Faults:

The car has had alternator, idler pulley, and water pump replaced. Also the frond and rear suspension was upgraded to FE2 with urethane bushes. performance was enhanced by a sports exhaust, cold air intake and power chip!

General Comments:

The car handled and performed excellent with these modifications. 215/65/15 tyres, directional are a must if you need traction and cornering at speed. Seats have a problem twisting and can be fixed by placing washers underneath rear center seat mount. Keep these vehicles serviced well and you will be rewarded with excellent reliabily! My Vn has been punished, but has been looked after and my friend is getting a great run out of it still!

Faults:

Door seals have come off.

Reverse takes a while to get in when cold.

Radiator hose blew.

Power steering hose blew.

General Comments:

The car has excellent pick up in first and second gears.

However doesent take corners very well tends to lean a lot, could be fixed with tighter springs and shocks or lower the car.

A high performance bargain would be a sports exhaust and extractors.

Faults:

The Centre Bearing has been replaced. The drive shaft is a two peice which has a rubber bush inside and at 210000ks it was totally worn out. Considering that the vehicle is a 5.0l it is quite reasonable considering the power of the vehicle.

Air Conditioning Compressor needed replacing. I have been told that this is common. Now that it is replaced it is very cold and working like a new car.

Car rattles from within heavily, possibly due to the lowered suspension that it had when the previous owner had. Plus the vehicle is over 13 years old.

General Comments:

This is a great vehicle!

I bought it at 197000ks and it was just like it had been run in. The spec's for this vehicle from 0-100k/ph are listed from the factory at 7.1secs. I have to admit I have not tested it specifically, but I have had many races with more recent V8's including HSV's and have more than held my own.

The steering in these vehicles can be very non-precise, but this one is great, steers like a go-cart. However it should have come out with an LSD because in the wet I cannot even think about racing anyone! No traction which can be fun, but it is seriously depressing when you know you could beat your opponent except for the fact that you cannot get grip in the wet.

I intend on keeping this for some time to come! I'll put in the LSD, but just maintain it as it is.

Great car, not a complete rocket ship, but for the cost it is excellent.

Also 5spd Manuals are getting rare in the V8 model.

Faults:

The radiator developed a split and required re-coring after the cooling system became pressurised from a defective cylinder head. To be fair though, I don't think the previous owner had looked after the vehicle very well, it had a rust in the cooling system and may have been overheated in the past causing the damage to the head. This has all been repaired and I have had no trouble since.

The door rubbers don't stick very well, hence automatic car washes can be quite a damp experience.

Small rust spots are appearing in the water channel below the rear window.

Rattle in the dashboard around 2300 rpm, coupled with a slight vibration from the engine at the same time.

Water pump started to leak, but was replaced without much expense.

Fuel gauge, and less frequently the temperature gauge, will intermittently not work without bashing the dashboard.

Small water ingress from top centre of windscreen seal.

General Comments:

I have experienced a raft of small problems, which can be expected from a 13 year old used car (particularly one bought ex-repossession). Nothing extremely serious or expensive has gone wrong though, bar the problem with the cylinder head, which, from what I gather, is quite rare for this type of vehicle, leading me to believe it had probably been overheated before it came into my possession.

Generally though I have found the vehicle to be very reliable, it always starts first try, it never uses any oil, and does not lose any water.

The engine is very impressive in terms of power, if the vehicle handled corners better I would have rated it higher than a 7 out of 10. In fact, it goes like stink.

Fuel economy on the open road is surprisingly good, I have achieved 7.5 litres per 100km on a long journey (average speed 110kph). Around town the fuel consumption is a lot higher though, around 12 litres per 100km.