Faults:

Bought the car for 150 quid, and had to replace the driver's door glass and a gear linkage.

Did about 2000 miles when the head gasket went at 128000. New gasket 10 quid, half a day's work and back in business till the oil pump went at 150000 miles.

Seized the camshaft (25 quid at Smithy's), replaced it, then seized a gudgeon pin on number 2 piston whilst dry-starting (20 quid at Smithy's). Fixed that, did 100 miles and then spun a big end bearing. Got some fogals off ebay for 18 quid and got back up and running again.

Water pump shed its impeller at 180000 right in the middle of 2009's winter.

Replaced cylinder head and cam at 205000 for a lower mileage one (50 quid at Smithy's). Cam turns out to be a long-duration and polished head from a retro fitted Nova, happy days :)

General Comments:

The Astra F is a great car. What makes it great is its chassis. When properly lowered and stiffened, the Astra shell makes for an excellent platform for right-on-the-wire driving.

In the dry, a good set-up will give you super grip and excellent stability, whereas other cars just don't give the same results due to such things as body-flex (the Astra mk2 was notorious for this at full tilt, and would often throw the back out).

In the wet, even with top tyres, the Astra F has the potential to be a death trap, but then you don't take roundabouts at 60 and expect to come out the other side :D

All in all, the 1.6 8v, when released from its insecurities, is a tough, durable little engine with massive torque that belies its size. An engine that can quite literally survive anything you care to throw at it. It has taken more knocks than Frank Bruno, and still rattles up to 5000rpm, even with 210000 miles on the clock. When replacing the head, it was noted that the wear on the bores was minimal with no scoring, embedded materials or ridges at the top of the bores.

The interior I found very drab; grey dash, grey doors, grey everywhere. Swapped out the interior for black carpets, cards, buckets etc, black dash, and sprayed the dash inserts in plasticote silver metallic, the stuff you use to patch up silver cookers, fridges etc when the paint's come off. Black and silver gives a superb finish, and makes the interior look modern for very little cost.

Comfortable car to drive, or it was until I dropped it on the deck with new springs and shocks. 60mm on the front and 40mm on the rear to keep the car looking level, instead of dragging its rear.

Things to do, I guess a re-ring is in order due to the oil seals being very old, compression rings still within tolerances, but other than that, everything is sweet. I guess I'm just lazy, because I did notice the oil rings were poor when I repaired the spun bearing all those miles ago.

Faults:

We bought this car in an emergency. Never a good idea, but needs must when the Devil drives, so to speak.

We bought it 'sold as seen'. It 'drove' and it was as cheap as chips. £595.

We took it straight to our local garage in order for them to give it the once over. Head gasket needed replacing. £200.

Since then, a new back box on the exhaust £75.

Bullet proof! Unfortunately, not teenager proof though.

General Comments:

What a superb example of dependability!

The car is possibly the most uninspiring machine ever built. It's a bit like an escalator; you just use them, you don't appreciate them or really notice them at all; that's what the Astra LS, 1.6 8 valve, is like.

It never lets you down, and does what a car should do; namely, get you safely and comfortably from point A to point B.

The seats are very comfortable, both in the front and back. Leg room in the back is good, even for taller people. The cabin space is light and airy and the visibility is excellent. The front pillars are a little on the thick side, but you soon compensate for that.

The front windows are electrically operated and are very reliable if noisy.

The gear shift is a bit wobbly and not very positive, but the clutch is silky smooth.

When 'gunned' hard, there is a peculiar ticking sound from somewhere under the bonnet, but it doesn't seem to suffer as a result.

The handling is very average, and if you want to get a shimmy on, you have to keep the wheezy little engine bubbling hard. Great fun! In skilled/experienced hands, the Astra goes well!

We've since gone on to enjoy better times and given the Astra to our eldest son (19). He's managed to redesign some of the body panels and added 'bits' as well. The car is now quite 'unique'. I think the boy has taken some of the ideas portrayed in a recent Peugeot advert to heart, but rather than use an elephant to reshape the car, he's used crash barriers and concrete bollards!

Poor little Astra!