2006 Vauxhall Vectra Exclusiv from UK and Ireland - Comments

This has been posted on another forum. What do you think?

"I received a letter from Vauxhall over the weekend giving me revised instructions with regard to the operation of the handbrake on my Vectra. The instruction also applies to the Signum.

They go on to say that the letter is sent after working closely with the VOP (or whatever it is in Swansea) and their own engineers after a problem had been identified.

The advice is to apply the footbrake while operating the handbrake and to leave the car in gear ie reverse when facing down hill and first gear when facing up.

Vauxhall enclosed a label which has to be stuck to the driver's side sun visor.

This smacks to me of a Band Aid for a broken leg."

Same thing happened to me.

Today I received a sticker from vauxhall asking to be put on the drivers visor essentially telling me to leafve it in gear.

Which I have always done since mine rolled into my neighbours house.

I have just received a letter from Vauxhall explaining the correct method to apply the hand brake on my Vectra, they have also supplied me with a sticker to put inside my car to remind me to leave it in gear; I contacted the Customer Care Department who assured me that it was not because of possible fault with the brake, I asked them why they felt it necessary to single out Vectra owners; after speaking to their supervisor they informed me that they would notify all Vauxhall owners starting with Vectras because of the amount of complaints that they have had. My car has also rolled down my drive 1 hour after beign parked and caused quite a lot of damage; I did feel at the time it was my fault, now I am not so sure. It does seem like they are trying to cover up something.

As with all of the other comments the handbrake on my 2004 SRI Vectra decided to release itself leaving the car to head off down the main street and only stopping after hitting a van that was 200 mtrs away and causing £690 worth of damage to the car.

Luckily the van was there other wise it could have carried on and hit a bus stop on the opposite side of the road. I contacted the local dealer and asked if there was a problem with the handbrake on Vectras.

The reply was "The highway code says that when parking the car you should leave the car in gear". The answer did surprise me because he didn't even ask what happened, so by his reply I assumed there was a fault.

He did say they would look at the car to see if there was a problem and when I asked about the repair to the car said they would talk to Vauxhall about it - my reply was that he had said that there wasn't a problem and it didn't matter as I could leave it in gear just in case it 'didn't' fail again.

Eventually I agreed to take the car in. No fault was found on the car so it was alright so there was no offer towards the repair cost.

When I collected the car it seems that the dealers will preach to the owners, but not do it themselves as the car was parked on a slope, but the car wasn't in gear.

A few weeks later the handbrake released again, luckily on my drive that was level. On shutting the rear door my wife and I heard a clunk looked in the car and could see that the handbrake had released, but we had left it in gear as the dealer had said.

I contacted the dealer who took the car in again and phoned me to say that a fault had been found with the ratchet mechanism and it was going to be replaced. I asked about the repair that had now been done to the car via my insurers approved repairer so when I asked about the cost I was told to speak to the service manager - who was on holiday.

The handbrake was replaced and the reply to a letter regarding the repair to the vehicle was - There was no fault, but it was replaced as a courtesy to myself, the offer about the repair has never been mentioned again as there is no fault.

I have now received my little sticker that shows me how to apply the handbrake correctly - even though after 30years of driving I have never had a handbrake release itself -but you are always learning. If I don't put the sticker in the right position on my sun visor will I be invalidating any further repairs and will it be checked when I take my car in again.

At least it will show other car drivers that Vectra owners know how to apply the handbrake properly so they can park near to us, wear your sticker with pride.

If we go to the Vauxhall dealers will the Vectras in the showrooms have these stickers on?

Also the car has a problem with the emissions warning light coming on which so far has meant that it has had the ignition control pack changed several software downloads and now the ABS control pack - which apparently can cause the emissions warning light to come on, but not the ABS warning light - anyone suffered from this?

After all of this the car is really quite good and enjoyable to drive.

My wife's Vectra (53 plate 2.2DTI Elite estate) rolled down our drive last weekend (1 Sept 2007). It had been parked for half an hour and the drive is steep. Fortunately our neighbour was there and my wife had forgotten to lock the car, so he was able to stop it.

We have both had the handbrake release itself with a very loud bang a few seconds after applying it, but this is the first time its released after a long delay.

We are also three years in to trying to get an intermittent fault fixed on this car: the CAN bus connection to the front passenger door fails in hot weather, which results in the lock, window and mirror not working. Anyone know the cause?

David.

To cut a long story short my Vauxhall Signum ran into someones garden across a main road in Feb 06 causing £6,000 damage as garden dropped by 3ft, I knew I had applied handbrake correctly, but didn't realise until recently of it happening to lots of others. It has since happened a few times, once on drive and once whilst I was in car waiting at traffic lights. Vauxhall don't want to know. There was a recent article in Sun newspaper regarding this and which magazine are very interested in this. So any one in similar situation contact " Which magazine" as the more people do the better it is, or contact me at steveburke1@hotmail.co.uk.

We have had the same problem with our Vectra handbrake and at first thought it was because the handbrake had not been pulled on properly. We were in a queue of traffic waiting for the traffic lights to change when there was a thump and off went the handbrake. Luckily my son, who was driving the car at the time, reacted quickly enough to use the foot brake to prevent the car rolling onto the car in front. Very scary.

After that incident, every time the handbrake was used we heard an unusual noise as though there was some clanging of wire. (this was the same journey on Sat 25th July) This noise has gone and so far we have not had any more trouble. But the notice from Vauxhall has made me quite nervous.

