Faults:

Driver's seat has started to wear.

General Comments:

I wished it was RWD, but for a FWD carm it handles well.

Faults:

Very little. I have had the car since new, and I now own another three SE2s. Two are currently on the road, with the other two SORN at the moment.

Original model was used around Aberdeen where I lived, and is now starting to show signs of corrosion. Aberdeenshire has bad winters every year, and the local authority always used vast quantities of salt on the roads.

I have recently started to battle with rust; a fight I am beginning to loose. My other 3 models originally from Manchester, Leeds and Leicester do not have this problem.

General Comments:

I bought the original car from Lawrence of Kemnay in Aberdeenshire. They had taken the car from Vauxhall central stock to sell as the Solar Yellow colour was a bit too much for some dealers. They had already moved on to SE3 models so I got a very good deal.

Love at first sight. I had a Jag XJ at the time, but the Calibra was slightly faster 0 to 60 and way better looking.

As a rule, I keep one on the road all year, my best example L123 MOO is in A1 condition, so I only use this from May to October, and hide it away in a garage all winter.

Faults:

I put it into a garage to have hydraulic lifters replaced, original ones had done well {196,000 miles, still working, but getting noisy} when mechanic was bolting front camshaft down, it snapped. He replaced it, and its like a new car again. Only problem I have is, it gets a bit damp in passenger footwell after torrential rain, (only recently)

General Comments:

This car never lets me down or ceases to amaze me with its reliability. The mechanic who did tappets thought I had the engine replaced at sometime, I haven't, it's all original, unworn, economical, and doesn't even smoke, and will still do 140mph (measured by GPS) Then I start to feel sorry for it and slow down. After all, it's always been good to me!

Faults:

I knocked the price down from £1000 to £750 as I knew from a test drive that there was a transmission problem of some sort. Bought it anyway and found out from my mechanic friend that it needed:

Needed new drive-shafts.

New Clutch.

New Gearbox, ouch I here you say!

Not all bad, cost £300 all in to sort and been fine for nearly 20k miles.

Oh, alternator packed in with no warning lights, all dash lights came on and then headlights turned 'dim', car eventually turned off, bless her!

£20 for a re con unit, fitted it with a friend and been fine since!

General Comments:

For a car that cost a pretty penny when new you can now have a cracking FSH car for less than a grand. Fantastic sounding engine, still looks good and always a pleasure to drive. I've had Mg's and at one point an RS Cosworth Sierra, and I usually keep a car for a year and get bored, not the Calibra! I'll own this until it gives up the ghost!

The good stuff:

Will scare the pants off most modern hot hatches and leave a lot of them behind, especially upto 60 mph. The only worthy rivals seem to be Vtec Honda's. You always get the boy racers in Corsas having a go, only to be blown into oblivion! And I'm 27 before you ask ;-)

Nice interior, all electrics still work after a little fine adjustments with certain wires and bulbs behind the fascia.

Good MPG for the weight the engine pulls, will do 40 on a run and averages 30 round town if driven steady.

The Bad Bits:

Arches starting to rust a little, can easily be skimmed and redone for not much money at all, wait til she really needs it.

Handbrake constantly needs adjusting.

Kept getting 'puddles' in all footwells bar n/s rear. Found out it was a blocked sunroof drain and pollen filter blockage! This really annoyed me, but cost absolutely nothing, but some time to fix :-)

Rear wiper doesn't clear all of the screen, aaargh!!

Headlights are like candles in the snow :- (

Tail lights always blow, you need shares in a bulb company, that's no joke!