Faults:

Air con not working on purchase.

Door lights missing.

General Comments:

This the best car that I have bought!

Took my beloved Senator across Europe for the summer period and the car performed as well as I do!

Only problem being is that you should never trust a Vauxhall or Opel dealer with your beloved friend as they don't know what they're doing!

Faults:

Rear diff noisy when bought.

Passenger heated seat not working.

Air con not working.

Mysterious misfire occasionally.

General Comments:

The rear diff (£90 s/h and 8 hours - I did it myself) and heated seat (FREE - a broken wire) have been fixed, but the air con (£1006 quote) doesn't stand a chance, according to the good lady.

This is my second Senator, the first being a 12v ex Lincs police job with 260,000 miles on the clock (expired after driving through flood water - the air intake is low). I'm hooked and my current one is a direct replacement, big thanks to my local Vauxhall dealer who had it round the back going for a song.

Huge amount of car for little money.

It's quite good fun to switch the digital dash over to KPH and see how far over 200 you can get ;-) (on the autobahns of course).

Mechanical parts appear to be reasonably priced, but trim parts are expensive.

Faults:

CD Player sticks.

Heated seats don't work.

Heater won't work.

Broken wire from the ECU caused a loss of power.

New timing chain and head gasket.

Air con won't work.

Digital dash broke.

General Comments:

An excellent car. There have been a few niggling faults with the electrics. It seems that all Senators seem to be having a problem with electrics. Some however have been caused by myself and garages who don't know what they are doing. Vauxhall dealers are a waste of time.

The car is a 3.0 24v CD white 1990 model (not ex police). It has all the usuals including alloys, ABS etc. The main problem with this car is finding someone who will fix it. Every garage that I have been to seem to either bodge it or break something else. It best to do the work yourself.

I have made a few modifications to the car. I've had the head gas-flowed, stainless Scorpion exhaust (cheaper than a Vauxhall one) and a Autobahnstormers owners club chip fitted. All have made a big difference. I estimate the power to be around 215bhp. It would eat a five series for breakfast and out handle most boy racers.

Faults:

Timing chain has just been replaced.

Heater broke.

Heated seats won't work.

CD player sticks.

Scorpion exhaust.

Owners club chip.

Gas flowed head.

K+N filter.

Cat replacement pipes.

General Comments:

Very smooth, and powerful.

Handles very well for a big car.

Not very easy to work on, but well made.

Faults:

Air conditioning failed and removed as too expensive to replace.

Cruise control unit failed.

CD cartridge not working.

Intermittent engine fault resulting in jumpy acceleration.

Timing chain tensioner failed.

New timing chain.

New 24 valves.

New distributor.

New lambda sensor.

General Comments:

If only the intermittent engine fault could be cured I would keep the car until it rotted under me.

This is my third Senator and I am looking for an 'immaculate' 1993/4 replacement.

The huge surge of power in sport mode makes the 25mpg worth while, and for cruising it is the only car I have driven, where you can drive all day and still want to continue into the night.

Vauxhall dealers are not worth visiting, but finding someone who knows much about Senator's is difficult.

Why did Vauxhall stop production of what is arguably one of the best prestige cars in its class - to replace it with the Elite?