You can polish a turd.

[Bradders59]

All Vauxhalls are shite. We all know this. Its in the forum Bible. So by this reasoning, I have set out to prove you can polish a turd. Even when its 18 years old, with 188000 on the clock.

Shiny shite.

 

[paulplom]

Nothing turdish about that.

[somewhatfoolish]

Plum crazy.

[Bradders59]

It was a bit tongue in cheek. I love the old thing. Its a lovely thing to drive. Ive fitted ex police car springs & dampers on the front. Polybushed the wishbones. Fitted slightly stiffer shocks and springs on the rear and had four wheel alignment done to wheels in motion spec, rather than the standard figures.

Replaced all sorts of other bits and pieces to the tune of well over two grand, in the four years Ive owned it and changed the oil and filters every four thousand miles. Its not worth a lot, but I cant bring myself to get rid of it at the moment, so it doesn't matter to me.

Ive had quite a few of them, and this is the best one by far despite the age and mileage.

[paulplom]

I'd love it. Any interior pics?

[New POD]

Very very very nice.  Lovely colour.  Are you on OOF ? Is it a 3.2 or 2.6 ? 

 

Here's mine hidden by bushes.

 

[paulplom]

The boot badge says 3.2.

[SRi05]

It's even turd coloured as well ? I have a weird liking to late 90's early 00's Vauxhall's, I'd definitely rock an Omega

[Wingz123]

I like that. Shame brammys went to scrapyyard in the sky (2.2 dti) 

I'm still waiting for someone to pull a Vauxhall Sintra out on this forum....

[Cord Fourteener]

I'd joyride one of these. For the more discerning joyrider!

It looks tasty, I think you've made a compact Holden Commodore there, you've got the V engine and it sounds like you've tightened it up somewhat.

[New POD]

27 minutes ago, paulplom said:

The boot badge says 3.2.

218 horses then. Same as cavalier turbo but without the transfer box worries. 

[Bradders59]

5 hours ago, paulplom said:

I'd love it. Any interior pics?

I will try and remember to take some interior pics soon and post them up. Im on a run of nightshifts at the moment, so probably next week.

[Bradders59]

5 hours ago, New POD said:

Very very very nice.  Lovely colour.  Are you on OOF ? Is it a 3.2 or 2.6 ? 

 

Here's mine hidden by bushes.

 

I am indeed on OOF. If you look in the gallery section, I posted the same pics on there a couple of days ago. And yes it is a 3.2

[Bradders59]

4 hours ago, Tim_E said:

I'd joyride one of these. For the more discerning joyrider!

It looks tasty, I think you've made a compact Holden Commodore there, you've got the V engine and it sounds like you've tightened it up somewhat.

The Elite is very soft and a bit wallowy in standard form. The common mod used to be to swap to MV6 suspension but that's rarer than rocking horse shit now. I was lucky enough to see an ad for ex police front struts just after I got the car so thought I would give them a try. I then realised that someone had fitted estate rear springs which made the rear sit too high. I knew from experience that elite rear springs are very soft indeed, so fitted a new set of standard spec springs. Then refurbed the wishbones with new rear bushes, balljoints and polybushed front bushes.

Then had the four wheel alignment done and was very pleased to find that I had ended up with an example that felt nice and tight, and handles superbly for a big barge yet had lost little of the ride comfort in the process.

Recently the self levelling rear dampers finally gave up. Only available from Germany at £500 a pair ! Fitted a new pair of Sachs rear dampers which has made the rear a bit tighter than it was, so still happy enough, although ideally I would have liked to have kept the self levelling.

Anyway, thanks all for the kind comments about the old girl.

[Cord Fourteener]

16 minutes ago, Bradders59 said:

The Elite is very soft and a bit wallowy in standard form. The common mod used to be to swap to MV6 suspension but that's rarer than rocking horse shit now. I was lucky enough to see an ad for ex police front struts just after I got the car so thought I would give them a try. I then realised that someone had fitted estate rear springs which made the rear sit too high. I knew from experience that elite rear springs are very soft indeed, so fitted a new set of standard spec springs. Then refurbed the wishbones with new rear bushes, balljoints and polybushed front bushes.

Then had the four wheel alignment done and was very pleased to find that I had ended up with an example that felt nice and tight, and handles superbly for a big barge yet had lost little of the ride comfort in the process.

Recently the self levelling rear dampers finally gave up. Only available from Germany at £500 a pair ! Fitted a new pair of Sachs rear dampers which has made the rear a bit tighter than it was, so still happy enough, although ideally I would have liked to have kept the self levelling.

Anyway, thanks all for the kind comments about the old girl.

Sometimes it's worth spending a bit on a keeper ?

[Bradders59]

That was exactly my attitude to it from the start. I knew it was money I would never get back, but that wasn't the point. I had several Omegas before and always had ideas about what I would like to do to make one ideal for me. Funds were too tight at the time, so when I got this one I decided to do it, just for my own satisfaction and, up to a point, sod the expense.

I even considered converting it to manual transmission, but decided against in the end.

