Faults:

Driver's seat wears out badly on the upper left part, where your body easily touches the seat while entering/exiting the vehicle.

Had to replace the electronic ignition module inside the distributor cap twice. The car just died suddenly without warning. The part is cheap, though (~15eur).

Head gasket job done once at about 200000 kilometers.

The body got a lots of rust in the unforgiving Scandinavian climate. The rust started to grow mostly inside the body cavities. Not from the top paint coating. Lots of welding done over the time. Rear shock absorber - and springs mountings seriously destroyed by rust. In the end, there was no point fixing the body any more.

General Comments:

The car's mechanical parts were extremely reliable during the 14 years and ~260000 kilometers which I drove with it. Very cheap parts and maintenance. Easy to fix for a DIY mechanic. You have nice room and fine access to everything under the hood. Being an ECM/ECU controlled fuel injected engine, C16NZ, it doesn't have dozens of electronic sensors, which could fail and lead to more costly repairs. It was a relatively simple system.

The car' performance with the 1.6 8-valve engine, which produces 75hp/125Nm, is not anything sporty. Neither is the handling. I wouldn't recommend this car for extended highway driving, and overtaking other vehicles is slow. But, as a city car it's very good! Overall fuel efficiency is pretty good for both highway (max. ~100km/h) and city driving.

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong yet.

I have done quite much servicing to avoid things from going wrong in the future.

Oil, all filters changed (oil, fuel, air), spark plugs, thermostat and transmission oil changed.

Roof material is still very good and electrical control is working as it should. Also all other electrical equipments are working.

General Comments:

Cabrio is very nice to drive in the summer. I went to ice sea during july on a vacation trip and it was awesome to have roof down and driving in the fjords in Norway. That trip was meant to be just driving pleasure and it really was, 3600 km on one week and not even slightly tired about driving. I still have my omega to use when it is starting to rain too much and temperature goes down so car should stay in quite good condition. As far as I know it has been driven only in summers and it shows since there is no sign of rust yet. Normally Astra would have been patched in many places already when 10 years old.

Faults:

Few things have showed up since purchase:

Rust in metal above driver side rear wheel, other has been fixed not so long ago. Also front of the bonnet is showing few rust spots. Otherwise in good condition (also bottom).

Idle speed motor has failed causing idle speed of 2000 rpm.

Most of the bulbs in instruments were broken.

Back window wiper was stuck, opened and cleaned, motor replaced.

Little oil leak from gasket, new seal required.

Two of the braking hoses are showing too much wear and need to be replaced.

So a lot of little things are starting to need renewing, but it is not a surprise, it is after all over 10 years old and has endured this Finnish weather quite well I think.

General Comments:

This car is still quite new for me. It's my second car we bought for my wife. She wanted automatic transmission after driving some time with my omega. The feel is much more closer to omega than Corsa (my previous car before Omega).

Consumption is a bit high, 8.7 l/100 km.

Good thing is also look of the car. Most of the newest cars doesn't look good in my eyes, not before they make even worse looking cars.

Faults:

Main headlight electronics unit broke.

General Comments:

Good: Easy to use engine (its torgue area begins very low, about 2000 rpm).

Good: Enough power in normal use.

Good: Passing by acceleration.

Bad: Inside is very noisy at higher speeds.

Faults:

Front seats are squeaking, burned few H7 bulbs.

General Comments:

Great car to drive. Fuel economy is nice, 6-8 l/100km, and car's performance is still good.