Modern vauxhall? truly shite

[scooters]

I don't necessarily think it is a Vauxhall specific issue - as Pete M says - all manufacturers seem to have good times and bad ones. If you drive older vehicles then you will have to get used to chasing problems - nothing is made to last these days. Most mass market cars are sold on 3 year finance deals/60k so that is the tolerance many parts are tested and bought to.

 

I've spent most of the last 5 hours up to my elbows in the guts of the 850 - it's got a failed alternator voltage regulator - a wee bit of plastic and wires buried deep in the machine that dictates whether or not your car iworks or not. To fix this in a garage would cost hundreds of pounds -as shitters, most of us have a bash ourselves and I am glad that I have because I have learnt a lot about the car am now a lot more confident tacking larger more complex jobs and have saved a huge wedge of cash as well. Removing the alternator is a tedious and long job - it's buried in the guts of the car. In the Sherpa - it takes 5 minutes.

 

The example is apt here because in my study of Bosch alternators over the last week i have discovered that some of them are prone to premature bearing faliure as very poor quality cheap chinese bearing seals were fitted which invariably harden and fail over several years. A victim of cost engineering - the manufacturers get squeezed on margin by the marques so to try and maintain their profits they, in turn squeeze their suppliers. It's no coincidence that many of the faliures are due to cheap often chinese sourced electrical components and that these were sourced at sweetie money from a chinese economy with ambitions in the 90's. That is not to say that all components that come from China are dodgey - the failed regulator is a UK made part.

 

Making anything is a fine balance between ensuring customer satisfaction with the product versus how much margin you are looking to make. ergo you buy a mass market car the chances are that some of the components will be of poor quality to keep the costs down.

 

This is why it is advisable, if you are relying on shit for a daily, to ensure you use something that has real world use track records then you can weigh the risk of unreliability, reliability being the most important factor in a daily. It wil break down but what you need to know is how likely that is, when that may happen and what you need to do to fix it. If all these factors can be satisfied then you have a viable option.

 

If you want cheap motoring, breaking down is an occupational hazard and the best advice is to get as technically saavy asap or have the budget to outsorce the repairs.

[mk1_4dr]

I don't have any experience of truely modern Vauxhalls, infact the most modern being my Grandads Mk4 Astra that he got as a leaving gift from work.

 

I have very fond memories of my dads old Mk3 Cavalier 1.8iLS, metallic burgundy with 15" GSi Slabs. Awesome car, that he wishes he'd never sold.

[ashmicro]

Just been up to the breakers to get a spare spark plug cover for my spare engine. There were a shocking number of new-ish, not crashed damaged Pugs and Renners, including a 4 year old, top-spec Scenic Grand thing. I asked the chap what the score was with it, and he said "Electronics, Andy. No -one can figure it out, so they sent it here. Lot of that French stuff at the minute, and VAG stuff is getting cheap too."

 

A real shame, that Scenic was a very nice car.

[Father Ted]

 

Natural state for all modern Vauxhalls.

 

 

what the instrument cluster full of old man dead skin?

They are dried up bogies actually.

I think, from now on I'll stick to my Vauxhall Forums.

 

Sad day, I thought everyone was welcome on here, clearly not.

Stick around Ian, the Vauxhall bashing/defending flares up from time to time but a) not everyone hates them and other marques get a bashing occasionally too.

Somebody else hit the nail on the head about the CDTi stuff.

Its unbelievably crap and unreliable. I pity whoever buys my old one from the dealer.

I expect the C8 will have allsorts of electrical maladies, being French I expect it. I did not expect that level of unreliability from a 3 year old Vauxhall though

[cms206]

Of all the cars I've driven my favourite is my (still VOR) 8v Mk3 Cavalier SRi.

 

 

The worst... 51-plate Vectra B 2.0DTi. It was utterly fucking pants.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

A modern Vauxhall is no better and no worse than anything else made now. Modern 'prestige' stuff is absolutely riddled with electrical/engine management faults - BMW's, Mercs etc can either be very good or a bucket of shit. Modern cars are far too clever for their own good, too rammed with technology which cannot hope to be 100% reliable all the time.

I'm no massive Vauxhall fan, but I've rented both an Insignier and a new Astra, and both are perfectly nice cars that do a job - I thought the Astra was excellent. The Insig suffered from the usual hideously overcomplicated dash that all manufacturers seem to think we want. My neighbour is on his second absolutely fault free Zafira in four years.

