1998 Vauxhall Astra Arctic from UK and Ireland - Comments

Very poor radio reception, hence difficult to use auto-seek, refuses to lock on to station.

Cam belt has just failed today at 59,590 miles, the damage is as yet unknown!

I am very fond of this car, although it is quick, the revs need to be above 3000 rpm to do any good.

The gearing seems to be too low compared to the Astra 1.6 GLSi. I sometimes think that I am only in 4th gear when I am actually in 5th.

I'm very impressed with the colour, the alloy wheels, but the wide tyres make the steering a bit on the heavy side.

Comfortable and well designed cabin which makes for nice long distance driving.

If you accuired the vehicle on 52000 miles and the belt went on 59000 miles don't you think that says something,it says that you should of checked it as soon as you bought the vehicle. when ever you buy a new car service history or not you must replace the cambelt because I can almost guarantee that the valves are bent and it will need a new cylinder head costing you around the five hundred pound mark. when you could of had the belt done for a hundred. I don't know what the world is coming to. used and abused.

Just put a deposit down on one of these, had a test drive, 5th seemed to be quite high enough - the engine was only pulling about 1250rpm at 30mph, which is plenty enough for relaxed motorway cruising (70 at under 3000rpm), and really a little too high to move it along cleanly at that speed.

(that might just be the old 1-litre owner in me talking though, my current car does about 1750rpm at 30! very buzzy over 70)

PS the reccomended cambelt change interval on astras is 40,000 miles - its something you should always always always check, the interval and whether it was done, and if you're very paranoid, how much it will cost to have changed right after buying it. That's what I will be doing this week... (its at 29,000 but hey... whats 10,000 miles?)

If the previous owners didn't bother to do it or didn't realise it needed done (and the dealer overlooked it - or they didn't have it properly serviced at all) then the belt's essentially lasted for almost 50% longer than the reccomended interval...

I have to say that I have just acquired an automatic astra arctic which has done almost 35,ooo miles and have just had a cam belt and kit replaced which is a relief as I used to work for vx and know what these are like,,, other than that... nice car...