AnnoyingPentium's *an Vectra*: MaxGiffer with Added Spannering

[Markeh]

CD Bramall unlocked a hell of a lot of nostalgia here - they also had the Citroen and Nissan garage in Mansfield in the late 90s - I think it's where my dad got his P11 Primera from. Brand got swallowed up by Pendragon I think as it later went to Evans Halshaw, then moved - built houses on the Mansfield branch now. Looks like the St Albans one was there and also Halshaw until at least 2018, seems like it's in the process of being flattened on latest Street View.

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 07/10/2023 at 08:58, Markeh said:

CD Bramall unlocked a hell of a lot of nostalgia here - they also had the Citroen and Nissan garage in Mansfield in the late 90s - I think it's where my dad got his P11 Primera from. Brand got swallowed up by Pendragon I think as it later went to Evans Halshaw, then moved - built houses on the Mansfield branch now. Looks like the St Albans one was there and also Halshaw until at least 2018, seems like it's in the process of being flattened on latest Street View.

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Aye the Vauxhall one was flattened in 2020. Seems the Ford one was Evans Halshaw, now Gates, I believe.

That's two cars I've owned where the supplying dealers closed. 😂

[grogee]

Eee takes me back. I had use of a Vectra 1.8 LS in Fleet Silver BITD, it was our company pool car. 

I never did get on with it though because the power delivery was not consistent, early fly-by-wire throttle I think. That and it never ran right when warmed up. It went back to the dealer in Godalming twice but they never fixed it, just software reflash m9. 

I drove it to Belgium and back once, that's about all I can remember about it. 

Does yours have TrafficMaster (TM)? I loved pressing the button just to hear the wonky synthesised voice. Ours wasn't plumbed in or subscribed or whatever. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 07/10/2023 at 09:46, grogee said:

Does yours have TrafficMaster (TM)? I loved pressing the button just to hear the wonky synthesised voice. Ours wasn't plumbed in or subscribed or whatever. 

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Yes. Yes it does. And yes I spend time pressing the button just to hear the weird voice tell me to phone a number to renew my subscription 😂

AFAIK, the system isn't supported anymore, which is a shame as it seemed pretty neat.

[beko1987]

Could you get an arduino or pi to talk to the traffic master interface? Put a local ai model in there and have it speak stuff from Google maps or a text document and shit up your passengers! 

Map the physical buttons to other stuff that's more practical

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 07/10/2023 at 11:54, beko1987 said:

Could you get an arduino or pi to talk to the traffic master interface? Put a local ai model in there and have it speak stuff from Google maps or a text document and shit up your passengers! 

Map the physical buttons to other stuff that's more practical

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If anyone here has the know-how then that'd be pretty cool, but it's beyond my technical capabilities sadly.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Gave it a rinse aff to shift any plant life etc. It's going for a valet courtesy of an ex-colleague, but that's a wee bit away yet and it was absolutely manky.

Enjoying it so far, and averaging between 30 and 35mpg so far.

[egg]

  On 05/10/2023 at 21:43, RoverFolkUs said:

Retrofit aero wipers in the bin RIGHT NOW please.

Set fire to them. 

Thanks.

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Genuinely need to draw a line in the sand on AS on what is the oldest car where it is acceptable to have aeros?

AP  -  let's go repping m8, one with the lowest sales figures has to pay for a Little Chef Olympic Breakfast...

[Dick Cheeseburger]

  On 07/10/2023 at 09:59, AnnoyingPentium said:

Yes. Yes it does. And yes I spend time pressing the button just to hear the weird voice tell me to phone a number to renew my subscription 😂

AFAIK, the system isn't supported anymore, which is a shame as it seemed pretty neat.

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I think we need a video 😉

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 08/10/2023 at 18:45, Dick Longbridge said:

I think we need a video 😉

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Will see what can be done tomorrow

[CaptainBoom]

Phwoar, that's a bit of alright that! And it's in an actual colour.

Boom_Father had a early-ish Vectra, very similar colour T240 UNP, sadly did not last long after his stewardship.  The boot was enormous for the size of car, when I moved out of home, everything I owned, myself and my parents fited in it comfortably.  

Double-like for the fact these used to be ubiquitous, but are now vanishingly rare.

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 08/10/2023 at 18:28, egg said:

Genuinely need to draw a line in the sand on AS on what is the oldest car where it is acceptable to have aeros?

AP  -  let's go repping m8, one with the lowest sales figures has to pay for a Little Chef Olympic Breakfast...

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Go Aeros on an R reg Ovlov - they look OK when in use  but, otherwise, I'd agree - not a good look. 
I'd go for something like 2003 - 2005 as the line in the sand.

[beko1987]

I'm always torn with aero's, they do wipe the rain better! 

Don't always like curved screens though, I had to sack them off my pug 406 as they lifted off. Used to have one on my zx though, if I fitted a long passenger side one from something else I gained 2" of swept area! 

And yes I did put a smaller blade on one year before an mot to put a chip outside of the swept area... 👌

[N19]

  On 08/10/2023 at 19:27, EyesWeldedShut said:

Go Aeros on an R reg Ovlov - they look OK when in use  but, otherwise, I'd agree - not a good look. 
I'd go for something like 2003 - 2005 as the line in the sand.

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I had them on the Capri for a bit - I didn't think they looked massively out of place.