Sylvia.

I have always exercised conscious care in engaging the handbrake. However, on the 24th June, I was extremely distressed and bemused when one hour after parking my 06 Vectra Estate 1.9 DTI outside a school, a member of staff came in to say that my car had rolled down a small incline and crashed into her parked vehicle. The handbrake was now clearly in the down position. I covered the cost without complaint, have parked in gear ever since, but have remained 100% convinced that I had engaged the handbrake fully before leaving my vehicle. Today an unusual letter received from Vauxhall, outlining "parking procedure" alerted me to a possible explanation for the accident and finding this site has been a revelation. I have now lost confidence in the handbrake system of a car which was otherwise a joy to drive and am concerned about future risk. I intend to contact Vauxhall tomorrow.

Anyone who has had problems with their Vectra or Signum's hand brake failing please contact VOSA and log this as it is VOSA that has the power to recall these vehicles. Our car is under investigation at the moment, if you want any more details please email me at steveburke1@hotmail.co.uk.

From our experience over the last 18 months with Vauxhall they are not willing to admit a fault, but there is a fault.

The more of you that contact either VOSA, myself or Which magazine the more Vauxhall will eventually have to do.

Finally I saw it happen... All by itself.. it was off.

I have an 07 Vectra with the same issues, and yes I got my sticker.

This morning I reached my destination and applied the handbrake, ensuring I heard each and every faint click as I applied it. I took my hand off the handbrake lever, and lo and behold, before taking my foot off the foot brake, the handbrake lever dropped down to the off position. My local dealer denies any knowledge of this issue, but has offered to replace it for safety's sake!!!, I smelt a fish so thought I would look on the web. And what do you know... All of it!

Does anyone know if a collective assault has been made to the manufacturer and documented evidence been sent to VOSPA?

Or an address to send it to?

Hi.

I can't say too much on here, but there certainly is an issue with handbrake. You can get vosa address from dvla offices.

Please feel free too email me at steveburke1@hotmail.co.uk for further info on the handbrake situation.

In July our 07 Vectra rolled down a street luckly a tree stopped it so no one was hurt. It needs a whole new shell we are still waiting for it to arrive. When I complained I got the same letter as the others with the sticker something has to be done. this should not be happening this day and age.If you wish to contact me please text your telephone no to 07933023789 and I will phone you

Letter from Vauxhall undated received on 20 September 2007.

"As the driver of a Vauxhall Vectra...Recently, our Customer Assistance Centre has received a small number of enquiries..." This is totally misleading - firstly the word recently means "happening or starting from a short time ago". Did this web site start only recently!!! Now the phrase "small number". Well I know that sometimes people on here post an additional comment, but there are 43 comments posted and a lot of them are new shocking experiences with the handbrake. How many inquiries have vauxhall actually received? It then goes on to say "...Vauxhall and VOSA (The Department for Transport Vehicle and Operators Services Agency) engineers have jointly carried out a range of tests which have not identified any deviations from the handbrake mechanism specification..." What exactly is this saying? Well the handbrake mechanism complies with the specification. It misses the point - is it not the specification that needs to be checked? If you want to tell me your story please e-mail me at lawcontractor@hotmail.com. I would be interested to build up a catalogue of faulty handbrake instances where the handbrake was on but the car still rolled. Mine did and the police arrived at the same time as I got to the car. One officer took the keys from me, unlocked and opened the passenger door. He then went straight to the handbrake and the officer said to his colleague "The handbrake is on"

Dave Jacobson

lawcontractor@hotmail.com

Hi.

I have just read your comments regarding the Handbrake. I currently own a2.2litre Elite yesterday after returning from picking my son up from a football match, less than a mile away from home, I parked the car in our drive on a very slight incline, I applied the hand brake, as per normal, went indoors made a cup of coffee (we must have been indoors for around 10 minutes) the next thing we were aware of our dog barking, on investigation the car had left the drive crossed a road, thankfully not so busy at weekends, forced its way under a single chain linked fence causing the chain to ride up over the bonnet, roof pillars, across the roof, over the aerial which flung the chain up and smashed the back window taking the back windscreen wiper mechanism with it. Through no fault of own we now have to pay the excesses for windscreen damage and body repairs, we stand to loose 5 years of our no claims bonus which will increase our premiums by 15%pa. I find it incredible reading other people experiences that this has been happening for quite some time and Vauxhall are aware of the problem. I shudder to think what would have happened if my children had been in the car at another location or cars had been travelling on the road the list could go on of WHAT IF's. As for leaving the car in gear, chocks under the wheels etc. I don't know of any other manufacturer that would give this advice. I have been loyal to vauxhall for many years now, but my wife has now lost all faith in what was until this our pride and joy.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email, please feel free to reply, we would welcome your comments and any advice as to how we could follow this matter up.

Many Thanks.

Den Parsons

Wadebridge

Cornwall.

I own 2 Vectra's 2004 and 2006 and have had the handbrake disengage on both (luckily no deaths! and only minor damage), the recent vauxhall letter and sticker has really wound me up, but I guessed that fighting this alone would be fruitless. I'm sure there are thousands like me that if we could speak as one we could get it sorted rather than covered up! I have emailed lawcontractor above and suggest others do.

Kevin - Dorset.