USED Vauxhall Astra Hatchback (98 - 12)

My car

I have owned previous Astra's and I have to say the boot space is brilliant! My Car is a 2003 '53' reg model and is probably one of the last ones in a lovely burgundy colour and have not seen another like it, despite what what car say the diesel 1.7 dti is a good engine in traffic but does struggle up hills in low gears but this is much improved on my old Astra which was s reg and was a terrible car. I like the ls trim for value for money t has passenger and driver airbags, and even front and back electric windows which I never relished came in this trim! It's has very good running costs as I live on the isle of man and use for work ever day and sometimes I dont have to fill it up for at least two months which is Fantastic. I don't think I need a new Astra this one is the best yet and compared to other colours the burgundy really suits it but the interior is now looking a bit old with the pattern design but if you get over that then the diesel is far better than the petrol

My car

First of all let me get this straight. 99% of people reading this will be interested in a low-priced family car, so I will try and keep to that.

We are very, very impressed with our Astra. We usually buy cars new-ish then keep them 5 years or so. We got our 2001(Y) car in early 2002 with 5k on the clock and still have it! We have only covered 40k since and there have been no serious problems. It nearly always passes the MOT test with no/few issues. It's very good to drive too and the 1.4 16v petrol engine provides good performance. Cruising at around 70mph is effortless, if just a little noisy. Turn the very good CD player up (most only had radio-casette) and you'll be fine. Another good point is the AC. We don't actually use it because of the damage to consumption we simply roll down one of the ELECTRIC windows. Another very nice feature.

Even on the back roads it's good to drive and the steering is sharp and accurate. The ride is smooth, even on UK roads. At first we thought it was slow compared to the old 1.8 car we drove but actually it's perfectly acceptable. Shame it doesn't have alloys but you don't know the difference from the inside.

This brings me onto the only negative. The only green thing about it is the colour. Road Tax = £190p.a. which is quite a lot for a 1.4 petrol. Fuel (okay, we sit in quite a few traffic jams)is expensive. £20+ for 100miles, and I worked out we only got 31 mpg over the last 4 weeks.

That aside, the Astra is a great family car.

My car

I love my little Astra. I got it when I was 17, that was about three years ago. It cost around £2000 and had covered around 55k miles. Since, I have covered an additonal 27k, not had any major problems. MPG is decent, do a lot of motorway driving, to and from uni, get around 45mpg. Also use the car for my delivery job, again never let me down. Only slight problem that I get is the fuel indicator, it doesn't give a real estimnate to the amount in the tank, have to second guess a lot, especially at the emptier side of the tank. Have taken it to europe twice, not a hiccup. Cheap to run aswell, insurance for me is very reasonable.

My car

This is 5 door. I've had this (03 reg) 2 years - I've loved it to bits but it's had so many things wrong - leaking shocks and siren replaced (alarm kept going off) in the first year whilst covered by Network Q. This year I've had to replace a coil spring, belt, brake pads and disks (total spend around £500) and now I'm faced with a £1500 bill for a new injector pump. When I phoned for a price for the pump my Vauxhall dealers said it was uneconomical to repair. It's been serviced as required and the fuel tank never let below 1/4 full. All this in a 5 and 1/2 year old car! The guy who does our cars has done investigations and is horrified to find that this seems to be happening to Vauxhalls commonly. He has a 2005 Vectra and is due to replace it. He's decided the replacement won't be another Vauxhall despite driving them for years. I'm disillusioned. We had an 'A' reg Cavalier Sri bought at 4 years old. We drove it for 7 years and only once in that time had to carry out a significant repair - to the steering column. It was a brilliant car, although basic, and the engine went twice round the clock. I'd assumed that an Astra would be of similar reliability. Now if we don't repair it we're going to have to buy another car which would probably be not much more expense for something newer than this one. I'm so sad, as I've loved Vauxhalls. But whatever we get I doubt it would be Vauxhall.