Vauxhall Meriva A MPV (2003 - ) - Meriva Easymatic

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Fri 16 Jan 2009 13:36
Meriva Easymatic - Happy Blue!
The brother of a friend is emigrating and currentlt drives an 04 Merica 1.6 Easytronic. It was an ex-motability car and has done 23,000 miles. If you want to search for it, it's on Autotrader within ten miles of Manchester city centre.

It is suitable as a replacement car for a work colleague, but it is not a company car. I think there have been issues with the Easytronic gearbox (I have looked in the Forum search), although the vendor advises that he has had no problems and I trust him. Asking £3,750.

Any thoughts?

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Fri 16 Jan 2009 14:10
Meriva Easymatic - J500ANT
I drove an early manual one, a 1.6 8v and thought the refinement was attrocious. The car was very sluggish, and thats compared to a Vx Combo cdti I was driving at the time.

I too have read a number of posts about the easytronic gearbox, I think its probably the case that there arent that many around so dealer mechanics dont get a feel for them in the way they do for other cars. I also found that the Corsa easytronic's gearchange was lousy, took too looooooooooooooooooooong inbetween gears (and thats comparing it to a smart gearbox which is hardly a paragon of efficiency in that department).

In all honesty i'd look elsewhere for a manual version.
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Fri 16 Jan 2009 14:18
Meriva Easymatic - Happy Blue!
Thanks

As it happens the proposed purchaser drives a CorsaVan Combo LPG at present, so I assume he will hate me if I advise him to buy the Meriva.

He needs a small to medium sized automatic for no more than £4,000.
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Fri 16 Jan 2009 14:20
Meriva Easymatic - DP
Hired one in Holland (petrol of some sort) and thought it was OK. Didn't really see the point of it over a conventional auto though, and found the gearchanges on the tardy side.

I'd go for a manual, or if I needed automatic, something with a proper automatic gearbox. Not sure about these half and half setups.
Cheers
DP
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Sun 18 Jan 2009 21:07
Meriva Easymatic - frazerjp
My father's 54-reg Meriva 1.6 16v has the easytronic gearbox.
It's fine the following engine, I don't think the gear changes are that sloooow as peeps have mentioned on this forum.
However when pull to a halt, it does feel like you're grinding to a halt with a thud, it doesn't stop progressively altogether.

But he's pleased with it & wants to buy a new one this year!
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