Idle valve went after 800 miles, fixed by the garage where it was brought from.
The first service I had cost a whiff over £400 due to the cam belt and various other parts needing replacing, was told by the main dealer that the car should be faultless from then on.
EMU light stayed on, was fixed by replacing a sensor.
Two new front tyres at £190 - I know that's wear and tear, but it is only a Vectra at the end of the day! And yes I did shop around.
New cam belt rollers.
One of the gaskets cracked and was letting oil leak.
Failed its last MOT, the fuel system had to be cleaned for it to pass.
Various other small problems, usually relating to a sensor!
The Vectra represents a bargain buy from the outside, you get a lot of car for your money and all the toys.
It can be a real joy to drive when it is running well, however the minor problems begin to annoy after a while. You tend to find yourself thinking that you're paying out a hell of a lot of money and you're still only driving a Vectra at the end of the day, a car which is losing money faster than you can drive it!
In the last year of ownership it has cost me 3 and a half times more to keep it running than my friends S500, whilst I know they are not in the same class, it does add some perspective to it.
On reflection, a German or Japanese car would have made a sound buy, but I was taken in by the toys and sporty body kit, and am now paying for it!
As a final word.. if you are still sure that you are going to buy one, I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a good warranty, although many parts are not covered. Read the reviews again, this many people saying about all its faults can't be wrong!
You're absolutely right, Vauxhall and its dealers are second rate, I'd never buy another, and am extremely happy with my 13 year old Nissan Bluebird which is faultlessly reliable, and unbelievably well built!
I agree with the above! I had a 13 year old Nissan Sunny. My Dad had it from just a few years old, and it has never ever gone wrong. I think that tells you something somehow. Why do people buy cars that have poor reviews? Sites like this are the proof of the pudding. b Sorry Vauxhall, but you can't build a decent, reliable car to save your life. Japanese or German springs to mind...
Why do people buy cars with such bad reviews? ahh well I wrote the review and unfortunately I'd brought the car long before I had discovered this site. However, on the up side, I sold it back into the trade last weekend which has ended two years of expensive ownership and if someone else has the misfortune to buy it.. more fool them they should have read the site!
I pick up a Passat 1.8 T-Sport on Friday so I'll post a review in a couple of months and with any luck a more positive one!
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My company has three Vectra SRI's at present and quite frankly I can't wait to get rid of them. One in particular has cost over £3,000 in the past year to fix a number of faults ranging from a cam belt failure (some 10,000 miles before replacement was due) through to the gradual replacement of every sensor in the engine. I'm struggling to come to terms that one of the others is going to cost over £700 for a new steering pump and a couple of seals on the steering rack. The dealer must be having a laugh!
Congratulations Vauxhall! You achieve the dubious honour of being the only manufacturer that I have officially banned as a vehicle supplier. I object to paying top-rate for third-rate products and service. Your loss.
Sounds like the vectra will never live up to the reputation of the cavalier, I have a 1993 cavalier 1.7 TD with 195000 miles on it which I have owned for 6 years without any serious problems & I do all my own repairs & servicing.
The way things look regarding newer cars, more problems, more expense etc, I think I will keep the good old cav for a few more years as it costs literally peanuts to maintain.
The good old cavalier is still going strong, now on 205,000 miles, flew through it`s mot in march & hasn`t cost me a bean this year apart from servicing & fuel, I do wonder if vauxhall could learn something from reading reviews & finding that the reliability of their cars has gone down hill in a big way.
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Yes you are right, you spend lots of money on small things and all you've got at the end of it is a old Vectra that's not worth very much. But for all that, my SRi was very well behaved; got rid of at over 100,000, and have a Polo TDI now; it's cheap and nasty, so beware grass isn't always greener.
The trick is to buy one with over 100,000 miles. I have had 5 Vectras; 4 2.0 petrols and one 2.0 diesel. No major problems and one was run up to 163,000 miles. I think the main problem is with the early ones suffering electrical failure. Also the main dealers are a bunch of ****, which does not help one's opinion.
As for the cambelt failure; for the first three years or so Vauxhall recommended an 80,000 mile change interval that was later revised to 40,000. Not really the car's fault, just Vauxhall not testing the durability of the belts/tensioners properly.
I just bought a Vectra with over 100K - 120K to be precise and the engine suffered top end oil starvation presumably from a faulty oil pump at 95MPH, by the time the oil light came on and I de-clutched it and stopped the engine it was too late - you can imagine the damage, lots of clatter from the front camshafts and loss of oil pressure along with rumbling and vibration. The engine was a write off.
It was a 1998 'S' reg SRi 2.5 V6, and now its on the scrap yard - I'm cutting my losses and not paying out for a re-con engine at over £1000
Very very disappointed and angry about it, to have a car for less than a day and the engine to go for a burden at 120K, especially a V6, is a real wrench, and I am now back to my trusty old 1994 'M' reg Cavalier 1.8 8v auto, which I am going to have to make do with until I can afford another car as I am now broke after losing all my money on the Vectra SRi.
What a load of crap - Vauxhall have gone down the pan as far as I am concerned. I had a 1996 Renault Laguna that did 258K before I scrapped it, and Renaults are not renowned for reliability either, but 120K from a 2.5 V6 is frankly unacceptable in my book. Never again will I buy a Vauxhall.
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