Vauxhalls - any good?

Bonniepurple

I’m on my third Vauxhall (1 petrol manual Corsa, one diesel manual Zafira, one petrol automatic Zafira). I’ve also driven a variety of other cars and vans. The Vauxhall’s have been okay, but nothing special. My current car was a Vauxhall simply because of budget. I needed an automatic people carrier style unexpectedly and funds were tight. Long term, I want a Ford S Max or similar but they are expensive, and automatics even more so.

Would I buy another Vauxhall? Probably not, but it depends on finances at the point of replacement.

Barney_Rubble_0403

I've had good and bad experiences with Vauxhall's throughout many years of ownership.

2 x Cavaliers - high mileage and poorly maintained. They soldiered on and despite battered and abused were great value for money and sadly missed.

2 x Extras - very poor cars. Nice to look at, roomy and a quality feel inside but both suffered from electrical problems and faulty coil packs. High fuel consumption. Had to snap my last one when the vauxhall main dealer couldn't source a cat converter for it.

Did consider a Insignia but went for a Zafira Tourer. Bought it near new with 20k on the clock and now has 120k on it. It has never missed a beat and is a car I really like. Very good fuel consumption for a big 7 seated, well equipped and feels good quality inside.

one of our friends has a Insignia and is very happy with it. Astras are practical, reliable if slightly bland with the newer ones holding up well against Golf and Focus..

mcpitman

I've had amny Vauxhalls, from nova's, cavaliers, Astra Mk2-5, Vectra's and an Insignia.


The better cars for me at the time were the Vectra and the current Insignia.


Regularly serviced I managed to take the Vectra from 110k miles up to 237k before it did a "bit of a Herbie" in lane 4 of the M1 in rush hour. That was the clutch master cylinder which gave up (in the gearbox on the 120 bhp non 16v Vectra diesels). However it owed me nothing and cost me nothing in breakages during normal ownership, just usual consumables.


I traded the Vec-C in for an 59 plate Insignia 160 CDti Sri.


First bit of advice, don't buiy the diesel models if you are doing short town trips. 90% of my mileage is motorway so that's not an issue for me.


So far owned the car for 4 years, taken in from 22k miles to 147k miles. Again nothing more than regular servicing, and belt intervals and consumables on this one.


I've have had it mapped, and pushes just north of 200PS now, torques at 420nm (the limit of the F40 gearbox). It goes like the clappers, returns 60+mpg on a long Cruise control type run and has never failed me.


All in for a motorway trawler, it's a comfy place to be with built in Sat Nav etc.


I can't fault them (and have owned many other marques from Ford's to more expensive German brands etc). They are a bit of a Ronseal car.

ewandougie

I have a 2014 insignia with 68k miles on it.

Honestly not had any major problems with it, the thing was the first car I had that passed a MOT without a single advisory last week

They generally come with decent kit for the money