SXi 1.4i 16v 5dr Hatchback

1.4SXi 5dr 16v hatchback revisited

Review revisited after more experience with this particular model.

Car belongs to the wife, mostly used on the school run. Reasonably capable but has a particular vice which is not reported on the HJ site. Roughly every three years the car eats a coil pack, and the failure point is always No.4 piston at the gearbox end of the engine. In this case the Delphi replacement that had been in since May 2015 keeled over with badly anodised and rotted contacts inside the spark plug droppers causing a misfire under load, same as previous is 2015. Spark plug for No.4, a GM branded Champion RC10 that was put in the last time the pack went was cracked down the majority of it's length. Very unimpressed, if the wife wants to keep the car I'll have to change the pack as part of the service every three years.

Add to that an annoying rear suspension creak that has developed, nothing out of place but just noisy, and in this review I have to mark the car down. Not one of Vauxhall's finest attempts, a car that the bean counters have been let loose on.

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