 

Modern GM stuff isn't shit. It's the same as everything else, and only as good as the parts the suppliers send.

[RichL]

Hmm. I can see both sides of the story on this one. I've always been a Ford man, but not for any particular reason other than my first car was a '96 Fiesta 1.1 which was a great little car and cost very little to run. Had a good job at the time so sold it after a couple of years and bought a nearly new MK5 1.6 Zetec S and never looked back.

 

However, I have always liked the older Vauxhall stuff, late Cav's in particular for their good spec and reliabilty etc. Never owned one but know plently of people who have, I can remember going to the Autosport show in a mates '94M 2.0 16V GLS and the thing absolutley flew. 100 felt like 60... My cousin got given a knackered Corsa 1.2 of the same age with 95k on the clock as a first car and my Dad and I kept it going for the best part of three years with minimal servicing and scrapyard bits.

 

Newer stuff seems to be a bit of a fail though. Chap at work has a 1.9CDTi Zafira and the EML light is pretty much always on. Cars with DPF's seem to need to be ragged constantly and do mega miles to work properly, but will then cost loads to service.

The petrols seem to be ok but love fuel.

 

My best mate has a '56 plate Astra 1.7CDTi Elite (electric everthing, auto everthing, climate, leather) and has done over 50k in it with no problems whatsoever...

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Newer stuff seems to be a bit of a fail though. Chap at work has a 1.9CDTi Zafira and the EML light is pretty much always on. Cars with DPF's seem to need to be ragged constantly and do mega miles to work properly, but would still then cost loads to service.

The petrols seem to be ok but love fuel.

 

As DPFs become more common (and more used cars have them) a lot more cars are going to be hit with accusations of unreliability.

[Pete-M]

As DPFs become more common (and more used cars have them) a lot more cars are going to be hit with accusations of unreliability.

 

There's one good thing about DPFs. They're fitted to diesels, so I don't have to put up with the bloody things.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I have to say I'm quite impressed by the Corsa I got given in exchange for the dodgy Polo (see other thread). Sure, it's too big for a "supermini", but it's logically designed (and geared), the soundproofing is decent, and the specification is amazing for a mid-spec "small" car (it even has cruise control!). Not sure how long it'll last, though. I've got to say that I have quite a few friends who 've had problematic Vauxhalls/Opels.

 

I've never owned a Vauxhall or had much interest in them, but I wouldn't be averse to owning an Omega at some point in the future...

[MK5 Escort]

I do wish our Autoshite community wasn’t so strongly anti-Vauxhall. I would probably contribute more, otherwise.

 

Having experienced six Vauxhalls registered between 1998 and 2005 in our family alone (thanks to various relatives in the Ellesmere Port plant), I’d happily recommend them to anyone. In those six, only one had to go back for minor warranty work – a Corsa where the driver’s side door rubber come loose. Other than that, none of them ever missed a beat or had any engine management issues.

 

My Father had an 03 plate Vectra C 1.8 Club. To this day he maintains it was one of the best cars he’d ever had and wishes he’d still had it. Very comfortable, spacious, well equipped and very well built for the price. An extremely underrated motor that happily took him the width and length of the UK, largely on cruise control, with no complaints. Handling? So what…? It was more than acceptable for him and myself when I drove it. As we don’t drive cars to they’re limits or do regular track days in them, it’s not something that bothers us. Following that he had a 55 plate Zafira 2.2 SRi. Again, it proved itself to be faultless.

 

Some five years ago the local Vauxhall dealer had invited the pair of us to a ‘VXR Experience’ day at Oulton Park, where we were treated with others to lunch and most of the day testing the then current VXR range . I’m a positively average driver, but experienced no such ‘understeer’ issues from any of them. The Vectra in particular had one of the sweetest V6’s I’d personally experienced and was a real ‘gentle giant’ around the track. I didn’t think much of the Monaro though. I almost needed both feet to depress the clutch and both hands to change gear. A real pig to drive. Someone even managed to pass me in a Meriva.

