Faults:

This has to be the worst car ever. I bought it back in April this year from a dealer to replace my Volvo 440, and since then I have had nothing but trouble with it.

The first thing that went on it was the water pump, and when this happened, the timing belt also jumped off, messing up the engine valves.

I spent £300 to get this fixed, and now I have also discovered that one or more of the piston rings must also be damaged, causing it to always smoke a lot when driving.

I have been so disappointed with this Vauxhall Astra, that I ended up finding a cheap second hand ECU unit from breaker's yard website for my Volvo 440, and resurrecting it to drive again.

I would never want to buy a Vauxhall again, and it will be back to Volvo for me!!

General Comments:

Rubbish worst car ever!! Nasty built engine too.

Faults:

The things that went wrong with the car was the passenger seat lost its support and leaned over to one side, and the bonnet catch snapped, which was a real pain.

The E-cotec engine was quite tappity from cold and idled rough on some occasions.

General Comments:

I have owned this car for just over one year, and have done quite a lot of miles in this year.

I was very surprised on how fast the car was, it was a 1.8 16v and was quite nippy, kicked a little when you got in to 4000rpm, but did lose a bit of power when getting it into the red-line.

It had e/w c/l CD player, sports seats and alloys, the car looks quite sporty compared the the 4 door version.

Cabin is a little bland and white clocks try to liven it up, but not really working.

Very roomy in side with good driving position.

Overall it was a nice car to own. Never cost the world to maintain, and was good on petrol.

Faults:

Start misfiring between 2000-4000 rpm, spoke to dealer who said it was a faulty ECU, which they had known about since manufacture; apparently a lot of cars were made like this. It had been subject to a recall but this had somehow not been communicated to me. As the recall was now over, to fix the problem they wanted me to pay approx £400 for a new ecu and another £100 to have it programmed and fitted all plus vat! Hardly good customer service when you know the car was made faulty.

I took it to a small independent garage who correctly diagnosed it as a faulty EGR valve which only cost £80, glad I never used the main dealer as after having my wallet emptied it would still be faulty.

Replaced both front wheel bearing which is expected on a car this age, still on original clutch which is good for 164,000.

The engine has used quite a lot of oil since I’ve owned it, apparently some of the 1.6 16V engines are just like this.

The offside rear arch has completely rusted out and needed replaced, never had this problem in such a new car before, looks like a case of poor rust proofing at the factory.

The offside read door lock also jammed and this required the remove and lubrication of rod that connected the motor to the lock.

General Comments:

Car handles nicely and is comfy on long journeys.

Performance is good, you leave most other cars if required, fuel economy is good aswell.

The interior is rather bland.

Faults:

Had to have ECU changed at 80,000 miles at the cost of over £650. Now at 113,000 it's gone again.

Garage diagnostic pointed towards coil pack at £260, then with the engine still not running they wanted to try a new ECU at £650. All too much now, as much as I have enjoyed Vauxhall's over the years this is tacking the mickey, especially when the ECU is only 16 month old and becomes faulty, apparently ???

General Comments:

Other than that, the last 2 cars have all been Vauxhall's.