What are Vauxhall Playing at?

[RWD cossie wil]

My Girlfriend has just been given a new Astra SXi turbo for a while ( insurance) , and I had the (dis)pleasure of driving it tonight.

I can't recall ever, ever having driven such a gutless, soulless, user-unfriendly understeery ugly pig of a car before. All the controls are dead, with no feel whatsover,the engine makes my 1.7td astra van hack feel lively, a it is generally just devoid of anything nice or interesting at all..

How the hell can people actually spend thier own money on heaps of tat like this? Amazingly bad car, and I have driven some turds!

[sherman]

Is the sxi not a rather basic spec but with a few sporty bits like alloys and a bit of a body kit to give it the apperance of being faster and higher specced than it actually is?

[DannyVTS]

sherman said:

Is the sxi not a rather basic spec but with a few sporty bits like alloys and a bit of a body kit to give it the apperance of being faster and higher specced than it actually is?

Yes it is, its a insurance friendly car with the looks of the SRi

What turbo is it ? The 1.6 Petrol?

What do you expect 150bhp in a 1300kg car isn't going to set the world on fire, although i very much doubt its as bad as you're making out

[RWD cossie wil]

No, honestly, it is a hateful hateful thing! I am really shocked just how nasty it is to drive. I mean, it's got "Turbo" written on it, so I would expect it to have at least a bit of midrange to it, but it is as flat as a pancake, and feels & sounds horrid above 5k, just wheezy and dead.

We won't even mention the handling that is pure understeer without even pushing the car, nasty!

[sherman]

RWD cossie wil said:

No, honestly, it is a hateful hateful thing! I am really shocked just how nasty it is to drive. I mean, it's got "Turbo" written on it, so I would expect it to have at least a bit of midrange to it, but it is as flat as a pancake, and feels & sounds horrid above 5k, just wheezy and dead.

We won't even mention the handling that is pure understeer without even pushing the car, nasty!

I fear you may have one of the 1.4 turbo models. Good for emissions and not an awful lot else. The understeer could just be down to cheap nasty tyres.

[Dixie68]

Ha! I said exactly the same thing when my company hired me one. It amazed me that EVERYTHING about it was crap, from the gutless engine, jelly steering etc right down to the way the various switches worked. It's like a manufacturers first attempt at making a car!
Even the Nissan Note I occasionally have to drive is better.

[BrewsterBear]

It's not just Vauxhall, Ford are at it too. I had the displeasure of being given a 6 month old, 1.25 Fiesta hire-slag for a week. I knew it'd be slow, but what I wasn't prepared for was just how disconnected from everything it felt. No steering feedback, far too heavily damped suspension, over servoed brakes with no feel. No wonder most people who buy these drive as if they aren't paying attention to anything as there's very little to pay attention to.

What's worrying is that manufacturers are obviously going to great lengths to make the car feel as far from the road surface as possible to try to convince people that they are in some way refined. If I'd had to drive it in adverse conditions I'd have been quite scared as there's no way to tell what any of the wheels are doing. Bring back the Austin Metro says I.

[V88Dicky]

BrewsterBear said:

It's not just Vauxhall, Ford are at it too. I had the displeasure of being given a 6 month old, 1.25 Fiesta hire-slag for a week. I knew it'd be slow, but what I wasn't prepared for was just how disconnected from everything it felt. No steering feedback, far too heavily damped suspension, over servoed brakes with no feel. No wonder most people who buy these drive as if they aren't paying attention to anything as there's very little to pay attention to.

What's worrying is that manufacturers are obviously going to great lengths to make the car feel as far from the road surface as possible to try to convince people that they are in some way refined. If I'd had to drive it in adverse conditions I'd have been quite scared as there's no way to tell what any of the wheels are doing. Bring back the Austin Metro says I.

I think Ford reached the pinnacle of building a fine handling small hatch with the Mk 4 Fiesta. Things have slipped since then.

[BrewsterBear]

V88Dicky said:

I think Ford reached the pinnacle of building a fine handling small hatch with the Mk 4 Fiesta. Things have slipped since then.

Is that the one that looked like a small version of the MkI Focus? If so I agree. I had a go in a 1.4 petrol one of those some years back and remember enjoying the go-kart style handling and thinking it felt quite peppy. Where's it all gone wrong?

Anyway, back on topic. The new Astra is, no doubt, as sh*te.

