Vauxhall Vectra ST200

DreXeL said:
No, they weren't.

Either everyone is mis-informed, or they have very short memories. The Mondeo was highly praised for it's handling at the time, it was a class leader. It was ahead of it's rivals by quite a margin.

You only have to look at the motoring press of the time.

A while back I owned 1996 Mondeo LX. Yes, virtually poverty spec, but it was still a pretty decent car, and miles ahead of the Vectras I test drove at the time. The Mondeo's handling was so much better than the Vectra it's not even funny.
I think you misquoted me in what I was refering to. I was taking about performance/hot hatch image type of cars in this post in response to a previous one. I wasn't talking about the LX end of the range.
 
gurdas said:
The Vectra was and is also still a much better motorway cruncher than it's rivals, which is what the car was developed for in the first place.

But you are a blinded Vectra fanboy who has never actually owned his own car, never bought his own car, never viewed cars with an aim of buying the best one and has a family who has worked for Vauxhall for years. The Vectra could come with a steaming turd as standard in the glovebox and you'd still love it. More or less every opinion you have on cars is based on looks - which is the same for most people with zero real experience.

No doubt you'll now come out with a list of Mondeos you've driven that belonged to mates who had any driver insurance policies, but thats hardly suprising ;)

I was totally neutral until I bought the Mondeo. I knew what type of car I wanted, and that was that. I went out, looked at all the ones I fancied, including the Vectra, and bought the best one.

This was the Mondeo. It was only after I'd realised just how good they were compared to the rest of the class (Although NOT light years ahead of the Nissan Primera or the 406 which were both excellent) that I became the Mondeo fanboy I am today.
 
[TW]Fox said:
I did. I knew what sort of car I wanted, and I wanted one that was fun to drive. If the Mondeo didn't handle nicely, I'd not have bought one.

I think Merlin means comparitevly speaking. You don't think to your self.." I want a car that is a true out and out handler, nothing else matters" and find youself looking at Mondeos (or Vectras) do you.
 
mrk1@1 said:
I think you misquoted me in what I was refering to. I was taking about performance/hot hatch image type of cars in this post in response to a previous one. I wasn't talking about the LX end of the range.

No, but to have a decent performance variant you generally need a fundamentally decent base on which to build it. Much of the reason why, say, the Clio 182 is one of the finest hot hatches ever built is becuase the regular Clio is pretty damn good at handling etc.

You can only do so much with trick dampers and stuff - you need a decent, solid base from which to begin.

The Mondeo had this - no matter which model in the range you took, it rewarded you with a more involving, better drive when pressing on than any other car in the class.

Knackered old ones with tired suspension excepted.
 
[TW]Fox said:
But you are a blinded Vectra fanboy who has never actually owned his own car, never bought his own car, never viewed cars with an aim of buying the best one and has a family who has worked for Vauxhall for years. The Vectra could come with a steaming turd as standard in the glovebox and you'd still love it. More or less every opinion you have on cars is based on looks - which is the same for most people with zero real experience.

No doubt you'll now come out with a list of Mondeos you've driven that belonged to mates who had any driver insurance policies, but thats hardly suprising ;)

I was totally neutral until I bought the Mondeo. I knew what type of car I wanted, and that was that. I went out, looked at all the ones I fancied, including the Vectra, and bought the best one.

This was the Mondeo. It was only after I'd realised just how good they were compared to the rest of the class (Although NOT light years ahead of the Nissan Primera or the 406 which were both excellent) that I became the Mondeo fanboy I am today.

Brutal, but OK. Fox, could it not be argued that you are a Blinded Mondeo fanboy whose car did infact come with a steaming turd in the glovebox and you still bought it!? :p ;)
 
[TW]Fox said:
I did. I knew what sort of car I wanted, and I wanted one that was fun to drive. If the Mondeo didn't handle nicely, I'd not have bought one.

And of course you drive at the limits of each car you drive;) Neither cars are built for the track and on the road they aren't really distinguishable, well the major difference was where the Vectra was so much quieter and smoother.
 
[TW]Fox said:
This was the Mondeo. It was only after I'd realised just how good they were compared to the rest of the class (Although NOT light years ahead of the Nissan Primera or the 406 which were both excellent) that I became the Mondeo fanboy I am today.

