A reminder of why I dislike Vauxhalls

DrDee said:
That would then be the person driving it being dangerous, not the car...

"You see officer, I attempted to join the motorway, misjudged this this and this, but.... its the cars fault not mine"
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OK, bad example. I can't really explain myself very well, lol So perhaps we'll have to just leave this one alone! The Zafira just felt slow, disconnected, I dunno, dangerous might have been a strong word. I know what you and everyone else is saying about judgement. I think I'm just gonna stop digging :( Bad day
 
Howard said:
OK, bad example. I can't really explain myself very well, lol So perhaps we'll have to just leave this one alone! The Zafira just felt slow, disconnected, I dunno, dangerous might have been a strong word. I know what you and everyone else is saying about judgement. I think I'm just gonna stop digging :( Bad day
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You want dangerous speed try pulling out at a roundabout in a Leon with a blown turbo. And before anyone says "Noob why were you driving with no turbo!?!?!" I was on the way to the dealers to get a service done and it blew with 2 miles to go, handy :)
 
Howard said:
OK, bad example. I can't really explain myself very well, lol So perhaps we'll have to just leave this one alone! The Zafira just felt slow, disconnected, I dunno, dangerous might have been a strong word. I know what you and everyone else is saying about judgement. I think I'm just gonna stop digging :( Bad day
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Fair play :p
 
[TW]Fox;14157440 said:
It was a Vauxhall Meriva 1.4 Enjoy and it really, truely is the most awful car I have ever driven. It was devoid of ANY merit whatsoever and was SO, SO bad.
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A guy who I used to work with once got a Meriva to drive to site in (Gatwick to Birmingham). The clutch pedal broke off.

He said it was the most awful car he's ever been in. He told the MD if he ever got a Meriva again he would quit.

And the best part? He drives a Passat.
 
Howard said:
OK, bad example. I can't really explain myself very well, lol So perhaps we'll have to just leave this one alone! The Zafira just felt slow, disconnected, I dunno, dangerous might have been a strong word. I know what you and everyone else is saying about judgement. I think I'm just gonna stop digging :( Bad day
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Agreed. The best part about my trip to yorkshire was the following. It was when it was hoofing it down with snow. When we stopped at some services on the way up, I took the opportunity to bang some handbrake turns in the deserted end of the car park. The car had tyres that complemented the quality of the car and resulted in a near 360 degree rotation.

Think that was the best part? Wrong. When we stopped, we got stuck in the snow. I span the wheels up and it wouldn't budge.

It was hacking it down with snow and we were stuck. I turned to the passengers expecting a verbal earbashing only to be met with a short silence and then:

"Shall we just leave it here? I'd rather ****ing walk"

100 miles from Howden in a snowstorm and they'd rather ****ing walk. Thats how bad that car was.
 
Howard said:
So you'd be quite happy to try and join a busy dual carriageway, motorway sliproad, etc, in a 1.0, without feeling frustrated? Or in an engine totally unsuited to the size of the car, and thus, gutless?

Thought not
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No?

I'm driving my sisters 998cc micra at the moment, it gets onto motorways fine, sure it takes a few seconds longer to 70 than my car but it isnt dangerous. I never understand why people think that it is. the only possibly explanation is when overtaking on an A road or something, but even then you just leave more space :confused:

Edit: Just saw your follow up post, fair enough :p
 
I had my Astra G SRi for 7 years and the only reason I got rid of it was because I couldn't justify keeping it alongside my company car. We still have one G in the household.

My car had a few problems (just out of warranty...how convenient) so it wasn't 100% reliable but I still loved it, modified it and I'm still staff on the owners club but then I grew up with Vauxhalls. They seem to be like marmite, you either love them or hate them. I've driven numerous Vxls of varying ages and spec, some have been pretty good like the Zaf GSi's, other have been crap like the V6 diesel Vectra C. It's a real hit and miss with them. All in my opinion obviously.

My company car is an Audi, but if it came to the crunch I'd still buy another Vauxhall.
 
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I love mine, yeah its not quite a 1.6 Astra Life but its still the same inside except with a few VXR touches, it does rattle here and there but its very fun to drive.
 
