Quote "by the end of production, the Vectra was as good as the Cavalier"..

Say no more then.

GM are not noted for their engineering ability .

I see alot of 02-08 Vectras around, especially as taxis.

Why are these cars considered so unreliable?

Because if enough people & the media say something enough times then enough people believe it

I think they lost their reputation with the first Victor and the Cresta/Velox never to be full regained. I have an aquaintance with a new Astra I can only say what a boreing car and I test drove a Cruze what an under powered load of boredom I thought my works Citroen 5 1.6hdi was underpowered put it is a positive racing car by comparison.

Edited by Collos25 on 09/06/2012 at 09:48

I think Clarkson might be part of the reason - his comments years ago. (I like him, by the way and agree with most of what he comes out with)

The early Vectra C's were somewhat lacking, but the facelifted ones from around about 2005 were improved. And likewise, the first Vectras from the mid-90s that replaced the Cavalier, were very poor, compared to the Cavalier, but it improved over the years with its facelifts. (Which is not something to be proud of GM - introducing replacements not as good as the car it replaced)

OK, I'm biased, because I own a Vectra C - my choice, my money! It does the job competently. And as others have said, look at the sheer numbers of this and other mass market cars sold and around, and you will always get seeminly high numbers of poor reports. And OK, the flywheel is starting to go, a spring broke and the alternator went after 75,000 miles, but so do other makes'.

It's a bit like those JP Power/Which type "reliability reports" that every now and again say that some relatively small selling car is the most reliable with the lowest number of complaints. It's amazing what you can do with statistics.

I've said this before. I've had loads of Vauxhalls and overall, they've been just as (if not more) reliable than all the VWs I've had. The reputation for unreliability perhaps comes from that 1.9 CDTi engine which has a lot of issues. My 2 Saabs with this engine caused me exactly the problems predicted by HJ in his model by model breakdown.

The Corsas and Astras I had (either old school diesel or petrol) were all spot on. And the dealers were generally better than the VW ones I've experienced. Not as flashy but entirely functional and always did the job.

I'll get panned for saying this no doubt but I'd say 90% of anti-Vauxhall feeling in this country is down to snobbery. For some reason we think VW is more upmarket than Vauxhall. Not in Germany it ain't but Brits seem to think it is.

Facelifted Vectra C is a good car, very hard to beat. I really liked mine, far better car then the shed I replaced it with (Mk3 Mondeo). The Vectra was far more reliable.

After two years running the Mondeo, I'm back in a Vauxhall, my 6th, and my 4th Astra. I'm glad to be back, really. 2007 1.7 diesel, top spec Elite with 66k on the clock for a little over £5k from main dealer. Leather heated seats, climate, auto everything, Isuzu engine, old Getrag box, no DPF or DMF....I plan on keeping it a long time. Done 1500 miles in the month I've had it, 1000 of that in a week and it's perfect.

I had two vectra Cs, 150 1.9, from about 2005-2009.

In the end they both had the same problem. The car would simply go into "limp home" mode unexpectedly. Once it was in lane 3 of a busy M6; and particularly frightening, because my decceleration was not signaled to those behind via brake lights.

In both cases the fault was some electronics (wrongly) deciding fuel quality was not right.

I was amazed at 2 things:

1. A potentially dangerous fault was not subject to recall.

2. The fault reamined on a car that was two years newer.

I read this email trail with interest and feel that I must comment. I have a vectra 2.0 petrol turbo which I bought new in 2003, its a 53 plate pre facelift model. I initially had concerns that if I kept the car over a year I may have problems with the Turbo.... how wrong was I...I was only going to keep the car for a year but enjoyed it so much I still have it. the car is about to celebrate its 10th birthday and so far it has had 1 set of front break pads and disks, 1 set of rear pads, 1 new clutch at 90000 miles, 2 new headlight bulbs and 3 rear indicator bulbs although these were only replaced because they are orange coloured bulbs and the MOT tester said that they were showing as too white for the MOT.

My vectra now has over 150000 on the clock and is still going strong

My wife keeps saying that I should change it, but it costs me nothing and still looks good and is an enjoyable drive, My daughter lives in Glasgow and we regularly jump in the Vectra to visit them its 376 miles and I get out at the other end disapointed that the journey is over, its so comfortable that I could turn around and drive home.

In fact we have done Carlisle to Glasgow and back in one day just under 600 miles no problems.

This car still puts a smile on my face, the performance puts it up with higher classed cars and as it is an SXI you can't see the twin exhauxsts, it really is a wolf in sheeps clothing. Newer flashier cars wonder why that old Vectra has left them standing, or is still keeping up with them.

0-60 in around 7 seconds and nearly 150 mph , Currently getting 36.6 to the gallon.

Unreliable ... grow up you Clarkson lovers if Vauxhall are so unreliable then why do over 95% of UK police forces use Vauxhalls.

My Vectra has never let me down, not like my friends Toyota, check the next car you see broken down on the motorway.

I have driven Fords, Nissans, Toyotas, BMW's Rovers to name a few and most other car makes as well but always have Vauxhalls as my own car of choice with my first being a HA Viva.

As a child we were involved in a serious crash and the police who attended said that it was only due to the cars structural strength that we had survived.

Jeremy Clarkson was on a one man mission to denegrate Vauxhall when he was on Fords pay roll, and did the marque untold damage, however even he now has to admit that they are good cars,,,,,, he even ate his own hair as a consequence of some of his stupid comments.

Vauxhall have a fine racing history going back to before the first world war, and recently dominated the BTCC until they pulled out in 2011, not may other car marques have this sort of history.

Last comment, I dont believe that there are many really bad cars out there these days and Vauxhall are definately not one of them.