USED Vauxhall Vectra Hatchback (02 - 09)

My car

Iown 1.8sxi 52plate,2yrs ago my front coil springs broke,im a carefull driver,i take care over sleeping policemen,but 2 yrs later im there again with all 4 springs broke,what an earth is goin on !!!

My car

Having posted a generally favourable review three years ago and having travelled another 37,000 miles I now know a bit more about this car. The main reason I have come back for this review is that the front nearside coil spring has broken. I am the only person to have driven the car since it was new and I know that it has not been abused. Speed bumps are taken carefully and I have not hit any major potholes heavy loads are never carried. In 45+ years of motoring this is a complete surprise and I have never seen this fault before. Unbelievable. How a major large component that the car relies on for steering and stability can just break, shows that there is a design or manufacturing defect that could be very dangerous. Also the passenger side wiper arm came off its internal pivot recently. And these have happened a few months out of warranty, almost as if they were designed to fail. Completely put me off buying another Vauxhall. EVER.

My car

I covered 35K last year (having bought the car with 20K on the clock); a mixture of work and private mileage. This is a car that does not deserve its bad reputation. Indeed there is nothing amazing about the car but the cabin is a lovely place to be on long trips, and the car has a great sound system. The drive is good and I have had NO problems in the 35-40K of driving I have done in it. It grips on corners really well and when I have slipped its always controlled.

You get alot of car for your money, the club is a low spec and you still get Cruise control, auto dim rear view mirror, auto windscreen wipers, air con, cd, lumbar support, alloys and the boot is big.

I have found the 1.8 petrol to be a little guttless on hills at times but generally powerful enough (in lower revs) and it always has plenty of pull for overtaking if you drop a gear and use the high revs. The fuel economy is good on the motorway and I have seen 500 miles out of a tank of petrol. Generally, I get 460 miles per tank. Although, I have recently moved to Scotland and the lack of motorway driving and increased number of hills has reduced this to 420miles per tank.

Depreciation is a hard pill to swallow, i need a 4x4 these days so I will be changing; so I would advise those who are considering buying to look at keeping this car for long time...

My car

What a heap of junk!

I have owned this car for 18 months. 3 months after purchase the transmission light came on and the car repeatedly stalled.

The high pressure fuel pump and fuel pressure regulator were changed under warranty, which ran out the following month.

For the following year the car has run fairly well, only needing a standard service and MOT.

However, 14 months and 10,500 miles since the repair, the same issue arose.

Vauxhall have refused to recognise this as a repeat problem and will not repair the car for free or even make a donation towards the repair.

The customer service of Vauxhall is awful, no personal skills at all and they are all built to get past warranty then die.

I will never buy a Vauxhall again, although I do like the styling of the Vectra, the build quality and after care leave a lot to be desired!

The car has totalled 43,300 miles and is currently dead on my driveway!

If you buy a Vauxhall, don't get a Vectra or Signum 2.2 Direct 16v with a Z22YH engine, they are prone to this issue and Vauxhall know about it but have never done any recall on it.

You will spend far more on it than it is worth.

Next time, I'm buying foreign! Probably German or Japanese! It might last a bit longer!