2005 Vauxhall Agila Design 1.2 petrol
Summary:
Awful, but reliable!
Faults:
Brakes, suspension, lots to be honest, but mostly wear and tear, never any really bad expensive failures or breakdowns.
Driver's seat was badly worn when we were finished with it; in general the interior was very rough. Exterior not much better, rust starting everywhere.
General Comments:
We bought this Agila as the family runabout to replace our other family runabout. We look after our cars but there is always one designated "banger" we keep as a daily driver.
In silver this Design model Agila is near top of range, but the car is still very dull. Cramped interior, slow, not fun to drive. Ugly looking also.
The car wallows in the wind and feels like it could be blown over.
1.2 engine is weak especially when loaded with passengers. Does not feel safe. It is economical however - over 45 mpg, excellent for petrol.
All in all we had it six years and put decent mileage on it so cannot complain too much, it was a reliable little car, but no fun whatsoever. We scrapped it last year, started to fail MOT's, but at sixteen years old and 130,000 miles on it, I'd say it done well.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 17th October, 2022
13th Feb 2023, 18:03
Original reviewer was probably being a bit generous with the 45 + mpg claim. Myself I had one of these cars years ago with the same engine, and can tell you 45 mpg is possible but only with an empty car and unloaded, perfect weather conditions and an endless road cruising at a steady 50 - 60 mph!
You should definitely get around 40 mpg average though, any less than that seems wrong. I'd find a trusty local mechanic to maybe take a look and see what's wrong; certainly if you have serviced the car and drove it properly, plus checked all the other obvious stuff like tyre pressure and so on.
13th Feb 2023, 13:32
I currently run a 2005 1.2 Design and the fuel economy is very poor. Urban use returns around 30-35 mpg. I have put new plugs and an air filter in it, all to no avail, it just isn't very good on mpg. Obviously I have checked the brakes are not binding so it's a mystery as to why it's so poor.