacity of 2.0 litres, those from March 1993, 2.2 litres. Also from 1993 a 3.0-litre V6 became an option.

Surprisingly the Apollo in its V6 form was heavier than the new Commodore of the era so is noticeably down on performance.

The four-cylinder can be bought with either a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic transmission. The V6 is sold only with the automatic. The self shifting transmission is a particularly good one and most of its changes are virtually imperceptible.

The manual gearbox is better than average for that fitted to a large car with a transverse engine, but it is inclined to baulk at times, making shifting rough - occasionally shifts are met with a crunch.

Spares and repairs are available through two of the biggest, most far flung dealer networks in Australia. Prices are about average for cars in this class, perhaps a bit lower than average at times. Shopping around between the two marques can lead to some savings, but generally the prices are about line ball.

Insurance costs are pretty reasonable, not a surprise considering the generally conservative buyer at which the cars are aimed. Again there may be some differences in cost between the Holden and Toyota models, but chances are they will be about the same.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR
These Holdens were reliable cars from day one, not suffering from the teething problems of the early Toyota Camrys, these were sold for two years before the Holden.

Rust is unusual in the Apollo, but play it safe by checking the lower body areas, especially the door bottoms. Also look at the front and rear windscreen surrounds and around the fuel filler cap. Rust generally only gets into a car that's had poor quality crash repairs. So if you do find rust it’s smart to have a full crash investigation done.

The engine should start almost as soon as the key is turned and idle smoothly from startup. Four-cylinder engines won't be quite as smooth as the sixes. Carburettor engines can be forgiven for a rougher idle than injected ones for the first 10 seconds or so.

Look for smoke from the exhaust pipe when the engine is put under load after idling for a minute of so.

Fast gearchanges from third to second gear that result in baulking and crunching probably mean the gearbox is near the end of its life.

Drive at very low speed with the steering on full lock in one direction and then the other and listen for clicking sounds at the front wheels, indicating worn constant velocity (CV) joints.

Check the suspension settles down again within a second or so of going over bad bumps and doesn't crash against the bumpstops on the initial hit.

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