 

The company I used to work for bought nothing but Ford for much of the nine years I was there. I used to look after the fleet of vehicles at our depot with another chap. Some were okay. The 02 plate Mondeo Zetec TDDi (one of the last of the old engines) never missed a beat. A brilliant car. However, every single TDCi unit we had was a nasty, unrefined rattlebox. One 05 plate Mondeo saw the back of a low loader three times in as many months when it was new. Three more suffered from complete injector failure – all within 70-90k miles. The cost of Labour included resulted in repairs of over £1000 each time. Most ate through ball joints and particularly rear subframe mounts/bushes.

 

The Transits were even worse. Most we had whilst I was there were 52, 03, 05, 06 and 57 plates. Self destructing radios, leaky windscreens, injector problems (of course…), various electronic breakdowns, poor paintwork, PAS problems…the list goes on. One particular bad example found it’s exhaust snapped in half on the M53 after having only done 500 miles. The same one also found it’s head having to be refurbished at 15k and a whole new gearbox at 29k. It cost close to £1200 to scrape it through it’s first MOT. Everyone there used to call them ‘Trans*its’.

 

The Transit Connects to be fair, we’re pretty robust. They also suffered from temperamental radio problems and more than half had sliding door runner corrosion, but other than that, they were pretty good. They drove well and were comfortable.

 

We even successfully taken one particular Ford dealer to the trading standards through shoddy repair work. Lets just say they liked using cable ties when they lost bolts. Another one was being taken to the trading standards at the time I was leaving (don’t know the outcome). I vowed never again to purchase another modern Ford. Not only for the cars, but for the utterly shambolic dealers and poor attitudes of some of they’re staff.

 

So, when I hear of ‘Ford brilliance’ over Vauxhall, certainly from my own experiences of the current crop over the last decade, please excuse me whilst I spit my coffee out over the screen and roll on the floor in hysterics…

 

A year before I left the firm, they started buying Vauxhall’s as the directors were no longer willing to spend a fortune in keeping these Ford’s either on the road or renting courtesy vehicles when they were in dock. This was regardless of the fact that they were very ‘pally’ with one particular employee at Peoples Ford in Bootle who they’d been dealing with for over 20 years. Our particular depot had five last of the line 09 plate Vectra Exclusiv 1.9CDTi (150)’s. Three who had them commented upon how pleasantly surprised they were by the Vectra. No, they weren’t the best diesels (certainly not bad, but not brilliant either) but in the last year I was there, all but one had clocked over 45k. None of them had been back to the dealer for anything other than servicing. No engine management issues either. One of which I know was in the hands of a continued ‘Vectra critic’ who treated it very harshly.

 

At the end of the day, there’s good and bad in everything. So why does Vauxhall have to be singled out, sometimes unfairly, for particular criticism all the time?

 

One last thing – just remember that I grew up with Ford. I’m certainly no Vauxhall ‘fanboy’. To prove this, I don’t like the current Vauxhall range. The current Corsa is ugly and slow in most forms. The new Astra looks like a Fiat Bravo. The Insignia is overrated and built basically to put smiles on the faces of those vocal critics of the underrated Vectra. The Tigra is an unfashionable shoe for ladies and both the Agila and Antara aren’t my cup of tea. Infact, the only model I would currently have from them is the soon to be discontinued Astra Sport Hatch. I didn’t particularly think much of the Vauxhall range of the 80’s either, other than the Carlton and Senator.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

^^ Good post.

 

My own Vauxhall ownership started with a very tidy 1976 Viva E Coupe in 1988. It was given to me with a dented wing and like the prized twat I am, I ran it for a week until the tax expired, and drove it to the breakers to claim my 30 quid.

 

Then a Nova 1.3SR which was a cracking little beast, enjoyed every minute in that.

 

The Vectra B was a weak point. I drove one when they were new, a 1.6 hire car that was just awful and not a patch on the original Mondeo - I mean, it wasn't even close. I bought a 1998 R plate 2.0 example 3-4 years ago and it was a fucking disaster. I'll concede than the 1999 on facelift car was better, and a late SRi Estate is probably okay. The last Corsa was dismal as well. Not a bad car, just not very good - thirsty and with some stupid design features.

 

The Vectra C was a massive improvement, just those stupid indicators spoil it. I'd suffer one as a daily hack - they're cheap now.