[ARH]

I have to agree, about a year ago I had the pleasure of a povity spec astra and a poverty spec focus on differnt days. I was scared driving them on the M4, put your foot down and nothing happened, you could not feel or here anything. understeer was just scarey. I even got out and checked the tyres were pumped up on the astra.

[CatherineJ]

I had a poverty spec Astra diesel which from memory had about 80 bhp. It had about 80k miles on it when I handed it back and by that time it was just about ok, once it was up to speed, but you could forget overtaking anything on an A Road.

[Ricky_M]

I've not had the pleasure of driving a newer Astra. There was a Mk4 Astra Estate as a stand in van at work.

The understeer was laughable and the engine was completely flat. It served its purpose as a mode of transport and to none PH types its an ok car, but I've driven more involving vans than an Astra.

I found the new Fiesta to quite planted and quite Focus like to drive.

[MattOz]

I sympathise with the OP 100% on this one. I'm currently in the same position and have a 1.2 Corsa loaner. Its utterly gutless and dynamically, there are better handling cars on the London to Brighton run! I really can't understand why anybody would part with their hard earned for one.

[thinfourth2]

MattOz said:

I sympathise with the OP 100% on this one. I'm currently in the same position and have a 1.2 Corsa loaner. Its utterly gutless and dynamically, there are better handling cars on the London to Brighton run! I really can't understand why anybody would part with their hard earned for one.

They buy them because

They are a vauxhall so a semi decent badge, its big and luxurious, its good on fuel, its has big blingy alloys and most important of all.

It has a brand new shiny piece of plastic on both ends

[vrooom]

That confirm my suspection. vauxhall are st.

[MrPickle]

Vuaxhalls are just dull.

I used to have a Vectra which its only real fault in life was the fact it was so mind numbingly boring to drive!
The only fun I had in it was in the snow.
Dull dull dull.

[thinfourth2]

MrPickle said:

Vuaxhalls are just dull.

I used to have a Vectra which its only real fault in life was the fact it was so mind numbingly boring to drive!
The only fun I had in it was in the snow.
Dull dull dull.

Its a dishwasher

Its not meant to be exciting

[Trevelyan]

Are you lot for real? You're discussing the performance of hire and loan/pool cars from different manufacturers and are complaining that the performance is crap? Well stop the fking presses, this breaking news needs to be on the front pages!

These cars are produced for one reason only, to be poverty spec, cheap, insurance and repair friendly disposable cars which will be treated like crap for their entire life. It doesn't matter what badge is on the front, if it's a loan or courtesy car the performance will be st unless you're hiring one yourself and paying extra for a higher spec. Stating that any one manufacturers entire range is st just because they produce a low spec car for the hire fleets is quite frankly utter bks.

I had a 1.2 litre polo as a loan car the other day. It was st, so therefore VW's entire product range must be st as well. What's that you say? VW own Bugatti and Lamborghini? Oh, in that case the Veyron and Murciélago must be st underpowered cars as well. Utter bks.

Yes I am having a bad day.

[swamp]

I thought hire cars were always the most fun...



"don't be gentle, it's only a rental"

[missing the VR6]

Trevelyan said:

Are you lot for real? You're discussing the performance of hire and loan/pool cars from different manufacturers and are complaining that the performance is crap? Well stop the fking presses, this breaking news needs to be on the front pages!

These cars are produced for one reason only, to be poverty spec, cheap, insurance and repair friendly disposable cars which will be treated like crap for their entire life. It doesn't matter what badge is on the front, if it's a loan or courtesy car the performance will be st unless you're hiring one yourself and paying extra for a higher spec. Stating that any one manufacturers entire range is st just because they produce a low spec car for the hire fleets is quite frankly utter bks.

I had a 1.2 litre polo as a loan car the other day. It was st, so therefore VW's entire product range must be st as well. What's that you say? VW own Bugatti and Lamborghini? Oh, in that case the Veyron and Murciélago must be st underpowered cars as well. Utter bks.

Yes I am having a bad day.

I'm assuming you're not familiar with the Vauxhall range as an SXI is not a povery spec basic car but sort of mid range, and the turbo engines are mid level as well.
They really are substandard cars of the highest magnitude, of course they're not designed to set the world alight with 0-60 times etc but just a bit of steering feel and a smidgen of performance would be nice in something with supposed sporting connatations!