1994 Vauxhall Cavalier LSI from UK and Ireland - Comments

Fuel filter were leaking when I first purchased the car. £9, which I fitted myself.

Centre section exhaust blowing at 113,000 miles; got it done for £23, including fitting.

Mot due April 2nd 2007 failed on 1 front brake pipe and 2 front bushes; cost me £142 including the MOT fee.

Rocker cover gasket changed at 113,000 miles.

Ignition leads and spark plugs changed at 113,000 miles.

Replaced exhaust back box at 114,000 miles.

Automatic drive belt tensioner started to become noisy; still apparent.

Radiator leaking still apparent.

A very good reliable car for 13 year olds, and the 1.8 8 valve fuel injected engine is still quick.

I bought mine in December 2006 for only £180, and it had a full service history with it, which was a bargain.

However the inside of the car is very modern than for a car which was released in 1988. There is a lot of legroom in both front and back, and it has decent safety kit. The one I have has electric front windows, drivers airbag, outside temperature display and digital time.

However on lots of Cavaliers, when the car is cold, the gears can be a little heavy, and if you're not careful, they can sometimes crunch.

I'm sure your car was very reliable and you rightly feel that it was £180 well spent, but I'm sorry, how can you describe a Cavalier 1.8 LSi as quick and use words like excellent?

These cars were slow in their day, with 0-60 in around 12 seconds, handled like barges and by around '93/'94 had a dated interior.

And just because it has an airbag doesn't mean its safe, a '97 Vectra only scores 2.5 out of 5 stars on Euroncap, your Cavalier's so old it doesn't even have an NCAP rating, a modern car hitting your Cavalier would annihilate it!!

Calm down, It was his opinion that it is quick, and he didn't compare it to other cars. I also doubt a modern car would destroy a cav if it got hit, as new cars are designed to crumple.

Obviously in his opinion he thinks its quick, but my original statement stands, it isn't!

Also, Cavalier's since 1981 at least have had crumple zones, they're not limited to new cars, but modern cars are made from much higher tensile steel, and have rigid safety cages, a new Vauxhall Corsa would weigh a similiar amount to a '93 Cavalier. You obviously didn't watch 5th gear when a 3 yr old Renault Modus destroyed the front end of a '92 Volvo 940 Estate weighing 1500kgs!?

If you're going to make comments like that, at least know what you're talking about!

If you say so.

I think he's right, you should calm down. If the 1.8 LSI had the Vauxhall multipoint injection it would have been fairly quick compared to other cars of the time, Ford 1.8's for example wouldn't have been as quick, Vauxhalls of that era were quick for what they were, and the engines were stronger too.

I have a 1994 cavalier 1.8 8v and its not a quick car in any sense. the power is ample at lower speeds and above 60mph the tall gearing generally means a down change is required to get up hills ect, but overall I'm happy with the performance and better still the good mpg.

Surely the point is that Cav's of that era didn't have multipoint injection or 16 valves like lots of cars did so wern't as quick-- heres a list of cars of that era that are all 1.8s, are a similiar size and have quicker 0-60 times and higher top speeds, some by a lot--Alfa Romeo 155, BMW 318i, Citroen Xantia, Fiat Tempra, Ford Mondeo, Lancia Dedra, Mazda 626, Mercedes C180, and Peugeot 405. Also 1.6 versions of the Toyota Carina were quicker. Still think Cav's were quick in their day!!

Do you actually know what you are talking about? Multipoint injection on vauxhalls came out in the early 80's with the MK1 astra GTE's and MK2 cav SRI's probably sooner. Vauxhalls were quicker than their counterparts in eighties and early nineties, and I'm not just talking about the LSI.

I do know what I'm talking about, I sold Vauxhalls for 10 years and have just about every autocar mag from sept '87 to the present day. Your right in that mk2 Cav's with a 1.8 had multipoint injection and 115bhp, but on the mk3 Cav the 1.8 was at first a carb engine and then had single point injection and 90 bhp. It had a top speed of 111mph and did 0-60 in 12.2 seconds, not quick!

Surely the list of cars I gave that all BEAT the Cav 1.8 both on top speed and 0-60 times shows that Cav 1.8s at least wern't quick for their time, or is that too hard for you to understand?

NEWSFLASH! I just said I wasn't just talking about the cav LSI, and I've had vauxhalls too, both with single and multipoint injection. And I'm sure ford and the like have had both types of injection. But even the astra MK2 1.3 carb were quicker than their counterparts of the time, the escort 1.3's for example didn't stand a chance. Even part of the reason for so many being stolen in the 90's was that they were quick and the engines would take a lot more punishment.

Fair enough you did say that, and like most car manufacturers Vauxhall had some gems, like the Astra GTE 16v, and some not so gems, like the Astra 1.2 and the aforementioned Cav 1.8i for example. On the whole, Vauxhall as a company in the late 80s did make quicker than average cars, but by the early to mid 90s this changed as stuff like cat convertors and extra safety kit became the norm.

You're totally right about the old mk2 Astra 1.3, no other 1.3 the same size could touch it in the late 80s, my Dad bought one new for this reason!! However, it did 0-60 in 12.1 seconds and had a top end of 103mph, and things havn't changed that much, a new Astra 1.4 16v has a top speed of 111mph and 0-60 of 12.8 seconds!

I had a 1993 Nova lux+ 1.4i (spi) a few years ago now, now I don't wanna sound like a 17 year old boy racer, but this car is 60 bhp standard. The cat was removed and full straight through exhaust fitted only the back box remaining and an induction kit. This made a surprising difference, on a duel carriage way one day a Suzuki Swift GTI 1.3 16v (100 bhp) could not get past, and he was really trying. The Nova 1.4 SRI was my favourite Nova though, didn't see many of them.

My favourite Vauxhall was my old Cav mk2 1.8 GLi--it was on a C-plate and bearing in mind I was 19 when I had it, it felt like a rocketship! (I had just come out of a Citroen BX 17RD). It was 115 hp and quick enough to put the frighteners on all sorts of stuff like BM 3-series drivers for example. If you want a laugh have a look at my report on it on '86 Cavalier GLI, mines the one with about 46 comments!!