Faults:

General wear and tear like regular oil changes, suspension/brakes/exhaust parts for MOT test.

Some interior trim wear and tear with the odd bit of plastic dashboard trim coming away - but it was used as a works car always loaded with equipment, it took a lot of abuse!

Nothing really bad, except sudden failure of the gearbox at 145K miles.

General Comments:

A decent car to drive and economical; there is not much to say about the 98-04 model Astra. It's an honest, good, everyday car, and this particular one was used as an electrician's works vehicle from new, always loaded and on the road everyday up and down the country.

Comfort was fine even on this basic LS model, no fancy features and the interior was pretty dull, but it was comfortable and not bad to drive, plus very economical.

It was decent looking for an estate car, with lots of room in the back.

Always had Vauxhalls through the 80s and 90s, and ran them to very high mileages, however this one's sudden gearbox failure was disappointing at 145K - simply because I have ran older cars to higher mileage without such serious issues. Although this car was used heavily, it was driven correctly and serviced on time, so the sudden gearbox failure was a mystery - just couldn't get it into gear one day and it would not move.

Mechanic did not bother to investigate much (but said it definitely was not the clutch and more likely the gearbox) as the car was getting older by then and was decided by my company to be scrapped and not worth repairing; never did find out what the problem was. What's interesting though is a mate of mine had the exact same car and the gearbox on his failed at the same age and mileage as well!

Still, this did not put me off Vauxhalls as I have generally found them fine, and have since replaced this one with an updated 2005 model Astra that is running fine.

Faults:

Nothing.

General Comments:

Good looks, electric hood, economical and reliable.

Limited boot space.

Brakes a bit woolly.

Limited rear visibility with the hood up.

A fair weather car with the roof down, as it's not much fun to drive when it's cold and wet outside.

Faults:

I have owned the car about 10 months. I've done about 14,000 miles. The only thing I have had to do is change the front discs and pads.

I would suggest one of these as a first car. It's cheap insurance group 9 and fast; 8.5 seconds.

Mine is in silver with tinted rear windows and xenon lights.

Fuel econamy is OK for a car that 8.5 seconds to 60.

General Comments:

This car handles like a dream, best car I've had, and that's saying something cause I've owned a Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo.

Faults:

EGR and ECU changed under warranty at 5000km.

Re-mapped ECU at 5000km.

A/C clutch at 40000km.

Ignition coil pack at 40000km.

Oil consumption: about 0.6l/1000km.

Catalytic converter and entire exhaust changed at 45000km.

This car was a nightmare. Local dealer services are useless, nobody wants or know how to repair this car.

Ignition coil pack was cause a misfire, but no codes were registered for the coil pack. So, nobody knew what is going wrong. The misfire melted down the KAT and its parts stuffed the exhaust (cat back).

General Comments:

I am very disappointed by this car, it is the worst car I've ever had.

Build quality is good, ride is on the hard side but is quite comfy.

Automatic transmission is Japan made (Aisin) so it works very nice.

I am extremely surprised to see so much people satisfied with their Astra. I am quite sure the people like me are more interested in finding a solution to repair their cars than writing a good comment on this site. Take a look at Opel/Vauxhall forums and you'll see what people says about this car - is a piece of junk like Fiat or any other GMC.

To be honnst, the 1.6L Z16XE is the worst engine in Astra's range. Engine management (ECU), oil consumption, temperature sensor and EGR are the most common problems found on Astra G (Mark 4) petrol engines.