1999 Vauxhall Astra Reviews

Rear brake shoe adjuster disintegrated, causing the brake to jam on.

Leaking rear shocks, and constantly breaking rear springs.

Thermostat water pump and timing belt kit at 60,000 miles.

Front caliper binding; swapped for a good used one.

ECU melted internally, causing the car to breakdown.

Leaking plastic fuel pipe.

I have had quite a few cars over the past years, but this is by far the worst I have ever had.

It is so poorly sprung and uncomfortable that I hate going anywhere in it. The heater is freezing and the temperature gauge never gets off the cold, despite a new thermostat and flush through of the cooling system. I blanked off half the radiator and that helped, but it's still freezing in the winter.

The seats are thinly padded and you can't adjust the steering wheel, so you never really get comfortable.

The suspension is too hard, and the damping too soft, so you go round corners as if you were on a pogo stick, only less fun.

The engine is something from another era. Single cam, eight valves, single point injection etc. So lacking in power that it's not worth the bother of overtaking anyone unless they are walking, or on a bicycle... maybe.

Very poor low speed running. Surging, hesitating or misfiring unless you keep the revs up.

Really nothing much going for it unless you consider the running costs. An easy 40mpg, but negated by the fact you will never be away from a garage for very long.

Would never, ever, buy another Vauxhall.

This has to be the worst car ever. I bought it back in April this year from a dealer to replace my Volvo 440, and since then I have had nothing but trouble with it.

The first thing that went on it was the water pump, and when this happened, the timing belt also jumped off, messing up the engine valves.

I spent £300 to get this fixed, and now I have also discovered that one or more of the piston rings must also be damaged, causing it to always smoke a lot when driving.

I have been so disappointed with this Vauxhall Astra, that I ended up finding a cheap second hand ECU unit from breaker's yard website for my Volvo 440, and resurrecting it to drive again.

I would never want to buy a Vauxhall again, and it will be back to Volvo for me!!

Rubbish worst car ever!! Nasty built engine too.

The things that went wrong with the car was the passenger seat lost its support and leaned over to one side, and the bonnet catch snapped, which was a real pain.

The E-cotec engine was quite tappity from cold and idled rough on some occasions.

I have owned this car for just over one year, and have done quite a lot of miles in this year.

I was very surprised on how fast the car was, it was a 1.8 16v and was quite nippy, kicked a little when you got in to 4000rpm, but did lose a bit of power when getting it into the red-line.

It had e/w c/l CD player, sports seats and alloys, the car looks quite sporty compared the the 4 door version.

Cabin is a little bland and white clocks try to liven it up, but not really working.

Very roomy in side with good driving position.

Overall it was a nice car to own. Never cost the world to maintain, and was good on petrol.

Start misfiring between 2000-4000 rpm, spoke to dealer who said it was a faulty ECU, which they had known about since manufacture; apparently a lot of cars were made like this. It had been subject to a recall but this had somehow not been communicated to me. As the recall was now over, to fix the problem they wanted me to pay approx £400 for a new ecu and another £100 to have it programmed and fitted all plus vat! Hardly good customer service when you know the car was made faulty.

I took it to a small independent garage who correctly diagnosed it as a faulty EGR valve which only cost £80, glad I never used the main dealer as after having my wallet emptied it would still be faulty.

Replaced both front wheel bearing which is expected on a car this age, still on original clutch which is good for 164,000.

The engine has used quite a lot of oil since I’ve owned it, apparently some of the 1.6 16V engines are just like this.

The offside rear arch has completely rusted out and needed replaced, never had this problem in such a new car before, looks like a case of poor rust proofing at the factory.

The offside read door lock also jammed and this required the remove and lubrication of rod that connected the motor to the lock.

Car handles nicely and is comfy on long journeys.

Performance is good, you leave most other cars if required, fuel economy is good aswell.

The interior is rather bland.