1998 Vauxhall Vectra SRi Sport 24v from UK and Ireland - Comments

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.

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.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, buying a car blind is always a risk... I bought my Vectra GSi V6 off an auction site and the car has been absolutely excellent and (touch wood) fault free for a year.

Sounds like the guy really did pull your pants down with a lemon of a car! As if they are regularly serviced and cambelt every 40,000, they are bulletproof.

I wrote the original review; since the engine failure I have sold the car to a local mechanic who services my cars and got £50, the only thing the car was good for was stripping for its wheels, interior etc, but as I don't have off street parking, I let him strip it and sell the parts. I have since bought a Nissan Primera 2.0 Sport+ VT6, OK it's not in the power league as the Vectra was, and I am still annoyed about what happened to it as I was looking forward to driving it, but the Primera is not a V6 and was never produced with a V6 engine, more's the pity.

The Primera is a great car, so far, reliable nice to drive and a proven car. Its slow for 2.0 16v being the CVT auto tiptronic box doing 0-60 in 11.1 seconds, the Vectra did it in 8.0 seconds, but I think I would rather have reliability and plain looks rather than an unreliable good looker that the Vectra was, but like I say, if only Nissan had given this car a 2.5 engine alternative.

I was unlucky as the previous owner had probably not serviced the car properly - after a lot of wrangling I did manage to get £200 back from him in compensation for my loss, but there are too many other owners on this forum that have rubbished the Vectra for unreliability for me to ever consider having a Vectra again, and this is a pity because I think the performance of the V6 Vectra is very good, its quicker than the equivalent Mondeo ST24 - Yes I have owned a V6 Mondeo before as well for those of you who might argue otherwise, and it had a very good driving position and sports bucket seats. If you do buy a Vectra V6, here are some tips to look for - which I should have walked away from when I found them, but was in love with the car so it clouded my better judgment.

I would strongly suggest you check the condition of the oil and insist on a full service history. Old oil, which is thick and black like treacle will block oil passages and lead to eventual failure of the crankshaft bearings or worse, which is what happened to my car - Kwik fit said the oil was a disgrace when it was drained - use synthetic oil only as cheap oil will not pay off when the engine fails later on.

Check the exhaust manifolds front and rear as these are prone to problems with cracking and blowing.

Check the rear brakes and especially the Handbrake, as this is a weak spot with the design of the rear disc/drum brake assembly.

Check the boot area for damp and around the rear wiper pivot arm for rust as they do fail here a lot and allow water into the tailgate, which rots the boot carpet at best.

Check also the radio display panel, which on a lot of Vectras loses its pixels and eventually becomes unreadable.

I was told to avoid the 2.0 Ecotec engines due to problems with the cambelt tensioners, and I went to look at several where the cambelts were slack - failures imminent.

Wind down the drivers window, if it does not wind up or down properly, it has a problem with the rails inside the door and frequently comes off the rails and will not wind back up properly.

Most importantly of all, do NOT buy any Vectra if the seller cannot tell you its cambelt history AND prove this, the cambelt could be running on borrowed time, and if it breaks, that will be the end of your engine. 2.0 16v models are PRONE to pulley and tensioner failure and it is NOT cheap to replace the cambelt and tensioners on a V6 2.5L model; if it has not been done in the last 40,000 miles or 4 years, walk away as it will cost in excess of £350 to do this and that is at a cheap backstreet garage, you will need a second mortgage to change a cambelt on a V6 at the Vauxhall dealers. V6 Mondeos on the other hand use timing chains which are supposed to last the life of the engine as long as the oil is changed regularly.

Also check the clutch and master cylinder fluid levels; old Vectras are PRONE also to clutch slave cylinder seal failure, this leaks clutch fluid all over the clutch and it is a GEARBOX OUT job to replace the slave cylinder as it is an integral part of the release bearing mechanism, which is located inside the clutch bellhousing. If the slave cylinder leaks and the clutch becomes inoperative, you will need a new clutch also due to contamination with clutch fluid to the clutch plate. The cost of all this will be in excess of £600 to put right, and some smaller garages will not even entertain doing this on the V6 model.

