Upgrading first car Vauxhall Astra

[James 33]

I also have a 1.4 turbo Elite. Like you i find mine only averages around 35mpg so a tad disapointing. It also stutters or missfires at around 3k rpm. This is well documented on the Astra forum although the dealer says they can't find any fault. We got parking sensors on ours and to be honest i wished we hadn't bothered. They are on all the time below 7mph so even when your stationary in neutral they will go off if someone walks past the car. You have to remember to push a buttom by the gear lever to turn them off every time! Terrible idea!!
It's not a bad car on the whole though and the heated seats and wheel are deffinatly a nice touch on a cold day.

[benjijames28]

The stats on this are really good, I like the car!

My Audi a3 1.8 TFSI engine, I thought it had good stats but I would say this astra tops it. Mine has 160bhp, 0 to 60 in 7.6 seconds, and is suppose to return 42mpg average. In reality I get between 28 and 31mpg. So your doing well.

Mine is 8 year old tho.

[CX53]

Any updates OP? Ive just ordered one on a lease.

[ANJ91]

CX53 said:

Any updates OP? Ive just ordered one on a lease.

Have you got yours yet? How is it going?

As for updates, it's almost on 9k miles with first service coming up in August.

I have topped it up with 1 litre of oil as it has used some.

Lifetime economy according to the computer is 43MPG, and according to fuelio app 38MPG.

I have had some parking mis-adventures but all is sorted.

Nothing else to report really, it has been competent but pretty boring car.

I still have over 1 year to decide whether I will lease again and I am not sure what I will do. I would like to go on a European road trip and not be limited by mileage but leasing is very stable and predictable.

[Mr Tidy]

benjijames28 said:

The stats on this are really good, I like the car!

My Audi a3 1.8 TFSI engine, I thought it had good stats but I would say this astra tops it. Mine has 160bhp, 0 to 60 in 7.6 seconds, and is suppose to return 42mpg average. In reality I get between 28 and 31mpg. So your doing well.

Mine is 8 year old tho.

Thirsty Audi!

My BMW 325ti Compact Sport that is 14 years old has 192bhp, does 0 to 60 in 7.0 seconds and over the 18K miles I have done with it the OBC is showing 34.8 mpg! Plus it is RWD - result!

[ShafzC]

Mr Tidy said:

Thirsty Audi!

My BMW 325ti Compact Sport that is 14 years old has 192bhp, does 0 to 60 in 7.0 seconds and over the 18K miles I have done with it the OBC is showing 34.8 mpg! Plus it is RWD - result!

BMW do tend to do quite well with their gearing on the 6pot cars, my E90 325i daily manual (updated 2.5 so N52, 215bhp) can do 39mpg motorway on a cruise which is a lot better than my S tronic TT 2.0TFSI (Best I could manage on a roadtrip in that was 34.0mpg - Gearing really is tall in the BMWs!)

To not derail the thread, My friend has one of these astras with a diesel on a company lease I believe and it's surprisingly well made especially compared to the previous generation which had cheap buttons everywhere, way less fussy inside, for a daily driver it's quite a nice place to be and he prefers it to the MK7 golf 1.6 TDI he had prior. Good car for the time I've spent in it and I normally don't tend to like Vauxhalls!

[CX53]

ANJ91 said:

CX53 said:

Any updates OP? Ive just ordered one on a lease.

Have you got yours yet? How is it going?

As for updates, it's almost on 9k miles with first service coming up in August.

I have topped it up with 1 litre of oil as it has used some.

Lifetime economy according to the computer is 43MPG, and according to fuelio app 38MPG.

I have had some parking mis-adventures but all is sorted.

Nothing else to report really, it has been competent but pretty boring car.

I still have over 1 year to decide whether I will lease again and I am not sure what I will do. I would like to go on a European road trip and not be limited by mileage but leasing is very stable and predictable.

I've had it since the end of march now. Three weeks in the fuel pipe split and was pissing fuel all over the engine... quite dangerous. Sorted under warranty.

Other than this quite serious annoyance I'm very happy with it for the money. Boring, but a decent daily driver with a good amount of kit, comfy, goes alright. I'll never love it, but it does exactly what I want it to do.

As long as it doesn't set fire to itself with another fuel leak!

Thanks for your reply, good to hear your experience as well.

[ANJ91]

CX53 said:

I've had it since the end of march now. Three weeks in the fuel pipe split and was pissing fuel all over the engine... quite dangerous. Sorted under warranty.

Other than this quite serious annoyance I'm very happy with it for the money. Boring, but a decent daily driver with a good amount of kit, comfy, goes alright. I'll never love it, but it does exactly what I want it to do.

As long as it doesn't set fire to itself with another fuel leak!

Thanks for your reply, good to hear your experience as well.

That's a bit annoying and not good for Vauxhall's reputation for their cars setting themselves on fire.

It might be worth checking if you have any recalls. According to myvauxhall app I have some recall, I think it's to do with airbag but I will get it sorted when it goes in for service.

[veccy208]

20k for an Astra??
I've had 4 Vauxhall and think they a grand bargain buy but that sounds like big money for that. Then again I've never bought a new car.

[ANJ91]

Astra went in for 1st year service few weeks ago then shortly after that at around 12000 miles it started having issues.

It has problems idling, unsteady and feels like it's about to stall. ESC light and check engine light comes on. Once I start driving, if I keep it above 2000rpm it seems ok and lights go out but if drops below 2000 it really struggles to make power.

Issues like this have been reported by other astra k 1.4t owners too.

It's going in for inspection on Thursday and hopefully it's fixed quickly as I am going on holiday next week.

[bungz]

Good job its a lease

[ANJ91]

update

I have only been told so far that there is a problem with an engine and it will be a warranty job potentially taking 2-3 weeks.

Hire car will be provided tomorrow once I go to pick it up I will try to find out more information about the fault.

Only thing I find strange is how all of this only started happening AFTER 1st service, I wonder if they mess it up somehow.

[bungz]

Any update?

[ANJ91]

i havent heard from the garage i assume they are still working on it and i am still in my hire car. i will update the thread when i get it back

[CX53]

When I looked online it said the first service wasn't due until 20k miles or 2 years... oil life % on the computer says 29% at 9500 miles....

Guessing it may be due at 12k then seeing as you've had yours done!

[ANJ91]

It's 20k miles or 1 year. There is a bit of a debate about oil life % meaning. Some people think it countdowns 12 months and some people think it's an actual algorithm dependent on actual oil quality.

I got my car middle of August 2016 but it was already built and completed in July 2016 and oil life hit 0% sometime in July 2017.

[Mr Tidy]

ANJ91 said:

update

I have only been told so far that there is a problem with an engine and it will be a warranty job potentially taking 2-3 weeks.

Hire car will be provided tomorrow once I go to pick it up I will try to find out more information about the fault.

Only thing I find strange is how all of this only started happening AFTER 1st service, I wonder if they mess it up somehow.

I know you are leasing the car OP, but I assume you are committed to it for another couple of years - I'd want to know exactly what the engine problem was if it takes 2 to 3 weeks to fix!

Hope it all gets resolved though.