Modern Vauxhall. You know the rest....

[Timewaster]

This morning, the company focus went in to the body shop following a minor bump.

 

I was handed the keys to the hire car, a new Insignia SRi. Not bad I thought....

 

Impressions after day 1

 

Good points:

 

Nice seats

Good DAB radio

Goes well, up to about 30mph

Looks ok

 

Bad points:

 

Bone shaking ride

Crappy electric handbrake

Bone shaking ride again

Reversing is like trying to maneuver a post box from the inside

Disappointing boot space

Appears to have a hole in the petrol tank, the rate the fuel disappears

Not very quick over 30 mph

More Bone shaking ride

 

I don't like it at all.

I want my basic focus back.

[warren t claim]

The only good thing about the Pisshat I had last week was the electric parking brake. 

[Partridge]

ALL VOXALLS R SHIT

[Guest Lord Sward]

ALL VOXALLS R SHIT

 

They sold over 41,500 units last month........

[Mr Lobster]

The dealers registered almost 41,500 units to themselves last month........

 FTFY

[red5]

Got a 2.0 derv Insignia. Does what it says on the tin. Cheap to run, easy to drive, quick, reliable, good on fuel, parts everywhere@ Trade Club rates, non boneshaking ride on 17" rims. SRi is , well, a poor courtesy car choice if you're over 25...

 

One mans meat..

[Jazoli]

Had a new insignia diesel auto for a month and I thought it was pretty good, although not as nice as the new C class it replaced, we now have a new Astra hatch and I quite like it too, interior is nice, it cruises well on the motorway and it averages nearly 50mpg,.

 

Not all Vauxhalls are that shite

[Pillock]

You've just reminded me i get my new Astra next week. Can't wait*.

[Station]

Why don't you complain to the company and tell them you want a better car?

Difficulty in reversing and a disappointing boot space is completely unacceptable in this day and age.

Slam your fist down on the director's desk and demand you want something else and tell him it is so unfair.

[forddeliveryboy]

Sitting outside the pub one glorious Spring evening, I was trying to look interested as a salesman-made-good who owns a motor factor decided I might be interested in what he had to say. It was very much a one-sided chat until, having bigged-up some bloke until I thought he'd be proclaimed as the next Jesus, the silly tosser came out with a line which raised my eyebrow - "Do you know, he's so good at his job he gets a new Astra every single year!"

 

My comment about Chinese Torture left him almost speechless, for once. I rolled and lit a cigarette and narrowly missed blowing the smoke in his face. Having shedloads of money, he wasn't used to people not hanging on his every word for a bit of invaluable millionaire advice and agreeing with everything. If you happen to be reading this, Steve, how are you?

[rml2345]

Sounds quite a bit like the Astra rent-a-wreck I had. It wasn't a bad car but it wasn't a good one either. It was just a lump of car with silly gearing and a gutless 1.4 engine that was about as exciting as a wet Saturday afternoon eating bran flakes.

[warren t claim]

As a rule of thumb with Vauxhalls you should always avoid any that don't have the heated rear window switch combined with the fan switch, a bit like you should never go into a pub with a flat roof in a strange town.

[Split_Pin]

Warren, that is an excellent description of the benchmark!

[Micrashed]

Father in Law is VAUXHALL MAN and is now on his 10th or 11th. He has an Astra diesel and its OK.

 

Its pleasant enough to drive, dealer follow up seems shite, but then I popped into the Citroen stealership on Saturday to look over a new C4 Grande Picasso and frankly the salesman was shite too with no real interest in letting me or the family look at one, so bollocks to Lookers thats a sale of a £22k car gone there and we are off to test drive a new Alambrahahahahahr. Seems apathy is rife.

 

Anyway the FIL likes his Vauxhall, its an OK car, but what is it with cars and seats hewn out of granite these days? Even my kids commented that the seats in the C4 "were hard".

[John F]

warren t claim, on 21 Oct 2014 - 01:54 AM, said:

As a rule of thumb with Vauxhalls you should always avoid any that don't have the heated rear window switch combined with the fan switch, a bit like you should never go into a pub with a flat roof in a strange town.