I still have a list of minor jobs to do to it but nothing major, other than the cambelt is a fortnight overdue, although nowhere near halfway on mileage.

[camryv6]

6 hours ago, SRi05 said:

It's even turd coloured as well ? I have a weird liking to late 90's early 00's Vauxhall's, I'd definitely rock an Omega

If your turds are that colour, I think you need to see a doctor.

[Bradders59]

In the interests of anorakness, I forgot to mention when replacing the front struts I also fitted Monaro top mounts to them, which are stiffer.

[stuboy]

14 hours ago, Bradders59 said:

All Vauxhalls are shite. We all know this. Its in the forum Bible. So by this reasoning, I have set out to prove you can polish a turd. Even when its 19 years old, with 188000 on the clock.

Shiny shite.

 

thats lovely

[NorfolkNWeigh]

The only Omega I’ve ever driven was a 2.0i 16v manual , which I bought when it was 3 years old. Unfortunately at the same time one of my brothers had an ex Police 24v Senator manual with a decat exhaust running on 17”Aztev As.   By comparison it was a blancmange , great cruiser and perfect for my work But soft and wallowy,  Interestingly they were both M reg and the interior of the Omega was light years ahead of the Senator even with cloth compared to the Senator leather.  I always wanted to try an Omega that went and handled- sounds like this one does.

I drove a couple of Monaros when doing recovery contract work for Monkfish and they did feel very much like Omega coupes, just with poorer quality plastic.
I suppose the ultimate would have been the LS1 engined Omega that almost happened, like a Commodore but with Opel build quality and nice trim.

[Bradders59]

There are one or two  LS1 engined Omegas floating around which have been built by enthusiasts in this country, Anyway, I had a 24v Senator( which I loved)  for several years before moving on to Omegas. My first couple of Omegas were 2.5 V6,s and I found them pretty disappointing after the Senator.

This one however is definitely a suitable replacement for the beloved Senator. Straight line performance feels very similar, although hard to be precise without back to back comparison. It handles a hell of a lot better than the Senator did though. I do still miss the digital dash of the Senator. Cant forgive Vauxhall for not putting it in the Omega.

The interior of the early (prefacelift) Omegas was in some respects better quality than the later ones. Facelift models have a more modern less cluttered design, but switches and some other areas are coated in soft touch rubber, which wears easily and ends up with a permanent sticky residue if you try to clean it.

For its time it had plenty of toys. Memory drivers seat and mirrors, Bose sound system, rear sunblind, auto dimming rear view mirror,infotainment system with decent fuel / trip computer and built in satnav. Satnav was a bit basic with a mono screen and arrows for direction but a colour version with maps etc. could be had as a £1000 upgrade.

This one had the mono screen version, but I hunted down a colour one, which has to stay with the headunit because they are paired, and retrofitted it.

Will post up some interior pics next week.

Im pleasantly surprised at the amount of positive interest shown about it on here to be honest. I imagined I might just get piss taking for driving a Vauxhall.

[New POD]

That's the problem with brands.  You compare a Tesco value pack of frozen sausages with a Tesco finest range of sausages, and the difference is in the taste.

If you compare the Suzuki waganR with a Vauxhall badge with a Cadillac Catera with a vauxhall badge, the difference is poles apart. The general public however, perceives all Vauxhalls to be shite, because some have been. 

 

Here's some more pictures of a 3.2 

[Cooper1]

That is a proper Vauxhall, a proper car.. 

 

Far superior to the cars that came after IMO.. 

 

Loved the interiors on them.. 

 

Yours looks like lovely, nice to see one that has survived!

[Noel Tidybeard]

Satin red?

[1duck]

I always liked Scorpios and Omegas/Senators the only cars from those hateful brands that did anything for me.

[Bradders59]

5 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

Satin red?

Vauxhall call it Rubens red.

[Cord Fourteener]

18 hours ago, Bradders59 said:

That was exactly my attitude to it from the start. I knew it was money I would never get back, but that wasn't the point. I had several Omegas before and always had ideas about what I would like to do to make one ideal for me. Funds were too tight at the time, so when I got this one I decided to do it, just for my own satisfaction and, up to a point, sod the expense.

I even considered converting it to manual transmission, but decided against in the end.

I still have a list of minor jobs to do to it but nothing major, other than the cambelt is a fortnight overdue, although nowhere near halfway on mileage.

I'm definitely Omega curious!

Abs definitely definitely Commodore curious, and definitely definitely your Omega curious!

I'm my reckoning, and no doubt people will have differing views, if you take the unique owner costs, so purchase less resale, mods, non-servicing repairs etc and if it averages at £1000 per year you are doing well.

[Tepper]

Despite all Voxalls r shit I've got a lot of time for Omegas and yours looks great. The money side of things probably doesn't look too bad either when you think about what you'd be throwing away on monthly payments on something new and similarly capable.

[treehugger]

Bloody hell I still think of omegas as "new cars". Thought they'd been out about 7/8 years.

[somewhatfoolish]

20 hours ago, camryv6 said:

If your turds are that colour, I think you need to see a doctor stop eating so much beetroot.

Edit for dietary advice.