Faults:

The casing around the rear central console snapped off, but only pennies to fix.

Drivers dipped light not working, can't find the fault...yet.

General Comments:

First big car I have owned and it's a brilliant car to drive, nice a quick and a smooth comftable feel to it. I would recommend anyone to have one.

Faults:

Engine management light came on on way home from collecting it from dealer.

ABS and traction control lights always coming on.

Headlamp/side lamp warning always coming on.

Auto gearbox failed, dealer had second hand one fitted, that failed soon after, had it repaired under warranty purchased from dealer, it lasted four days and failed again.

Radiator leaking from connector stub.

Drivers door handle failed, repaired, but works intermittently.

General Comments:

Like everyone says nice comfortable car, but very complicated.

I like to think I know my way round a car, but I look under the bonnet of the Omega and there are things that I can't identify.

I have owned four carltons in the past and it seemed a natural progression to have an Omega, what a bad experience.

Absolutely the worst car I have ever owned, can't wait to see the back of it.

Faults:

Breaking trim parts.

Door hinge stiffness.

Interior light mounting broken.

Front seat backing springing free.

General Comments:

I bought the Omega as a family car to replace my Subaru Legacy Turbo that was stolen.

Interior design is a bit early 90's. The rear seats have 3 diagonal belts and accommodate 3 child seats across the back.

The electric front seats are only electric in the up/down plane. Manual adjustment for the fore/aft positions. They're comfortable though and don't cause any problems on 300 mile journey's.

The boot is huge. It swallows luggage/cots/toys/pushchairs/prams etc and the tailgate has a convenient internal handle to pull when the exterior's dirty.

The rear seat passengers have their own rear-console mounted air vent, but this is not very robust and small feet easily break the fins off.

The air conditioning is quiet efficient.

Handling.

The car is shod with attractive 16" alloy wheel and 60 profile tyres.

The steering is not very good. Vague around dead centre, it's not surprising when you look at the steering mechanism itself which relies on more links than are desirable to route the mechanism around the gearbox. It does weight up well during cornering, but the springs and dampers settings are ill-suited to the vehicle.

One one hand it's trying to have an element of "wafting" about it and the suspension is setup to achieve this, but the engine lacks torque and needs to be revved to get decent progress. The car feels as it's been driven out of it's parameters and rapid progress is not confidence inspiring. However, contrary to it's 7/10's performance, during seriously fast cornering, you can feel the superiority of rear wheel drive. Instead of a passive rear wheel steer that it's front-drive contemporaries implement to quell understeer, the Omega's balanced weight distribution comes into it's own and the vehicle exhibits impressive grip, tenaciously resisting understeer.

The 5 speed manual gearbox is OK, but is a little notchy and could do with a shorter throw and appropriately faster synchromeshes.

Unfortunately, the Omega lurches unpleasantly when doing "doughnuts". Ahem.

Thanks to being RWD, the vehicle has an excellent turning circle, almost at odds with it's size and is considerably better than my Nissan Primera. When conditions allow, a judicious application of application can reduce this even further.

The vehicle's equipped with ABS, but this seems to cut in quite readily. In both Subaru and Nissan vehicles, I've had to contrive a situation to test that the ABS was working. The Omega's can cut in during general enthusiastic braking. I had the suspension geometry checked (not by a 'Quick' outfit, but by a motorsport professional) and all was well within parameters.

Engine.

The engine is the 170bhp 2.5 V6 that's also fitted to the Vectra. The ECU is obviously tuned for emmisions/economy and there's a marked 'step' in the power delivery around 3000rpm. Other than that, it's smooth, but the idle can 'hunt' when fuel's low. Personally, I think the car needs at least a 3 litre engine for the extra torque required to make it the relaxing motor it purports to be.

Materials.

The quality of materials used are reasonable, but nowhere near Japanese quality. The door handle insert came off at 50,000 miles and a central locking solenoid failed at 60,000. Although at 70,000 miles the car remains rattle and squeak free.

The drivers side door has become unpleasantly notchy when opening. Hinge and catch rod lubrication have failed to make a significant impact on it though.

Dealer.

My local dealer forgot to perform various items explicitly asked for (in writing!). But they're only Vauxhall dealers and I'd been forewarned of poor performance.