I've had my '02 Astra for 7 months now and still really enjoy it. Granted, it's my first car so I have no problem accepting the fact that I'm not the best judge of whether a car is good or not, but I also find it difficult to believe the claims that the equivalent Focus is a million times more superior, unless it offers BMW-esque handling and build quality. The Astra was what I wanted, I liked the styling and it looks quite modern and sporty (despite being neither), and I was fortunate enough to get the exact one I wanted, down to the trim level, paint colour and the tinted lights. Far happier with what I've got than I would be with a beetle-shaped Mk1 Focus. :p

Maybe in 5-10 years time I'll look back and realise I was completely deluded, but I honestly doubt it. It simply seems like Vauxhall get far more hate than they actually deserve. I really do wonder what it is they've done to annoy people on here so much.
 
It's a culture. One or two "kewl" people hate on the them and the sheep all follow. In reality, they're distinctly average and get the job done.
 
[TW]Fox;14156460 said:
You cant say that, Demon will be onto you. He bought one new with his own money!
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[TW]Fox;14156509 said:
His has modifikationz as well.
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LOLz... :D

Lets just say we all enjoy cars for different reasons..

The Zafira for me was a hoot to drive, and got plenty of 'reward' in taking on lots of superior driving machines with your typical hapless ****-sure driver and totally embarassing them..

Of course, I could just bang on about how it's so important to have best in class cars then just spend my time eeking out uber tyre mileage, constantly banging on about how I get over the manufacturers MPG figures, and naively losing control and having little excursions into hedges etc ;) but I just prefer to have more 'actual' fun then this theoretical 'fun'.. :D

What's really odd is I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie.. and just constantly crave more speed/power etc.. yet I've owned two Vauxhalls that I really enjoyed, my 16V GTE Astra and the Zafira.. time to check in at the mental hospital then :D

And, I agree with the OP on the labelling of some of the controls, it's just not very intuative, it's OK if you own the car and get used to it, but my climate controls and stereo controls are poorly thought out..
 
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Ed said:
It's a culture. One or two "kewl" people hate on the them and the sheep all follow. In reality, they're distinctly average and get the job done.
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Probably some truth to that. I have a K-reg 1.4 Astra LS. It's the only car I've ever driven (other than my instructor's corsa), and I've only done that for a couple of months, so I'm having a ball with it. It has no power steering, no alarms, it didn't have a CD player until I installed one, it gets from 0 to 60 in 3.6 days, the paintwork is very faded, and it sometimes makes rather funny noises or smells.

But it's my car. And I love driving it*. :D

*and I'd also love to murder the scrotes who threw a rock through its window last week
 
SlyReaper said:
Probably some truth to that. I have a K-reg 1.4 Astra LS. It's the only car I've ever driven (other than my instructor's corsa), and I've only done that for a couple of months, so I'm having a ball with it. It has no power steering, no alarms, it didn't have a CD player until I installed one, it gets from 0 to 60 in 3.6 days, the paintwork is very faded, and it sometimes makes rather funny noises or smells.

But it's my car. And I love driving it*. :D

*and I'd also love to murder the scrotes who threw a rock through its window last week
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I tend to ignore the haters as their perspective is frankly ridiculous. No, Vauxhalls aren't great cars but neither are Renaults, Peugeots, Rovers etc, they're all cheap cars that do the job, nothing desirable about them but VX do seem to get a tidal wave of abuse.

As for your car, that's a proper car. If you can drive that you can drive anything. It's actually doing you a favour. It amuses me when people say the worst thing they've driven is a 2006 VX Meriva LX or something like that; they clearly haven't lived.
 
Ed said:
It amuses me when people say the worst thing they've driven is a 2006 VX Meriva LX or something like that; they clearly haven't lived.
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It's about relative ability. A £50 Astra is a better car than a £10,000 Meriva because it costs 50 quid, if it gets you from A to B it's an acheivement and your expectations are low.

You expect more from a brand new car.

Although I have to say I feel a bit sorry for you if to have 'lived' means you need to have driven loads of crud cars :p
 
A car is basically a box with seats, a propulsion unit, a wheel at each corner, brakes and a steering wheel. We should bring back steam trains for the anoraks who get anal about one particular badge or another.
 
i had a 55 1.8 sri corsa for my second car. Was a great little thing, i put it through hell and it never even hinted at letting me down.

the ST i have now is obviously far better but for the price I was happy with it.
 
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