Faults:

Water hose at rear of engine burst in second week after buying it.

Exhaust blowing heavily at one of the seals in the middle box.

Paint chipping on the front of the bonnet, also blistering on nearly all of the doors.

Blowers in the center console have stopped working.

General Comments:

I've always wanted a powerful auto since my father owned a truly awesome Senator 24V, although it is not a patch on that in terms of performance from a standstill.

I am impressed with its overall pace as once it is moving the kick down is impressive from the sweet sounding V6,and on the motorway it feels like a very comfortable rocket ship, my only slight disappointment is the standstill take off, yes I know it's an Auto, but sometimes it can feel quite sluggish.

The handling certainly in the dry is very impressive for a car of this size although in the wet I have noticed the traction control light flicker furiously.

In terms of economy it's a two fold story, around town it struggles to top 21 to the gallon, where as on the motorway it can easily achieve 33 to the gallon without sacrificing to much cruising speed.

Thankfully not to much has failed on my car apart from a really irritating hose leak which in itself was not a big deal, but replacing it resulted in half the engine needing to be removed and replaced, this cost £120 and that wasn't at the dealership.

In terms of the dealership I personally wasn't happy with the attitude of the staff, I had the cam belt replaced as a matter of course when I purchsed the car, but this ended up costing £450 pounds as they realised they had to replace the pulleys when they replaced the belt, something they failed to realise or tell me about when they originally quoted £300 for the whole job.

Overall I am happy with my car as it cost me K reg cavelier money to buy and in my opinion is's a hell of a lot of car to have for banger money, the only real problem has come with dealing with dealership and their mechanics an experience I won't be repeating as I am not Roman Abramovich!!!

Faults:

Nothing so far.

General Comments:

Very disappointed by the performance. Bought the car as a load carrier - as which it hasn't failed, but considering the engine size, the gearbox (manual) really has to be worked hard to get any performance - my wife's Focus TDCi outperforms it!!. Previously had a 2.0 litre 4 cylinder Carlton which performed better. Apart from performance, car is very comfortable and at speed (when it gets there) is a joy to drive. This car should have been an automatic.

Faults:

Cam belt snapped at 91000 Miles. £1,200 to fix.

At 92,000 miles the exhaust perforated at the Cat, middle and back boxes heavily rusted too. Replaced complete system for £240 from an auto factors after being quoted £420 plus VAT at Kwik-Fit. Rip off place that is...

Engine stalls while at roundabouts (clutch dipped) and traffic lights, very annoying, but found out it's a common problem with the idle valve, replace it at cost or just clean it periodically and it will be fine.

99,000 miles the tyres wore heavily on the inside shoulder on the front tyre's, had the tracking and camber/caster checked with no problems. Replaced all four tyre's for £200 with valves and balancing after being quoted £99 per tyre plus valves and balancing at Kwik-Fit. Like I've said, they rip you off.

The Air-con also gave up around this time, just as summer is kicking in.

At 107,000 miles it lost lots of oil and an oil patch formed on my driveway. I had the leak traced whilst the car was in for a service with my local Vauxhall dealer. It turned out to be the oil pump gasket which took 4.8 hours (very precise!) to replace, this cost me £215 in labor alone. Also had the air-con recharged and a UV dye added to check for leaks.

Air-con checked out fine so I parted with my cash and left the dealer with smile on face knowing I now had air-con! It was the hottest day of the year so you can imagine my excitement.

One week later and the air-con gives up again... I'm taking it back in two days time, I hope it's not expensive the last visit cost me over £1,200 and I'm still paying for it!

General Comments:

My advice is to shop around for parts, I've saved a small fortune by buying and fitting the parts needed myself with the help of a workshop (Haynes) manual.

The car in general is fine, I've been lucky with the electrics, no faults so far and yes I am touching wood!

The acceleration at low speeds is not great, not a car for over grown boy racers. However, the top end acceleration is very good I have a manual so knocking it down a gear and flooring it (only occasionally mind!) is great fun.

Handling could be better, the car does lean and sometimes you could be mistaken in thinking you're the pilot of a hover craft; this brings me to my next point brakes! Poor in my opinion, well they do the job, but I do think for a car of this size they could be lots better. I have tried new pads, disc's and changing the brake fluid, but no difference, I now travel at least two car lengths from the vehicle in front at all times as I've had some scary moments!

The interior still doesn't look dated which is a bonus, fake plastic wood everywhere - quality! Not.

The passenger seat folds down to give extra room, this came in very handy when I got some new kitchen counter tops, the longest one was 2.5 meters and fit in no problem.

The center head restraint is a huge problem when reversing mine are not hollow, I've seen some you can see through which would be better. Luckily there is a purpose built place to keep this offending item in the boot!

The radio is very clever and my favorite toy, it increases the volume in tune with your speed!

Fantastic, how many times have you been blasting the music out while traveling on the motorway only to turn down the volume as you slow to a halt, only then to increase it when you get up to speed again? This stereo does it all for you just set the volume before you set off and it will compensate in volume as road noise increases/decreases.

If I could go back to before I signed on the dotted line, I would have chosen an automatic, the car is like an arm chair on wheels so having to change gear becomes a chore as everything else in the car seems to work for itself.

Before I forget... Climate control!

I've had air conditioned cars in the past, but I was always annoyed by one thing, the temperature just gets colder and colder. Climate control changes this, while still having the advatage of air con, you can set the temperature to say 18 degrees (my favorite) and it will stay that way, providing you don't open doors or windows of course!

All in all a great car for long journeys, I do about 80 miles a day. I would love to trial the 3.0 Elite, I bet that is luxury. Still a new model is out now and these big cars do depreciate in value very quickly, maybe I will start frequenting the car auctions again soon...