Faults:
Brake shoe (rear left) needed replacing at 120 000 miles.
Smoke appeared in the cabin once. This was unsettling, but never occurred again.
General servicing has found faults, nothing unexpected for a family saloon.
General Comments:
This was my dad's car, and my grandparents kindly stumped up the money for me to be insured on it for a year.
I haven't had a moment's trouble out of it. It's always started when the key turns, and that's something that none of my mates can say. I've taken it around the UK on various road trips and have never had to worry about breaking down or other misadventure.
Driving is relaxing and yet invigorating at the same time, as only a good car can be. Power is there when you need it, as long as you have the right gear (try to stay out of 5th if you can.)
The turning circle is too wide to be practical on Britain's narrow streets.
The oddly heightened rear end has created visibility problems when reverse parking. I have to go by dead reckoning sometimes.
Fuel economy is reasonable, at a steady 35 mpg on the road, and probably 25-30 in town. Fuel economy is important in Britain, as we pay ridiculously high duty on petrol.
The car has no resale value now (who would buy a J-reg Cavalier with 130,000 miles on the clock?) but our family will love it forever.
10th Sep 2005, 19:04
I agree with everything you said in your review. I had the smoke in the cabin on mine too, a common problem with all vauxhall's of this age not just the cavalier, as I had the same problem with an astra. The smoke was the ignition switch shorting out. It smoked a few intermittent times before I decided to replace it, which is very easy quick and cheap to do after which I had no more trouble even to this day.