Faults:

New drive shaft required.

New CV joint required.

New CIM module required.

New ECU required (still waiting for this...)

General Comments:

Frankly, a disappointing car.

The good points are that it looks great, goes well and does 40mpg. It handles well, and despite the sports suspension (mine has the IDS+ fitted) the ride isn't too bad either.

However, the build quality is appalling. Aside from the problems listed above, it has also got leaking back lights (they mist up, no fix for this), various rattles from the car inside, and also the drivers window rattles when half way down. Again there is no fix for this, so I had to do a DIY job on it, as it was driving me crazy.

Generally speaking, the dealers aren't very good, although I've found one that seems to know what they are doing.

I had planned to keep this car for a few years, but I don't trust it anymore, and suspect that there will be some very expensive faults when it's out of the warranty period, so it'll have to go. Next time I'll stick with Ford!

Faults:

Nothing to-date.

General Comments:

The 1.7 Diesel performs very well, but seems very noisy when accelerating. The dealer says that this particular engine is noted for being noisy because of the Twin-Cam. Anyone else notice this?

The fuel consumption is disappointing because I am averaging only 42mpg, but I have sometimes been using the available pulling power on both normal roads and motorways. The dealer is again not concerned about this.

The car looks fantastic and handles really well. The auto dipping rear view mirror is a great idea.

Faults:

Entire gear selector came off in my hand, had to be re-attached by the AA.

Steering column has become noisy over the last 1000 miles.

Has developed some very irritating heat-shield rattles in the engine bay.

Has developed some irritating interior rattles in the rear of the car.

General Comments:

Car is in a different league to the previous generation Astra. I would have to say in terms of design and dynamic ability it is as good as, if not better than a Mk5 VW Golf, though VW probably have still got the edge on build quality.

The car looks great and has a very nice subtle body kit and the 18" 5 spoke wheels are lovely. The wheels are extremely easy to damage though and make parking in a tight multi storey car park an unpleasant affair (as I recently found out to the detriment of one of my wheels!)

The car drives extremely well, it handles and stops brilliantly. The engine is extremely good, for a 1.8 it has lots of character, is keen and flexible and makes a good noise when extended. It does however drink a lot of oil and the fuel consumption is quite poor. No matter how gently it is driven it will only return approx 30 mpg.

The car has a sports switch, which at first I thought was a bit gimmicky, however the car does drive better with the switch on, though its not so smooth at low speeds. It does have an even bigger impact on the cars poor fuel consumption though.

The only mechanical breakdown I have suffered is the gear selector coming off, but the AA had me back on the road a few minutes after arriving. I was assured that the problem is rare (i should hope so too!)

The only area the car really seems to have let itself down is on the number of squeaks, rattles, buzzes and clicks it has developed over such a short time (the car is only two months old). The car is a lease vehicle and is being replaced soon so I haven't bothered having them sorted out, but had I paid the 17.5k list price for this car, I would have been sorely disappointed. The fact that they could all be resolved is neither here nor there, I find it unacceptable to be experiencing such problems on what is a new, relatively expensive car.