I bought my current car second hand with 92k miles on. Two female owners previously. Although I don't know the first, the second was a female in her 50's who only drove it to work every day which wasn't far away. After putting it through my own service (I don't tend to trust private sellers word when it comes to servicing) it became my daily to work everyday (80 mile round trip). The engine felt tight for a good thousand or so miles. I could never tell whether it was simply needing a good old Italian Tuneup or because it genuinely hadn't been run it. I always drive my cars respectfully, but I do like to give it a boot every so often. It's now on 110k and the engine feels looser and a lot smoother because of it. It feels like it's running as it should now.

As with the above, I can now get into 5th at 40mph (or even 35 if I'm being cheeky) whereas before it felt ropey in 5th unless I was doing 50mph. It's beautifully smooth at between 50-60 miles an hour, which is ideal for me as I don't use the motorway to get to work, I use the A34, which from my house is pretty much 60 all the way, apart from a 30 stretch in between. The only thing this car is missing is Cruise Control, which I'm ever so tempted to get fitted (about £200).

My fuel consumption has always been excellent with this car. The lowest I've ever got is 59MPG, my average is about 68MPG and the highest I ever got (following the rules of hypermiling, and recommendations from eco-modders + the VW forums) is 79MPG.

Edited by Skezza on 25/10/2013 at 11:01

Actually its been a sad day as I have been emptying all contents and finding all the bits and pieces in the garage as I’m giving it to the daughter and SIL this week. They have had a top of the range Honda Civic for the last three years on one of these deals where you pay a lump sum at the end this period. They have decided to economise and have accepted my offer to give them the Vectra.

Being long retired we don’t need two cars and haven’t for several years but have kept it as its been my favourite car over many years of driving.

Yes I know this forum gives Vauxhall a poor write up but this car has been trouble free apart from two of those dastardly sensors which always gives the garage an hard time to find which one.

The only major repair was a semi blocked cat at only 20k or so which the main dealer really struggled with. They had it for three days. Finally they diagnosed a failed turbo which they exchanged for a new one. That wasn’t the problem and finally handed it to a sister main dealer who discovered the blocked cat. Such a simple fault and obviously in these days of electronics, mechanics have forgotten it could be a mechanical fault.

The car is still in immaculate condition and I do like this engine. So flexible that you can tick over in second or third keeping up with slow moving traffic. Driving the wife’s petrol car will be backward step from me and even though it’s a cracking little car nothing compares to diesel engines in my opinion. I suppose much depends on ones style of driving really but the laid back 70mph with the engine just turning over is mine

wemyss

German DB taxis normally do 1 million kilometers before they are pensioned off most end up in Africa to start a new life.