Poxhall Ashtray

[gumby6371]

Hi all just looking for peoples thoughts on diesel ashtrays.

I'm looking at getting a 1.7 eco4 as a runabout, £30 a year tax, cheap insurance and ridiculously good MPG's make it a great buy in theory but is it too good to be true.

Reviews on the net say it's a bit of a noisy engine and the power delivery isn't particularly smooth but my 14 year old XUD with 175,000 miles usage isn't exactly a Rolls Royce.

If I SORN the 406 for 12 months the money I save on running costs will go a long way towards getting the 406 back to it's best.

I'm averaging £50-60 a week at the moment to keep the 406 on the road with fuel, tax, insurance and fixing stuff, and I only do 100 to 120 miles a week in her!

I worked it out that borrowing £2,500 for a ashtray with reasonable mileage and good condition loan payments and running costs are still less than driving the 406, plus I could probably sell the ashtray after 12 months for close to what I paid for it.

Now bring on the vauxhall horror stories

[highlander]

My colleague has a petrol Astra from 2010. It has the 1.6 litre petrol engine. It's horribly underpowered, the interior is made of cheap, nasty, rattly plastic, the seats aren't very comfortable, and the built-in sound system is of very low quality (worse, you can't even replace the head unit because a lot of the configuration for things like the air con, the clock, etc. is all built in to the head unit).

He's had to take it back to Vauxhall because the electronic hand-brake stopped working properly (there's no lever, you just press a button and it applies the parking brake. You try to drive off and it automatically releases it). Also, the cruise control stopped working for some reason; he had to get a replacement BSI (or whatever Vauxhall call it), but at least it was covered under warranty.

He wishes he'd stuck with his Skoda Octavia as it was a far better car in pretty much every respect.

The good thing about the Astra is that it is very quiet inside the car; it does a good job of eliminating unwanted noise from outside - you can barely hear the engine at all when it is idling. Unfortunately this does accentuate the plasticky creaks and rattles from the interior trim when the car is in motion.

I'm not saying "stick with the 406 at all costs" - I just think you could do better than an Astra

[lozz]

ive no info on the later astras,
but the ones weve had, 2000 -2004. have sufferd with Diff failure,.
the 17 td is a slow motor, but cheap to run, cheap tax too

size wise there large but narrow imho

ive got a shed full of astra parts but iwouidnt have another one

[gumby6371]

To be honest I was looking at the astra for the low running costs and the fact it's a second car for us, most days I travel to work and back via my daughters nursery, add in trips to the shops and a few local journeys I'd estimate averaging 15 miles a day.
The 406 is obviously very comfortable but £20 of diesel a week is only getting me 100 to 110 miles, the astra should do another 50 miles on top.

I'm not saying I want an astra in particular but for the mileage I do a car like that makes economic sense.

Road tax reduces from £240 to £30 a year
Fuel economy is 50% better saving £30 per month saving £360 per year
Insurance is £100 less for a years fully comp
Total saving £670 a year

Add into those savings repair and servicing costs for an 03 plate with relatively low mileage instead of a P plate with 175,000 miles and I 'should' save a fair bit there as well.

I'm guesstimating saving about a grand a year knowing what work the 406 needs.

Funnily enough I went on go compare last night and if I were to renew my insurance tomorrow it would be £580 for the 406 which is unf*cking believable if you ask me at 40 years old with zero claims and a clean license!!!

[lozz]

The astras are unbelivable on fuel mate, or atleast the diesel ones are,
only thing idont like about them they are Narrow, drivers seat is very uncomfatable ,
anything over a 150 mile drive your back will ache,

iknow it sounds daft but when iused to buy vauxhalls i looked for one with the Opel badge

£580 for insurance on go compare?
try it with my postcode mate you wouid then be shocked

[jasper5]

My personal experience of the Astra 1.7 diesel....

Changed lots of coil springs front and rear (not as bad as the 406 to change).

Had a few with water leaks from a metal pipe that runs from the thermostat across the exhaust manifold, can be a nightmare, but fortunately have managed to fix them with sealer.

Non starting as well as cutting out at junctions caused by dry solder joints on the injection pump ECU ( sometimes this doesn't fix them and a new ECU is required)....20 minute job to replace.

Had fluid leaks from the concentric slave cylinder.....gearbox out to repair.

The gearbox problems are usually with the 1.9 engines.

Not a bad car apart from those things

[lozz]

On the topic of 1.7tds
if anyone ever needs parts for one give us a shout,
ive got a garage full that need to go,

eg,doors,wings, complete almost new exhuast incl cat,
headights, got some rear lights still boxed for estate model ,

[Welly]

We're running 2 Vauxhall Astra vans at work with the 1.7CDTi engines and they're good to be honest. They get horribly abused and taken wayyyy past the service intervals (if they get one at all) and they are very tough. I believe the 1.7CDti it the better engine (Isuzu type thing) and the 1.9 was Vauxhalls effort and not so good. The 05' plater we have is Euro 4 and costs £130.00 per year to tax, I've got the reminder on my desk now, whereas the 53' plater costs £210.00 per year.

The 05' is more economical, I got at least 55mpg on long runs when I had it back in April but it sounds quite clattery - like most Euro 4 diesels.

The interiors are weak, the bodywork marks easily, but they're ok and certainly no worse that anything else out there.

My Mrs has a 53 plate SRi 1.8 and apart from a fixing a farty eggsauce gasket and a thermostat it's been fine (I did have an issue having to get the Cam Belt done TWICE but was let down by the supplying dealer).

Important thing is, get one with lots of history and jump in with your size 10's and bargain hard.

Be careful though if you think buying another car will save you money as it doesn't always work out.