Modern vauxhall? truly shite

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

My mum had a bronze/orange Chevette 4 door with brown/beige tartan uphoulstery, registration UGG 722W. I liked it.

She once knocked the driver's door off on a rock trying to push start backwards.

[Negative Creep]

Admittedly I do have a soft spot for the Nova as it was my first car (even though it broke several times in the 6 weeks it took me to write it off). I would have an ex plod Omega for lolz as well

[Cavcraft]

Ashmicro hearts Novas too.

To me Vauxhall's finest hour was in the nineties: Cavalier Mk3, Astra Mk3, Omega, Fronterror Sport, Nova, Corsa, Astra Mk4 and Vectra Mk1. What's not to like?

[Justin Case]

Lat year a friend replaced his 51 reg Vectra, which he had had from new, with a pre-reg Insignia. Neither car has given a moments trouble. Both are petrol. So, is it modern diesels rather than Vauxhalls that are the problem? Even the Mazda 6 forum (yes there is such a thing ) is full of complaints about diesels, but never a bad word about petrols.

[trigger]

Mondeos are the same, Tail after tail of injector, EGR and DMF problems with the diesel, but never such tails for the Zetec petrols.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Because they're much more reliable?

[Hertz]

Lat year a friend replaced his 51 reg Vectra, which he had had from new, with a pre-reg Insignia. Neither car has given a moments trouble. Both are petrol. So, is it modern diesels rather than Vauxhalls that are the problem? Even the Mazda 6 forum (yes there is such a thing ) is full of complaints about diesels, but never a bad word about petrols.

 

 

I think you have hit the old nail on the head there. We had a 1.4 1999 Megane petrol for 2 years never missed a beat, didn't even service it . Sold it for £100 more than we paid for it in the end. Then I decided to buy a more Modern, Safer, Family Diesel. Coughed up for a 2004 Focus C Max 2.0 TDCI. A nice car when it was on song, 12 months motoring with various failures cost £1000 in repair costs and sold it for £1000 less than we paid for it. From what I have heard I did well to come out only losing £2k

 

I just think there are more things to go wrong with modern diesels. The manufacturers are obsessed with getting the C02 figures down, with whatever gadgets they can muster to appeal to company car drivers and are not bothered about future reliability.

[richardthestag]

My parents had no Vauxhalls at all.

 

That was a deprived childhood.

 

My dad had two

 

FC 101 and an FD2000 both were estates and neither was as reliable as the Morris Marina that replaced them

 

I had a brand new mk2 Cav 1.6L - last of the line F reg. Ragged the arse of that thing for 180k and it only went wrong when Fuxall stealers got their hands on it Cried when I sold that 5 years later. The first car I ever owned that could do 70mph in 2nd gear

 

At about the same time Mum had an e reg GTE 8v and that wasn't bad except for the constant airflow meter issues that cost my dad a small fortune.

 

For 1 sunny day in 1989 I drove my bosses SRI Cav from Twickenham to Sarfend and back, sunroof open I was totally king of the outside lane

 

For 2 days in 1990 I had an f reg Senator 3l at my disposal, what a bit of kit that was

 

In the early 90's I was also responsible for a g reg GTE ashtray 16v and that was a hateful bag of shite that spent most of its time under my ownership sitting in clouds of tyre smoke, honestly a 2cv could get away from the line quicker I was delighted when that bastard got stolen even though it meant that I was then custodian of an equally shit vulva 340, never has a car been slower nor consumed more fuel than that bastard thing.

 

I wouldn't have any of the current range but I wouldn't mind another mk2 Cav SRI probably

[Negative Creep]

Ashmicro hearts Novas to:D

 

They have pretty much left the chav phase now since all the ones with kingdom bodykits have been burnt out or rusted away. Just starting to hit the interesting stage, and scene tax is already affecting the sri and gte

[Cavcraft]

Indeed and thankfully 'less is more' with the Nova these days. Can take or leave a lot of modified cars but a nice Nova in a plain colour with a gentle drop and the right wheels looks GR9.1.

 

Even bog standard versions are starting to fetch decent money now, especially non-sunroof three door hatch and two door saloon models, probably because they attract the mock rally car brigade.

[trigger]

I grew up when 1.3 & 1.4 SRi's were the thing to have, I did try to buy a H reg 1.4 SRi back in 1998 but i couldn't insure it at the time, I also remember doing laps around Colchester high street at 18 in a college mates Grey SRi with Usher you make me wanna blaring out of this CD player (I was just as impressed that it had a CD player!).

 

My dad's mate use to have a E reg Nova GTE back in the early 90's in white, I'd love to own one of those like that now.

 

[Pete-M]

My mum had a C plate Nova 1.2 Merit saloon that would not die. Eventually it was left to rot, which it didn't, so it went over the bridge of doom.

 

I had an A reg 1.3 SR which wasn't a bad old thing. Replaced it with an early Cav SR, which I didn't get on with. Nice seats though.

[HillmanImp]

A chap I knew used to go through the Friday Ad in the mid 90's to find the Nova SR's and GTE's for sale pick the one he liked and phone the number until they picked up, whether that be 1, 2 or 5 hours later. Used to go in the garage and he would be sat on the phone the whole time whilst my car was getting repaired. He would pick the car up, give it a wash and flog it on for silly money. He would made a small fortune doing that as he said there was rarely anything seriosuly wrong with them that could not be easily fixed and a 'nice' one would go for good money. Seemed to work for him.

 

They decended into such 'chav cars' a few years later though, so I would consider owning one as its stuck in my head. They will always be associated with 'on a mission' stickers to me. Although there was one bird who drove round Worthing who had 'They think its all Nova....' on the front of her car and '....it is now' (predictably) on the back which I actually quite liked.

[Guest]

gentle drop

 

This was the Lancaster euphemism for 'suicide'. Uncertain if it still is.

[oman5]

The neighbour just bought a 56 plate zafira diesel. did about 500 miles in it and the turbo knackered up. it only had 40 thou on the clock, thats piss poor IMO

[Tayne]

.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Any modern TD that started life as an Enterprise hire car (such as a Vauxhall Shakira) would be doing well to last 40k! GM don't make their own Turbos. As has been said, a car is only as good as it's bought in parts.