Astra VXR - Dons Flame Suit

MrLOL said:
Definately not a bargain if its a 2005 55 plate car. One of the first off the line and will be showing its age by now.

You'd do well to search for thorney motorsport on here as well to see what a bad reputation they have.

I'd give it a miss.
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If those photos are recent its not showing its age at all. Looks like a well cared for example. Its a bargain if he knows the lad and the car.

A few people had bad experiences with Thorney, many more happy customers.

The wheels and exhaust are worth around 1500 second hand alone.
 
ScottehBotteh said:
If those photos are recent its not showing its age at all. Looks like a well cared for example. Its a bargain if he knows the lad and the car.

A few people had bad experiences with Thorney, many more happy customers.

The wheels and exhaust are worth around 1500 second hand alone.
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have you owned a VXR ?

I have. Come back when you can give a useful opinion because that wasn't one of them.
 
MrLOL said:
have you owned a VXR ?

I have. Come back when you can give a useful opinion because that wasn't one of them.
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How was it not useful ?

The car is a bargain price, he knows the owner and it looks well cared for ( as begbie himself has pointed out ). He can run it for a year and sell it for the same price. He also has the option of selling the mods on.

Its you, if anyone that has not given a useful opinion. If I remember correctly you owned a Vectra not an Astra and wrecked it driving like a muppet ?
 
ScottehBotteh said:
He can run it for a year and sell it for the same price. He also has the option of selling the mods on.
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He really couldn't. Princey had a much better, newer and lower mileage car and had trouble getting rid of it. He was only getting silly offers or no offers.

In a years time it'll be a 5/6 year old Astra with 100k+ on the clock and you'll still be expecting £6.5k from it when they were less than £20k new :rolleyes:
 
ScottehBotteh said:
How was it not useful ?

The car is a bargain price, he knows the owner and it looks well cared for ( as begbie himself has pointed out ). He can run it for a year and sell it for the same price. He also has the option of selling the mods on.

Its you, if anyone that has not given a useful opinion. If I remember correctly you owned a Vectra not an Astra and wrecked it driving like a muppet ?
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Because I and others on here have had the misfortune of picking up the pieces when vauxhalls fall apart.

It matters not how many times he cleans and polishes it, that wont stop the fact that the reason the VXRs are cheaper than the competition is because corners are cut.

I've been a vauxhall owner, and had the rose tinted spectacles to proove it. I can only assume you own one as well to be suffering from the same thing. I've been on VXRonline, where people take their cars blowing pistons as being a normal everyday expense (Corsa VXR and their chocolate pistons) and ball joints on 18 month old Astra VXRs failing as being fine, and even accepting dealers that tell them its not under warranty as the warranty for ball joints is only 18,000 miles !

I can mention the poor service i had from Vauxhall dealers. I have before, but i was told i was unlucky. Its just my dealer was crap. until i read in this months evo that they have been in a long running battle with their dealer over the long term insignia VXR. The axle sensors weren't working properly and the xenon headlights were blinding oncoming cars. Resulting in being flashed at one point 12 times in a day. They took it to the dealers two or three times to be told nothing was wrong ! They had to take it to vauxhall HQ to fix as the dealer was so incompetent. No codes, no fault mentality at its finest. Vauxhall loned them another press car for the day .... that had the same issue !!

So i'm not the only one. And while we're talking about Astra VXR's we'll talk about Princey's dealer who returned the car to standard by removing the Exhaust, uprated Intercooler and assorted bits and pices ... but left the Stage 3 map on the car causing it to run like a dog. And they were supposedly a "thorney motorsport performance centre"

And we can elaborate on the warranty thing as well, we all know how helpfull Thorney / Vauxhall dealer was to DAIR, who had to go directly to Vauxhall to get his warranty claim honoured because thorney were kicking their feet.

Vauxhalls are cheaply built, and unlike some other german makes, and heck even the Australian cars that bear their name, Aren't over engineered. The Gearbox in the Vectra VXR is rated to maximum of 400 NM constant torque which is about 295 lb/ft

The tuners will quite happily sell you a remap that takes the Torque to 400 lb/ft because its "fine"

Except its not, because others have gone past Stage 1 remaps and onto Stage 2 / 3 with the Vectra and quickly lunched their clutch.