 

Currently have them on the Mondeo. They seem to last far better than normal wipers, and don't (IMO) look out of place.

[Matty]

I was running a series of hundred quid or so cav 1800ls for work (subby on overhead powerlines) in the early 2000s. I was 21 and I started seeing my now wife and her dad had an early vectra. Drove it a few times and for me it drove just as well as the cavvys.  Nice cars and at your age bud, it's an interesting car that you'll get a rake of fun out of. Good car and a good example, well done 👏 

[Matty]

  On 08/10/2023 at 20:27, N19 said:

I had them on the Capri for a bit - I didn't think they looked massively out of place.

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And to think I admired your taste 😋 

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 08/10/2023 at 20:27, Matty said:

I was running a series of hundred quid or so cav 1800ls for work (subby on overhead powerlines) in the early 2000s. I was 21 and I started seeing my now wife and her dad had an early vectra. Drove it a few times and for me it drove just as well as the cavvys.  Nice cars and at your age bud, it's an interesting car that you'll get a rake of fun out of. Good car and a good example, well done 👏 

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Thanks, I'm well chuffed with it. It's something different from what everyone else I know is driving (which is mostly modern stuff), so it's something a bit unconventional - but conventional for anyone that really knows me... 😂

[N19]

  On 08/10/2023 at 20:28, Matty said:

And to think I admired your taste 😋 

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Well there's your first mistake!!

[EyesWeldedShut]

As an aside... I hired a the later version 1.8 Vectra from Abbotsinch Airport in 2004 to get to my sister's wedding. Rocked up en famille and they didn't have one available. Had to 'make to' with a 2.2 petrol auto job - very nice but I think my leaden right foot added £100 to the fuel bill.

Then Vauxhall/GM seemed to lose the plot.......

[RoverFolkUs]

On the thought of "an" vauxhall, we were discussing at work on Friday about a T plate Astra we bought for £120 and sold to a customer for an astonishing £250 5 years ago with no guarantees or promises offered, he was just eternally grateful at the time because it was perfect for his needs at little cost. 

He's just booked it in for its 5th MOT and service since then! It's passed 4 of them first time and only needed an exhaust for the one that failed.

Nobody thought it would last, it was only supposed to tide him over for a couple of months - it's boring, it's hanging, but it's just brilliant at being "an car" in the same way this is and everything else from this era. 

I think it's coming in the week I'm away unfortunately, but if I've got that wrong then I'll be sure to pap a picture of its utter shonkiness! It was pretty hanging last year from what I remember so I imagine its "matured" even more since then

The green griffin of greatness, so we call it!

[Matty]

  On 08/10/2023 at 20:40, RoverFolkUs said:

On the thought of "an" vauxhall, we were discussing at work on Friday about a T plate Astra we bought for £120 and sold to a customer for an astonishing £250 5 years ago with no guarantees or promises offered, he was just eternally grateful at the time because it was perfect for his needs at little cost. 

He's just booked it in for its 5th MOT and service since then! It's passed 4 of them first time and only needed an exhaust for the one that failed.

Nobody thought it would last, it was only supposed to tide him over for a couple of months - it's boring, it's hanging, but it's just brilliant at being "an car" in the same way this is and everything else from this era. 

I think it's coming in the week I'm away unfortunately, but if I've got that wrong then I'll be sure to pap a picture of its utter shonkiness! It was pretty hanging last year from what I remember so I imagine its "matured" even more since then

The green griffin of greatness, so we call it!

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Said it a million  times. 90s till mid 2000s. The absolute golden era of cars. Pretty much all of em good, reliable things. Never see the like of it again, mores the pity

[stuboy]

Shame ur not near me , I have this taking up space

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 08/10/2023 at 21:10, stuboy said:

Shame ur not near me , I have this taking up space

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I most absolutely need that in my life. About 480 miles though... 😬

[Noel Tidybeard]

i liked my vecturd really- i had the gearbox rebuilt twice!

N662DKU 2.0 GLSi- satin red

[LoftyvRS]

The real early vectras we had all had gearbox issues, something (from memory) to do with the seal on the end cover not fitting correctly and them pissing gearbox oil everywhere.

A number of our N reg ones had it, all petrol models.

[Noel Tidybeard]

f18 gearbag had reduced hardening of crown gears!

[AnnoyingPentium]

@RoverFolkUs you can calm yer jets now, Aero shite wipers are OFF. They disintegrated as I removed them, they've been there a while.

Wasn't happy with the wash yesterday as there was still a fine layer of dirt on it, so a sponge was applied, and later cleaned the windows. A lot better than it was.

I have identified the small patches of rust that'll need tended to before they progress further. They're not terrible, but it'll need done before it goes seriously downhill. 

[beko1987]

Get them coated before winter at least, even if you do it properly* another day

[JMotor]

  On 09/10/2023 at 16:11, AnnoyingPentium said:

They're not terrible, but it'll need done before it goes seriously downhill. 

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It's such a joy when you find the sills and inner tubs are made of a fack aw.

SRLY get them sorted asap.

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 10/10/2023 at 11:54, JMotor said:

It's such a joy when you find the sills and inner tubs are made of a fack aw.

SRLY get them sorted asap.

 

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Will tidy up the visible rust then pull it apart in behind liners and suchlike to make sure it's all still metal.

Your experience with that last one very nearly put me off buying one, but not enough to stop me completely 😂