Vectra Hell

**hexadecimal** · 19th November 2008, 01:28

I bought an 05 plate Vectra Breeze 1.9 CDTi (150) six months ago and during this time more things have gone wrong with it than all the cars I've owned in the last 10 years put together.
In the first two weeks the driver’s side was under an inch of water, which turned out to be the windscreen and was repaired. Two months later the steering became loose, so took it to the local Vauxhall dealer who said that some arms connected to the wheels needed changing. I was beginning to have my doubts about the effort CarShop put into their pre-sale service and got the Vauxhall dealer to do a full service and replace the arm things before the warranty run out.

The car did then go for two months without incident - but it was not to last. The windscreen spit down the middle and needed replacing. I was ready to blame the local kids, but the guy from Autoglass said that it was due to CarShop's bodged fix of gluing the windscreen in to stop the leak.

To help take my mind off this, the car demanded two new front tyres, which Kwikfit were happy to supply. However, they insisted the rear tyres had bald patches too and I ended up leaving there £600 poorer.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago and my unfortunate trip to Sainsbury's. The car must have seen me coming out of there and concluded that I had too much money to spend on non-car things like food and decided to teach me another lesson.

The car spanner light came on and it had almost no power. The following morning the spanner light appeared briefly, but the car drove normally. Arranged for the dealer to look at it today. I didn't manage to get to the garage until 5:30PM - at which point there was just one person left there and about 10 people waiting to collect their cars, so things were a bit rushed. He told me that there's some manifold that mixes the fuel before it goes into the engine and some arm on it had snapped off. I was handed several sheets of paper and told the full details are in there, so accepted the explanation, paid £30 for the diagnosis and left.

Got home and there's no mention of this manifold thing, just a 'Visual Health Check' that lists several other problems that I have not yet had the pleasure of discovering (e.g. OSR indicator slightly white, slight lip to F+R discs, engine oily by oil filler neck area). The cost of rectifying the broken arm is £791 (£500 parts and £291 for 4.5 hours labour).

Since it rained heavily two weeks ago, the driver's floor well is soaking wet again. The car's performance seems to be on a downward spiral. There are a lot of dual carriage-ways with roundabouts every other mile around here and I often find myself in the inside lane accelerating alongside some other car. To begin with my car would comfortably pass anything and everything on the road, now I'm being outflanked by 1.2L Corsars - and this is going up the gears at 3500-4000 revs.

Sorry, I didn't mean for my first post to be quite so long - let me get to the point.

I am seriously considering cutting my losses and ditching this car. At three years old and only 42K on the clock, it should be at its peak – it clearly is not.

In my position, what would you do?

P.S. - The two times I've had a courtesy car they've insisted I put it on my insurance which has cost me £25 each time (AA Insurance). Do all Vauxhall dealers insist on you doing this?

**big rich** · 19th November 2008, 01:35

now thats a kick in the balls.....i would of handed the car back by now tbh

**ditchp** · 19th November 2008, 01:38

not good at all mate.....most vx garages will try to pin point out silly thing's in the hope for extra income, like the small lip on the brakes etc but as for the manifold thingy...that is just not acceptable imo...go back and demand a full explanation, then contact vx customer services and inform them of the problem you have and get them to open a case file, if it is a known fault you have a good chance of them stumping up for the repair........

**_ZS_** · 19th November 2008, 08:41

The manafold thing is common and a pain. The other problems are either wear and tear, or botched repairs. The wet floor is probably a clogged drain under the scuttle panel.

**steve1975l** · 19th November 2008, 09:06

That's a bad run of luck. Only you will know if the expense of jumping ship is worth it.

Mines a 2005 and I must book it in for the steering rack like yours along with the other 3 things.

**Vaux-Man-G** · 19th November 2008, 10:33

Thats absolute pee take mate.

I totally understand what your thining and really feel for you.

I had a similar issue with my ex Vec-C but not to the extent you are, in the end I ended up selling it as everytime I drove it I felt as though whats going to happen next, I spent so much money on it in the 6-7 months I owned and even took a mega massive hit on the price just to get it away from me.

Only thing was at the time I sold it, EVERYTHING had been sorted and put right so I guess the person who bought will have years of happy motoring, it was just bad for me!

I actually started a THREAD to see what other people's takes are on why they want or have got rid of their Vec-C's.

I dont know if this would make an ounce of difference, but I would write to Vx HQ and log a complaint as your car is low on miles and has literally only just turned 3 years old! Worth a try!