8th Nov 2005, 09:54

Hi,

My Opel Astra, year 2002, station wagon, 1.6 Lt, "comfort" is a great car and I'm very pleased and satisfied in owning such a car.

In the future, and when I decide to upgrade my car or to replace it, I will buy a gain an Opel Astra.

Thank you and regards.

Jihad Hasarmeh

Jerusalem- Israel.

13th May 2006, 00:07

Re the 'broken' power window, was it the power motor or the window regulator mechanism. I had a '02 Astra and just before the expiry of the 2 year warranty, the right rear regulator broke. Some cheap plastic part cracked. Otherwise the rest of the mechanism including the motor were OK. Apparently you have to use it often - otherwise the mechanism tends to 'stick'. A note on the Toyota - I also have an Altis and the driver side window regulator broke within the 1st month. It took 3 visits to the dealer before Toyota replaced it. Another thing you should consider is that the Opel has one-touch up&down controls with sensors for stopping on all windows. More complex things tend to break, esp. in Manila. Unfortunately GM service really sucks.

11th Jun 2006, 00:14

Astras suffer from this problem, but not only Astras, other mid/low range japanse cars, the problem is that Opel cost a lot more to replace it, so it really hurts sometime...

22nd Aug 2006, 14:11

The problem is very common in Europe. I know that also Mercedes, Renault, Volksvagen, Fiat and Peugeot have that problem. I never listen about BMW. replacing? Very expensive everywhere. Sometimes it is possible to found only the broken piece, but often you have to change everything,

17th Jun 2008, 12:15

Similar issue with my Opel Astra 1.6MPFI 2002 Indian Model - my right rear power window was found broken rather altered by my previous single company owner. Got the winder replaced replaced with the motor & fitting for a cool $60 (USD). And it is functioning absolutely fine now. It could be that the previous owner rarely used the rear windows as he was using it for personal use without family. It must have been the jam that would have led to breaking (though it should not happen for a German class Vehicle. keep a WD40 spray handy in your car always before operating any switches; it helps cut friction up to a great extent. Excellent for rough weather use (especially the rains; when it sucks out moisture)

Cheerz.

Santosh Bidikar

Mumbai, India.

29th Jul 2009, 04:20

I have an Opel Astra 2002 Club sedan. Experienced the same problem also with the rear power window mechanism. Both power windows on my rear are broken already. At an authorized service center, they will never repair broken parts, they will have to replace the whole mechanism. In my case, I think same as to your Astra's case too, was the cable of the mechanism. I brought it to a power window repair shop near our place, replaced the said cable and it works. They told that an Opel Car's power window mechanism is very expensive because it's German made. Its brand is BMW. No wonder it's expensive. It's not GM made. The GM parts on an Opel car are its original tint, stabilizers, shock absorbers.. etc.. by the way, the car's speaker system is made by Bose.

22nd Feb 2010, 07:42

Same here I have an Opel Astra 2004. Rear right power window broke down. Replacement is around 40k. I managed to have it repaired by a guy who sells used power mechanisms. It cost me only Php 2,000 more or less. It is a great car, very reliable, sleek and easy to handle. My experiences with the GM dealer has always been unpleasant, since I also have a Chevrolet Optra and Aveo. I go and see them as a last resort.

Ariston Lee

Cebu City, Philippines.

26th Feb 2010, 20:57

Hi everyone,

Just to clarify few things here: the Astra is a GM car sold under different brands (including German ones) around the globe and manufactured in few different countries including Germany, Belgium, South Africa... check Wikipedia. It is not a German car, although most of it is designed in Germany...

Regarding the window, I recently fixed the rear left myself. In my case a plastic slider that is pulled up and down by the wires broke down. I am a mechanical engineer and I can tell you that component is poorly designed... really poorly designed... I do not know whether it was a German engineer, an American engineer... it was just hardly competent.

I got the component machined for free out of POM and mechanically it works perfectly... the only thing is that now when I close the window it opens and the other way round... I am still debugging the problem, but I think it has to do with the electronic controls...

In general I can say that the design of the car is quite poor...

13th Apr 2010, 06:45

My car: Astra 1.6 cs hatchback, built in South Africa

Mileage: 250000km

Issues:

1. Indicator and low/high beam switch malfunctioning

2. Rear windows (manual) getting stuck/heavy and pulling down inner pulling down the housing from the doors

3. High cost of replacement parts.

22nd Apr 2010, 04:51

Generally the OPEL Astra is an above average car. The body is solid, but spare parts are a bit pricey.

The problem about window mechanism is easy to solve if you are a bit resourceful and creative. I spent a fraction of the price on repairing it. Why buy a new one if you can have it repaired?!

The Opel Astra is a German car. Parts are made from different parts of the world, and they call it different names in other countries.. but at the end of the day, it's still a German car.

21st Jun 2011, 07:05

This is my third Opel Astra wagon 2000.

When I test drove it there was a problem with the transmission, it's an automatic transmission. The transmission fluid was Dextron 3. We saw another Opel Vectra owner (he was a specialist with Opel vehicles) and we said that my Opel Astra wagon 2000 had a problem with the transmission. He asked what kind of transmission fluid we used and we said Dextron 3. He asked why Dextron 3 and he offered us Dextron 2. Now my car runs smoothly thanks to the specialist.