Yep this was the case, the mondeo had the class leading handling and the other two fav cars at the time was the primera and 406.
 
[TW]Fox said:
The Mondeo had this - no matter which model in the range you took, it rewarded you with a more involving, better drive when pressing on than any other car in the class.

Knackered old ones with tired suspension excepted.

bar the Primera of course :p
 
Nickg said:
primera pwned in the handling department starting in like 1990 - with the P10... King of Corners no less...with independant front suspension etc...

Sorry but it didn't the mondeo was rated as a better car.
 
Oracle said:
I think Merlin means comparitevly speaking. You don't think to your self.." I want a car that is a true out and out handler, nothing else matters" and find youself looking at Mondeos (or Vectras) do you.

Exactly.

I'm making two points - firstly, if a car in this class is widely regarded as the best handling in it's class - still doesn't make it a good handling car. A donkey born in a stable isn't automatically a stallion.

Secondly - are you guys actually talking about handling - or pure mechanical grip? Is the Mondeo understeer-proofed from the factory?
 
Dynamics of how it feels when going down a road, steering input / road / tyre responce & feedback, predictability in what the car is going to do.
 
Oracle said:
I think Merlin means comparitevly speaking. You don't think to your self.." I want a car that is a true out and out handler, nothing else matters" and find youself looking at Mondeos (or Vectras) do you.

No, you buy an Elise. So thats a totally irrelevent point really, is it? What are you saying, unless you set out to buy a car like an Elise, handling doesnt matter?

Says Mr Integra owner.. ;)
 
[TW]Fox said:
No, but to have a decent performance variant you generally need a fundamentally decent base on which to build it. Much of the reason why, say, the Clio 182 is one of the finest hot hatches ever built is becuase the regular Clio is pretty damn good at handling etc.

You can only do so much with trick dampers and stuff - you need a decent, solid base from which to begin.

The Mondeo had this - no matter which model in the range you took, it rewarded you with a more involving, better drive when pressing on than any other car in the class.

Knackered old ones with tired suspension excepted.

We are talking about a car built in 1997 and the Vectra ST200/GSI was a far cry from the bland mondeos of the day.

Its dificult now to really talk about these cars in terms of status they held and styling and handing as after driving modern cars they all seem a bit lagging.

I would take a new mondeo ST over a vectra at it excells at everything and the vectra sri is a far cry from what was attempted with the old GSI/ST relatively speaking. 9 years ago I would have had the vectra over the mondeo as would most people who didnt want a bland famil saloon or motorway muncher.

The styling on the vectra was way better than the mondeo at the time. And in my opinion the interior was a nicer place to be.
 
Nickg said:
primera pwned in the handling department starting in like 1990 - with the P10... King of Corners no less...with independant front suspension etc...

No, Primera 'pwned' until 1993, when the Mondeo was released. It was not better, but it was almost as good as the Mondeo.
 
Firestar_3x said:
Sorry but it didn't the mondeo was rated as a better car.

Overall I agree,

however, re handling

...better and roadholding from new rear suspension is astonishing and easily beats all competiton in class.
See....motoring press Vs real owners! :o
 
When I started driving (1995) it was always regarded by my mates that Fords had the better handling out of the two, but the vauxhalls had the better engines.

Having had a mixture of both (new and old), its a point I still think is valid today.
 
Oracle said:
Overall I agree,

however, re handling


See....motoring press Vs real owners! :o

You got the rest of that review, interesting thread this, seem to have the right ppl in it to get our points accross without ppl banging off on silly tangents or such.
 
mrk1@1 said:
We are talking about a car built in 1997 and the Vectra ST200/GSI was a far cry from the bland mondeos of the day.

Firstly I can't really be bothered to talk about the ST200 Vectra as they made what, 200? Most of which kevin has crashed into a wall, so we'll deal with the GSi.

Ford responded to the Vectra GSi with the Mondeo ST200 a couple of months after the GSi was launched. I'm sorry, but there is no way you can call the Vectra GSi amazing yet the Mondeo ST200 'a bland mondeo of the day'.

Sure there were bland Mondeos in the range - there are bland variants in every cars range - the bread and better LX's and so forth, but then, these cars existed in even blander form in the Vectra range also.

ST24 > Vectra SRi
ST200 > Vectra GSi.
 
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