Faults:

None.

General Comments:

Good performance for a 13 year old diesel, great fuel economy; 35 around town, 55-60mpg on a long run. Bought the car for £690 in May 2009. It never goes wrong, it's used for work and play, interior okay, front seats are a little firm, but so what for a car that does not put a foot wrong.

Faults:

Thermostat sticking open, only cost £12 to fix.

Electric window passenger side stopped working. Didn't bother to fix, probably a faulty switch/motor.

General Comments:

Very good car. I had heard a lot of bad things about the Vauxhall Vectra before I bought it. To be honest this car has had a lot of unfair criticism. Many motoring programs and magazines gave the car a lot of stick over the years, but I can't really see what they were talking about.

The car drives well, handles OK, again they say it under steers a lot, but hey it's a front wheel drive family car, what did they expect would happen when you drive it hard? It cruises very well and that's all I need, I don't drive like an idiot.

The car is the 98bhp 2.0 DTi, and pulls very well. I've had a lot of 1.8 and 2.0 petrol cars previous to the Vectra, I can say that the performance of this diesel is just fine, it's not slow at all compared to a petrol equivalent. It's also economical as you would expect - I average 48mpg.

So the Vauxhall Vectra had also taken a lot of criticism about being uncomfortable. Well again I don't know what they are talking about as I find it fine. Supportive seats, good driving position, etc. Car is well equipped too - this is the GLS model (about mid range spec) electric windows, air con, usual.

Looks pretty good too - Blue with alloy wheels. It's also an estate car I have. Again not bad looking for what it is.

Only cost me £800. Car has over 140k miles now, but still runs fine apart from the little glitches mentioned above in the cars faults. Mechanically the car is as good as any other, bodywork wise a little rough, but it's over 10 years old now.

Overall, the car was much better than expected, and I don't think it deserves all the bad reviews it got at the time.

Faults:

Strange really, perfect up until the problem which made me SCRAP the car..

I got in the car one morning and it wouldn't start. To cut a long story short, the fuel pump had failed. New pump in the thousands, 2nd hand 800 hundred quid! To say I was annoyed is an understatement... Many swear words and the usual stuff came to mind; Vauxhall dealers didn't want to help cos of the age of the car... It felt like all the local garages knew about the problem and were more than ready to take my hard earned cash...

Using my common sense, I drove round to all the breakers who told me one hundred pounds for a pump, but they all had a deal with a dealer, mechanic call it what you want, who bought the pumps for cash as soon as a car came in!!! So this isn't sour grapes, but come on this is WRONG.

General Comments:

Great car in general; have had the 1.7 turbo before it, but this has really put me off altogether!

Faults:

I bought the car on a well known Internet Auction site, but lost everything the same day I collected it when the engine eventually went for a burden.

The handbrake seemed none existent when I came to try it, it turned out that the Vectra uses a rear disc brake that also has internal shoes as well, to operate the handbrake, and at some point they had become stuck to the drum and then been damaged when the car was driven off. This cost me £280 for new discs, pads and shoes before I even got the car home.

Later, traveling at speed along the A50, the oil light came on, so I de-clutched and the engine cut out. I coasted to a pull in place and re-started the engine, which ran really rough and clattered terribly from the camshaft area. Called the AA who said the engine was a write off, must have suffered oil pump failure or had a problem with the oil circulation. The oil was fine, just had it changed earlier when having the brakes done.

I began to get the feeling I had been sold a duff car by the guy I bought it from.

The other problem Kwik Fit told me was that the rear exhaust manifold had fractured, which was why it sounded louder than it should have been - apparently this is common on V6 Vectras, and expensive to repair.

Seemed to be prone to rust around the rear tailgate wiper on the hatchback - was quite bad and leaking in water into the tailgate.

General Comments:

The car looked great, Star Silver, really stylish with alloys, boot spoiler and twin exhaust. It's a lovely shape and I was taken by it when I saw it for sale on a well known internet auction site.

Looks can be deceiving!

It was a bag of spanners that I had the pleasure of driving for less than a day before it packed up - terminally.

The drivers door window would not come up properly without being 'helped' by my hand to close straight without leaving gaps at the side.

The gear stick linkage was not centralised, so getting first and second was a nightmare. It's a shame, because the interior was not too bad, nice Recaro style seats and useful dashboard display module showing things like bulb checks and trip computer. But the build quality was dreadful.

At 120,000 the engine was shot - I was very upset and annoyed - the cost of a replacement engine inc labour was nearly £1000 and that was a cheapo engine off Ebay, and my local backstreet mechanic changing it out.

Back to my old Cavalier - it's still running - 14 years old and not an ounce of bother apart from silly things like the radiator or alternator going.

Considering the Vectra was the replacement for the Cavalier, it is a whole leap backwards in terms of quality and reliablity - I was told to avoid the 2 Litre EcoTec engines and go for a V6 - I agree, the V6 is very potent and fast, but what good is that if it blows up as soon as you push it a little?

Avoid the Vauxhall Vectra (95 - 02) like the plague, what a load of rubbish poor excuse for a car.

And also be very careful of buying on Internet auction sites, you are committed once you buy and usually you will not have seen the car first in real life - just pictures of it. Sellers can be dishonest and not say about faults with a car they are selling.