[MK5 Escort]

Many thanks, Reverend! I’m glad I’m not quite ‘pi**ing into the wind’ as such, here…

 

The previous Corsa wasn’t very good. Lots of tacky plastic on the inside and I wasn’t fond of it’s rear-end styling either. It felt ‘cheap’, the PAS was over-assisted and the 1.0 and 1.2 units were positively asthmatic. The previous Corsa again though, the original car, felt considerably better built. We did have an S plate 1.6 Sport which I thought was an excellent ‘warm’ hatch which took me on a tour of the Sottish Highlands and the Devon twice. It swallowed the miles with ease and felt larger than what it really was. The equivalent MK4 Fiesta of the time may have handled better, but always felt ‘tinny’ in comparison.

 

The Vectra B wasn’t brilliant, no. The seats were too firm for me and base models were indeed very slow. A nice looking car though and various issues were addressed with the 1999 facelift. By then though, the damage had already been done.

 

Certainly to me, the Vectra C feels considerably more ‘substantial’ than the previous generation Mondeo (2000-20007). It felt more ‘grown up’ and spacious on the inside and I even preferred the way it looked too. Ford kept wrecking that generation of Mondeo with every minor facelift – the biggest being that horrible cheesy chrome grille they put on the front of late 2003 onwards cards. Then they messed around with the rear lights - twice… Yuck. From a personal point of view, the seats in that era of Mondeo (and Focus as it happens) also gave me lower backache for some reason after a few hours behind the wheel. Also, I’ve yet to drive a ‘bad’ Vectra C. With the Mondeo it’s been much more mixed from my own experiences. Some good for sure, some bad.

 

The indicators are also fine when you got used to them. The only difference was that you didn’t ‘click’ them on. Other than that, they worked in exactly the same manner. I really don’t personally understand what the ‘big deal’ was about them. Most other modern Vauxhall’s use this same system and none of them get the same level of negative response.

 

To show I’m certainly not biased toward Vauxhall, they decided to start ruining the Vectra C at the end by removing the standard rain sensitive wipers and the gas struts that held up the bonnet. Cost cutting, basically. Yet we didn’t see list price reductions to suit. Early 2002 ones also come with standard red courtesy lights in the doors (something you’d expect to see in a much higher grade of car) which were removed within a year. Some models even lost they're central rear air vents in the armrest, just to leave a gaping hole there. Again, I’ll stress that I’m not fond of most of the current range.

 

Yes, the Mondeo was the nicer car to drive. I don’t think anyone can or will deny that. For me personally though, the Vectra C was a better all-rounder and if I’m after a car of that particular size in the next few years, I’d happily take one over the Mondeo. If others don’t like that given the strong ‘Vectra Vendetta’ we see here – well, tough!

[martc]

It was all downhill for Vauxhall when they stopped making the Prince Henry....

[Guest]

It was all downhill for Vauxhall when they stopped making the Prince Henry....

 

Yeah, and the thing is, Vectras are \ were a bit shit. In general.

[garethj]

I do wish our Autoshite community wasn’t so strongly anti-Vauxhall. I would probably contribute more, otherwise.

Yeah, there are some people who write loads of bad stuff about Vauxhalls. Here's one now.

 

I don’t like the current Vauxhall range. The current Corsa is ugly and slow in most forms. The new Astra looks like a Fiat Bravo. The Insignia is overrated and built basically to put smiles on the faces of those vocal critics of the underrated Vectra. The Tigra is an unfashionable shoe for ladies and both the Agila and Antara aren’t my cup of tea.

 

And here's someone else!

The previous Corsa wasn’t very good. Lots of tacky plastic on the inside and I wasn’t fond of it’s rear-end styling either. It felt ‘cheap’, the PAS was over-assisted and the 1.0 and 1.2 units were positively asthmatic.

 

The Vectra B wasn’t brilliant, no. The seats were too firm for me and base models were indeed very slow.

Jeez, lots of complaints about them. Anyone else?

 

they decided to start ruining the Vectra C at the end by removing the standard rain sensitive wipers and the gas struts that held up the bonnet. Cost cutting, basically. Yet we didn’t see list price reductions to suit. Early 2002 ones also come with standard red courtesy lights in the doors (something you’d expect to see in a much higher grade of car) which were removed within a year. Some models even lost they're central rear air vents in the armrest, just to leave a gaping hole there. Again, I’ll stress that I’m not fond of most of the current range.