The vauxhall interiors aren't great either and they will be starting to show their age by now. Not feeling as tightly put together as they were new. We've seen many cases of bolsters that fall apart on seats, leather that creases and sags due to being poor quality, trim that breaks etc..

I could go on and on.

If you are a vauxhall owner currently, go own something else for 12 months. Its an eye opener.
 
If it was one thing I learned from trying to sell mine is that no one wants a modded Astra VXR. Also without a doubt they will be driven very hard and they are far from the most reliable cars too. A lot of weak links in there with the M32 gearbox being infamous for going. High mileage and lots of ragging about and things like piston rings and valve stem seals will start going, like mine did. Turbo seals are also renown for going due to the lack of back pressure from the bigger exhaust. Would I buy one again? No I wouldn't. It wasn't very practical, noisy, rattly, very poorly equipped compared to its rivals and the ride on the 19"s was bone shaking.

There were some plus points though, it was very very quick, it could handle when you knew what to expect from it and it sounded great with the miltek exhaust. It also looks great although its showing its age now.
 
I'll complete the range and offer a view point from a Corsa VXR owner.

In the first 3 months ownership of my <6 month old Corsa VXR, I had a new radiator, three new wheel bearings, an aircon pipe, and several other little bits.

Don't get me wrong, I loved driving the VXR, some of its downfalls gave it some character, but getting almost embarrassed to keep taking your car into the dealer takes the ****.

As much as I loved my VXR when it was working, I won't buy one again - or any Vauxhall for that matter, unless it was a cheap banger.
 
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Who asked for specifics ? Not me.

Its also nothing to do with rose tinted glasses. We obviously have completely different opinions to warrant that response.

I stand by what I said, the car is currently the cheapest ( 6.5k offered to him ) advertised on Pistonheads / Autotrader. You would also think that the car would be showing any of the 'common' faults long before 80K+ miles. He knows the car and its owner so will be best placed to comment on its condition / history ( which he has ).
Your comment about 'showing its age' was clearly aimed at wear and tear, not whether the model looks old or not comapred to its incoming replacement.

If the modified bit is the problem, the car can be replaced back to standard so its no longer modified and sell the bits on, or are you trying to tell me theres no market for the remus and TD pro races ?
Theres always a market for cars like this, some young lad with no hatred of vauxhall would jump at the chance of that car.

Your dislike of Vauxhalls is apparent, thats nothing to do with this car. Every manufacturer / car has faults. For the faulted cars on here theres also another 100 that had no issues.
My opinion - If it was my mates car in decent condition and I was in the market for a car around that price it would make perfect sense to me, same as if I was offered a cheap BMW / AUDI / VW / FORD / or whatever that I never planned to keep for years.

Lets not lose sight of what this is about. Its the deal on offer that would be tempting, modded or unmodded its cheap motoring for a performance hatch.
 
ScottehBotteh said:
I stand by what I said, the car is currently the cheapest ( 6.5k offered to him ) advertised on Pistonheads / Autotrader.
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because its one of the oldest / highest milage VXRs on the planet and nobody wants a pre modified VXR.

If he's even to have a hope of selling it, he'll ned to put it back to standard and sell the mods.
 
I'm saying he'll have to go lower than that price to sell it. Yes its the cheapest Astra VXR, but its the cheapest because its one of the oldest and highest mileage on sale too.

The mods put people off, so if he doesnt want to remove them, he'll need to get the price reduced even further to have any chance of selling it. The price is not in any way a bargain. Its just about right for that car on the current market.
 
*Off topic* Talking about possible motoring bargains, mate sent me a text today to say he had just bout a Merc ML430 with an LPG conversion on it. "X" reg, guy was advertising it at £2000, mate made a ridiculous offer of £1k cash there and then. Sold!!.

I have the feeling it could well be an absolute money pit ( its got 160,000 on the clock ) but time will tell.
 
Draeger said:
*Off topic* Talking about possible motoring bargains, mate sent me a text today to say he had just bout a Merc ML430 with an LPG conversion on it. "X" reg, guy was advertising it at £2000, mate made a ridiculous offer of £1k cash there and then. Sold!!.

I have the feeling it could well be an absolute money pit ( its got 160,000 on the clock ) but time will tell.
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Thats another non lose though isnt it, that probably breaks into bits for a grand without too much drama.

Drive it till it stops.

You know what, who am i kidding breaking cars for bits, drive it till its stops, iv got to stop suggesting that :D
 
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