IMHO, the 1988-96 Cavaliers were among the best cars ever produced. In the firm I used to work, we had several, one achieved 215,000 miles on the same clutch and same engine before being sold. In 2001 I saw a 1988 SRi which I know had over 130,000 when we sold it in 1992 still motoring and looking very clean. In total we ran two SRis, a CDi and a V6, they did a total of over 500,000 company miles between them. The only faults I recall were a coil on one needed replacing and another one had something wrong with a relay somewhere which was fixed for about 80 pounds.
I bought that V6 for 1,500 pounds and in my opinion it was amazingly quick, comfortable and great handling. I now drive my wife's Lexus ES300 and would swap it for my old V6 in a heartbeat.
What happened to Vauxhall which made them replace such a great all-round motor (quick, economical, and very very reliable) with a piece of junk basket case like the Vectra?
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With you on this. Had a Cavalier SRI hatchback in white (1992) as the best 'no cash from me' car in the BG car scheme of the time. Cat was a no cost option which I declined.
Mechanics by Massey Ferguson, sound proofing by the Deaf Society but went like a bat out of hell, cornered like an F1 car and could hold a 2 seater sofa in the back with the seats folded down (OK you couldn't shut the back fully).
Treated VERY badly by me but never had anyting more than routine services, bought it myself after 3 years, ran it for a further 1 year and then sold it at a profit to what I paid.
Still think of it and as I am currently (cough) a bit short of funds might just track down a clean 1992 (no cat) example.
Brilliant car.
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Lots of manufactuers have this problem with successful models then they update with inferior models, but they have to update because the market demands it.
Ford had simular problems when they replaced the Cortina with Sierra and Mk2 Granada with the Mk3.
Even now these are regarded as better products than the ones that replaced them.
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I've still got mine and still love driving it. Despite owning an Imprezza turbo, convertible Astra and a Caterham 7 at the same time as the Cavalier, I'd still take the Cavalier as the car of preference for any long journey.
What goes wrong with product upgrades in any industry? Usually pressure from the marketing department getting in the way of the engineering team. Wanting a few extra features but at no extra cost, so pennies get trimmed from other places and the reliability goes down.
Sometimes its pressure from elsewhere, the accountants just cost cutting or environmentalists, eg. requiring a more friendly paint that fades badly with life and is susceptible to attacks of an avian kind.
Sometimes, engineers get it wrong with a design change, which jsut doesn't work as well as the old one. I've managed this myself occaisionally. The simulations and prototypes look good, but once its in production, all the real tolerancing issues come out of the woodwork and there is hell to pay.
I've seen other people spend a large ammount of money on a cost reduction ecercise that, after 4 man years of effort, increaed the product cost by 0.01% because although the materials were sluightly cheaper, the production time increased, so not only did the cost go up, but production output went down.
Sometimes the compromises that are so much a prt of engineering jsut end up not satisfying the customer as much as they should. A very easy compromise to describe is the rubber doorseal. Make it too thick and you need too much force to close the door, too thin and the door leaks. All design is a compromise and sometimes the public perception of something just doesn't match up with what the design team expected. Think Sinclair C5s here.
As its now approachign midnight, I'll go and get a good nights rest, so that any work I do tomorrow doesn't result in Mk1 Vectra or a Seirra.
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I read often, only post occasionally
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What happened to Vauxhall which made them replace such a great all-round motor (quick, economical, and very very reliable) with a piece of junk basket case like the Vectra?
I\'ve previously owned 4 Cavaliers (2 mkII\'s & 2 mkIII\'s) and couldn\'t really fault any of them. I agree the Vectra(a) was pretty ropey, and many people say it was the blueprint for the Vectra(b), which I progressed onto after the Cavaliers and it was a step up in terms of power, handling and all round comfort. Great car - couldn\'t fault it. In the 3½ yrs I owned it, all that went wrong was a split aircon pipe (common fault & fixed under warranty) a blown headlight and tailight bulb, and just before I sold it, a worn rear suspension bush (again common fault). I\'ve now got a Vectra(c) and am well chuffed with it.
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ISTR that What Car rated the Cavalier as best used buy a couple of years ago, head and shoulders above anything else.
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