RE: Vauxhall Cavalier 1.6L: Spotted
Discussion
Agent XXX said:
SidewaysSi said:
Sounds like he was not someone to trust. He should have tried a BMW instead - he would definitely have gone for that.
My other grandfather had BMWs and Mercs including a 750il and a 500SL (OLD school one). Much better taste in cars 
(apart from the BM obvs)At the ripe old age of 19, back in '92, I had one of these, although it was the awesome L 2.0i 
It was an ex-company car offered to me by the firm my mam used to work for. High(ish) miles but well looked after. Paid something like £3000 for it, not bad for a 3 year old car.
Actually, it was perfectly ok. I used to rag the tits off it coming home at weekends from HMNB Rosyth, on the A68 then the wonderful A697, in the days before speed cameras, and it never complained.
It was certainly the fastest car amongst my peers at the time, even if it did have hand-draulic window winders
It was an ex-company car offered to me by the firm my mam used to work for. High(ish) miles but well looked after. Paid something like £3000 for it, not bad for a 3 year old car.
Actually, it was perfectly ok. I used to rag the tits off it coming home at weekends from HMNB Rosyth, on the A68 then the wonderful A697, in the days before speed cameras, and it never complained.
It was certainly the fastest car amongst my peers at the time, even if it did have hand-draulic window winders
Agent XXX said:
To give you an example of JUST how horrible these things were, my late grandfather was a loyal Vauxhall fan (he was superb in every other respect) and when time came to change his old one (V plate prefix) he tried one of these.......................and went for a Rover 213s instead as it was 'better' 
The Mk3 was never available on a V plate... so there's a flaw in your story. Unfortunately its only a 1.6L, it will never be a classic despite the low miles because its base spec. I've been watching turbos go up in value the last year or so, a pristine turbo with 60k miles is worth between £15k-£18k. And whilst may not climb in value anymore, you certainly wont lose money on one
Alucidnation said:
Back in 1992, I had a 1.7D as a company car with a massive 60bhp which was massively under powered for the size of car.
However, it used to do about eleventy billion MPG and we even got all the way to the south of France in it on one tank of fuel.
The fleet manager got me to try one of those out and I remember being terrified trying to join the M1 at St Albans. I literally could not get it up to any sort of sensible speed.However, it used to do about eleventy billion MPG and we even got all the way to the south of France in it on one tank of fuel.
My regular one was a 2.0 GLS in bright red (one of the three rep's colours) which had appalling dampers - I once nearly lost it on a curving slip road joining the M11. Ended up in a massive speed wobble when I tried to adjust the line at 70-ish. Shat myself.
After that I actually tried to get it swapped for an older blue one which was also a GLS but had, for some reason, much better dampers. The miserable fleet manager refused.
I then changed jobs and much to my mates' amusement was given yet another Cavalier as a stop-gap whilst waiting for my 200SX. This one was a CDX and I think it had the GSI engine & suspension. Much to my surprise I actually quite liked it.
All-in-all very dependent on spec - i think the bean counters had a lot to answer for for my red one....
s m said:
A fwd Cavalier on a V plate suffix?????
Private plate then
The fwd ones came a couple of years after
V reg would have been a rwd-er
I dunno whether it was FWD or RWD I was only little! Where did I mention F/RWD???? It was deffi=o a V suffix. Couldn't give a toss what drive it was as it was a hideous car.Private plate then
The fwd ones came a couple of years after
V reg would have been a rwd-er
Decent, well engineered cruisers. Didn't handle for toffee, but has there ever been another car that could cope with abuse so well? We had an H plate SRi on our fleet as a pool car at a previous employer. It had 100k on the clock, and famously hadn't been serviced since the warranty ran out at 60k. Everyone beat the crap out of it, everywhere, and it still ran as sweetly as anything.
AC43 said:
I then changed jobs and much to my mates' amusement was given yet another Cavalier as a stop-gap whilst waiting for my 200SX. This one was a CDX and I think it had the GSI engine & suspension. Much to my surprise I actually quite liked it.
All-in-all very dependent on spec - i think the bean counters had a lot to answer for for my red one....
CDX never had GSi engine All-in-all very dependent on spec - i think the bean counters had a lot to answer for for my red one....
GSi and SRI 16v were the only ones to get redtop
They did get the 136bhp Ecotec though as well as the V6
I think a lot of the comments here are missing the point. The Cavalier was in its day a best selling car and therefore as much a part of UK automative heritage as any of the Fords which people go mad over. In fact it was a better drive than the rival Sierra back in the day. I owned one of those and it really was a truly hateful vehicle. But of course the nation has always taken Ford to its heart. