Faults:

1) Rear brakes blocked when the car was parked. This happened twice between 61,670 and 100,000 kms. I had to let the rear drums be machined.

Anyway, equipping such a car with drum brakes at the rear is ridiculous; with 4 discs and ABS it would have been much better.

2) Central locking defective. I would close the car and it would reopen by itself again. There never was a solution to the problem.

3) Had to change the diesel ignitors at 200,000 kms. I thought these could have lasted much more. Maybe I got bad fuel or the kms when I bought the car were many more than 61,670.

4) Power steering always leaking. No solution found. Had to fill oil every three weeks.

5) Rust, rust, rust, especially at the rear end.

6) At 280.000 kms the diesel pump was leaking and it had to be substituted. My mechanic asked 1,500 Euros for it and I decided to bring the car to the demolisher. May be also in this case I got bad fuel or the kms were much more than 61,670 when I bought the car. In this regard I had expected more durability from Opel.

General Comments:

I was in love with my Vectra. I bought it used (3 years old) for 1/3 of the price it had when it was new.

It was the first "big" car after years of cars/cans like Renault 5 and Fiat 126. No air conditioning, no ABS, 60 HP, dead slow in acceleration, but what a progress!

It was solid as a brick, very cheap as for the consumption (5 liters for 100 kms), comfortable, very good for long journeys.

I never had a problem with the engine; with 280,000 kms the car was still running with its first clutch and exhaust. Engine compression was still perfect.

Slow and noisy, but an excellent workhorse. No sign of wear in the interior. Very good in aerodynamics, too. Road holding was good but not excellent, like in most German cars if compared to Italian ones. The overall quality of German cars is superior, but road holding remains the domain of Italian cars. A little weak as for the brakes.