Although there are more things you should check, these listed above are all thing I found with the car I bought, and those I looked at prior to buying it. Vectras are great when they run properly, but a neglected one WILL cost you a fortune, so maybe I will take back my Vile Vectra comment, as I made the ultimate decision to buy a car because it looked nice rather than checking it out properly.

There are many of you that will say that your Vectra is wonderful and to you, I will say fair play - you have probably looked after yours and serviced it properly - but there are an awful lot of dishonest sellers out there who will be trying to palm their poorly looked after and thrashed, probably clocked as well, Vectras onto us, the unsuspecting buyers.

If you are buying a used Vectra - Check it out properly - you have been warned!!

Hi, I have bought two cars off a popular auction site, and to buy a vehicle this way is extremely risky. Any possible problems should be weighed into the price when you bid or surely the car would have been sold privately. Also a scrap yard engine should cost around £100 to £300 and they will normally fit it for you for about £250 (in my experience only!)

Cheap cars are cheap for a reason, take care with future purchases unless you can do repair work yourself, as I do when my cars are bought off Evil-bay. I drive an ST24 bought from an auction site, at an excellent price, after spending £200 on repairs I doubt a Vectra is quicker but maybe not XXX.

I'd like to add:

I recently bought a '99 V6 Vectra SRI Estate and thought it was the best thing under the sun...

The ECU light was flashing not long after I drove it from west Scotland to Cumbria and then things started to go awfully wrong. The driver's side window suffered the EXACT same problem, meaning I had to let go of the steering wheel to guide the window back into the rail whilst I was driving.

Then one day it just lost a load of power!?? It still drove fine but drank a lot more fuel for a couple of thousand miles so I persevered, mainly because I needed it for job interviews around the county. Come MOT time the handbrake was shot completely even though it'd had new discs & pads 2 months ago, the emissions were astronomical and if I'm not mistaken, it will be around £900 to fix the engine alone.

This car has a full Vauxhall dealer service history & is supposed to be one of the most reliable cars going, and now I can't give it away! I was raving about it being more reliable than my Pajero at one point but I take I all back. There are some lucky people out there who own problem-free Vectras, but I say to thee: if you get an inkling of any of these tell-tale signs then get shot ASAP!

Great interior, great looking car and really nice to drive, with a good wee sound system and nice lookin' wheels. But lordy, what a let-down!

The day it failed its MOT I got a job a 5 minute walk away from my home. So whoever was up there looking down on me must have known something about these cars :o)

I purchased a 2.0 litre Vectra in October.

Worst car I have ever owned, and I thought my Mondeo was bad.

Replaced all discs front and back as warped and thin, also pads,rear shoes.

Did work myself unbelievable effort to remove front allen screws holding on front discs; the discs were rotted onto hubs.

Replaced rear rose bushes needing special tool to remove them, front arb bushes, rear arb bushes.

MAF sensor replaced, handbrake cable snapped, aerial doesn't work.

Recently developed oil leak from clutch bell housing, steering rack has worn out, front spring cracked at top, front window fell inside door.

Now oil stains all over drive and a pig to change gear.

Whole exhaust from middle to back, including back box replaced.

The above work will not be done due to labour involved.

Lovely cars when they are working right, but nightmare when going wrong.

Had a Cavalier in thepast for 13 months, and all that needed doing was one tyre.

I hardly find it fair you blame Vauxhall. Did the vehicle have a full dealer service history?

It's like any car really, how they have been treated early in life. I had a Vectra SRi 140 for 2 years with no major problems, and had a new Mondeo 1.8 LX, and the gearbox went at 70k; just the luck of the draw with used cars. Sometimes you get a good one, others you get a pig in a poke. My advice would be take it on a very long test drive, and then go by your gut instinct, trust me it's normally right. If you smell a rat, walk away and look at more, don't just buy the first car you see.