Faults:

Sills and the arches were rotten and needed replacing.

Suspension was really bad and needed changing.

General Comments:

Fantastic value for money.

This is the 12th GTE that I have owned and the 5th 16v version that I have had.

I've upgraded the shocks and lowered the car, it handles very well now.

I have also replaced the standard exhaust with a full stainless steel system with a twin scorpion back box.

The interior is very comfortable and I recently put in the Champion limited Edtion, Connely leather seats into the car.

The check control panel in the middle of the panel informs the driver exactly what the car needs.

Heated electrical mirrors are excellent in the wet.

Overall I love these cars as they are good fun to drive and very affordable.

The head on the engine was designed by cosworth and these cars can take a good beating.

Its getting harder to find a unabused one nowadays.

Faults:

Not many things have gone wrong considering age and mileage, and it has never broken down.

Top strut mounts, for m.o.t

Tracking was very out when bought the car,

Steering rack began to leak, very cheap to replace and not a common problem.

General Comments:

I drive a Toyota supra mk4 and bought this car as a runaround from a dealer who had it in p/x, it had no tax or M.O.T and it looked a bit grubby in the metallic blue colour. Typical looking 80's car, but looks very good in my opinion compared to the 205 / golf gti of the same era. Engine is bullet proof and easy to maintain not as quick as the 16v, but suffers less with the torque steer. Handling is iffy as most old cars, but can be improved for a fee. It's an addictive car and very appealing it may not be the fastest or the best handling, but its got the excitement factor which is not easily found. its not the sports car my supra is, but so what. Its still cool all the same and I don't feel ashamed of getting out of it unlike most early 90's cars. Get a good one and watch for rot, and in my opinion the white ones look best.

Faults:

All round the car has been good. It has never broken down, I've replaced things simply as a precaution and maintenance.

Steering rack at 126,000 miles.

Both track rod ends.

Top front strut mount.

Shock absorbers (they were just soft so I replaced with Spax adjustable)

General Comments:

The car is amazing, using the trademark digital dash which most manufacturers are only just using today, its my fifth Astra gte to date and is actually the best condition, no rust and full service history. I bought it from a BMW dealership for 350 pounds as they just saw it as a normal Astra. Since then spax fully adjustable suspension was fitted along with front and rear strut braces to stiffen up the ride, finally toyo proxy t1 tires were fitted to correct all the handling issues the Astra struggles with. To sum up it's a brilliant car, and most importantly great fun, surely a classic in the making. but from experience shop around these cars can be absolute wrecks at times, so make sure you buy a good one, check for rot in the sills and mainly underneath, wheel arch rust is normal on the rear.

Faults:

Due to shear power, the front tires have worn badly, that's 6 tires in 8months I've had to buy.

Seats have started to wear slightly.

Exhaust starting blowing 2 weeks after buying the car.

General Comments:

This car is very fast, puts up a good fight with the new Vauxhall Vectra 2.5 V6!

The car kicks out over 150bhp, and will do 0-62mph in under 7 seconds, topping out at around 144mph.

It's hard not to wheel-spin in this car, in rainy conditions it will wheel-spin pulling off in 4th gear sending the speed-o to a whopping 124mph!