 

I disagree, but only to include the Mk 3 Cavalier and the Calibra.

[oldcars]

I drove a Astra estate hire car. Not my cup of tea, parking sensors did my head in, bong bong bong bong..........................................................

[Richard]

As a rule of thumb with Vauxhalls you should always avoid any that don't have rear wheel drive, a bit like you should never go into a strange town.

EFA

[DVee8]

I have a Astra

 

no more to say

[saucedoctor]

 

what is it with cars and seats hewn out of granite these days?

 

A chap at the Jaaaag main dealer hypothesised thusly:

• it gives an impression of solidity and quality
• people are getting fatter. Seats have to be tougher. The old marshmallow seats fitted to Frog tin in days of yore would be knackered in no time these days.

[Pillock]

I drove a Astra estate hire car. Not my cup of tea, parking sensors did my head in, bong bong bong bong..........................................................

If they're on all the time, they're either faulty or you're driving it wrong!

[oldcars]

If they're on all the time, they're either faulty or you're driving it wrong!

I hated it so much i was trying to crash 

Was in a multistory car park in Paris, it was very tight parking, and the bonging did my head in. Also hated all the automatic crap, lights, wipers etc. It i want them on i will put them on! Even thinking about it gets me going 

[beko1987]

Orlvauxhallsr...surprisingly resiliant, although it has dented it a bit...

 

 

 

As noted in the grump thread, its our new chaps car, been here 3 days! Oh the fun we are having here today...

[Cavcraft]

I'm 100% getting an Insignifia when they become cheap enough. I like the look of them, and being one of those sad, weird people who lives on a council estate and who thinks any car made after 2001 is brand bastard new, I think I'll be subsequently delighted with it. 

[Micrashed]

I'm 100% getting an Insignifia when they become cheap enough. I like the look of them, and being one of those sad, weird people who lives on Autoshite and who thinks any car made after 2001 is brand bastard new, I think I'll be subsequently delighted with it. 

EFA.

Fixed that for you.

 

To be honest Billy you are not alone there. I seem to have anything post 1996 P reg as being new and probably unattainable by me mentally etched into my mind.

[Timewaster]

Fair play, just don't get an SRi.

 

Day 2

 

To be fair, the steering is nice and positive and it handles pretty well.

I tried revving the tits off it, to see if it would take off but it is still doesn't feel very quick.

Disappointing to someone old enough to remember Cavalier SRi130s.

 

Maybe that's the problem. I'm sure if I was 25 I would love it.

 

Still hate it.

[Micrashed]

 

I do like the tailgate lights on the Insignia estate, though the pedantic twat in me says this was the solution to  a design cock up that could have been prevented.

[Cavcraft]

That picture makes it look like a 1970's Blue Peter African lady with that sort of half a saucer thing they had in their bottom lip. An option I'd be willing to bet isn't in the Vauxhall brochure.

[406V6]

I had an Insignia 1.8 SRi petrol for a few days last year as a hire car and my report is somewhere deep in the bowels of this forum. Visibility is bad all round but improves a lot if you adjust the seat height upwards. I remember the adjuster was hard to find but the SRi does have one.  Performance is poor and the fuel consumption so-so for a 1.8.  It was near enough the same as my 3-litre automatic Peugeot driven in (mostly) the same way except progress was notably slower.

 

I don't believe Vauxhalls are any more crap than other modernshite, it's just there is so much bollox fitted (like other modern cars) that it's not as good as its  predecessors. For example - electric handbrake, huge doors with tiny windows all round, massive amounts of weight, small-ish engine strangled by emission bollox, stupid paper-thin tyres, bone-shaking ride like an Audi. I would happily drive a late 90s Vectra V6 instead - that would be decent motoring.

[John F]

Oh gawd.

 

I did just read that, didn't I? Someone just said that driving a Vectra is "decent motoring"?

 

For shame

[red5]

 

 

I do like the tailgate lights on the Insignia estate, though the pedantic twat in me says this was the solution to  a design cock up that could have been prevented.

 

Nope - deliberate to solve a problem with estates with wide loading tailgates. Quite a nice solution as well.