 

And so on, and so forth

[Guest]

I do wish our Autoshite community wasn’t so strongly anti-Vauxhall. I would probably contribute more, otherwise.

Yeah, there are some people who write loads of bad stuff about Vauxhalls. Here's one now.

 

I don’t like the current Vauxhall range. The current Corsa is ugly and slow in most forms. The new Astra looks like a Fiat Bravo. The Insignia is overrated and built basically to put smiles on the faces of those vocal critics of the underrated Vectra. The Tigra is an unfashionable shoe for ladies and both the Agila and Antara aren’t my cup of tea.

 

And here's someone else!

The previous Corsa wasn’t very good. Lots of tacky plastic on the inside and I wasn’t fond of it’s rear-end styling either. It felt ‘cheap’, the PAS was over-assisted and the 1.0 and 1.2 units were positively asthmatic.

 

The Vectra B wasn’t brilliant, no. The seats were too firm for me and base models were indeed very slow.

Jeez, lots of complaints about them. Anyone else?

 

they decided to start ruining the Vectra C at the end by removing the standard rain sensitive wipers and the gas struts that held up the bonnet. Cost cutting, basically. Yet we didn’t see list price reductions to suit. Early 2002 ones also come with standard red courtesy lights in the doors (something you’d expect to see in a much higher grade of car) which were removed within a year. Some models even lost they're central rear air vents in the armrest, just to leave a gaping hole there. Again, I’ll stress that I’m not fond of most of the current range.

 

And so on, and so forth

 

Yeah man, this negative sentiment is getting OUT OF HAND.

 

When I finish my slash on this flowerbed, I shall help right the inequities of this forum.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I LOVE VAUXHALLS, THEYRE THE BEST!! GO VAUXHALL!

[Guest]

I LOVE VAUXHALLS, THEYRE THE BEST!! GO VAUXHALL!

 

Brought to you by REP MATTERS, (1994).

[Mr_Bo11ox]

VAUXHALL WORST CAR EVAH! DRIVE LIKE SHIt!!!!11!!1

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I may be a new member, but I've been reading the board for quite a while...I'm amazed that some people feel unwelcome because others dislike one of their favourite carmakers (btw, what is the point of keeping the Vauxhall name if even the tyre-pressure sticker on the driver's door reads OPEL?). The whole point of AS must clearly be that it's an "anything-goes" community, where all sorts of automotive fetishes are welcome. If you like Vauxhalls and I don't, it doesn't mean that I think of you as an inferior person!!

[fiatdaft]

your just not in the bumming clique yet.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

your just not in the bumming clique yet.

 

Fair play, I'll just give it some more time!

[richardthestag]

Can we get back to Tagoras and rusty Acclaims please?

 

I thought that the pu51 thread had some more go to it, if this one goes as long I should imagine that the suicide rate from the top of shite towers will increase dramatically, in fact almost as much as if everyone here was forced to choose there next ride between a 97 Vectra 1.8LS and a 98 Vectra dizzler with a dodgy clutch

[Negative Creep]

VAUXHALL WORST CAR EVAH! DRIVE LIKE SHIt!!!!11!!1

Ur talking sh1t bruv coz my m8 has a redtop corsa beats evos and skylines all the time

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Oh daddy daddy

I beg of you

Whisper to mommy

It's all right with you

Cause they'll be rockin on bandstand

In Vauxhall Cresta P.A.

 

1958 Vauxhall Cresta PA by Albert S. Bite, on Flickr

[Cavcraft]

Next week: I H8 RTERO RYDEZ.

[Father Ted]

I thought the thread was MODERN Vauxxhalls are shite. My own experience of CDTi stuff is yes it is. Worse is vaux customer service, or utter lack of it and their mantra "its the way you drive it".

 

Dad had a HA van with rear window and seat conversion for years and it was fine.

 

I would have one tomorrow if i could find one.

[Cavcraft]

 

Dad had a HA van with rear window and seat conversion for years and it was fine.

 

I would have one tomorrow if i could find one and I'd lob a 1.9CDTi engine in to make it more reliable .

 

My dad only had one Vauxhall that I can remember which was a Mk2 Cavalier 1.6SR.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

My parents had no Vauxhalls at all.

 

That was a deprived childhood.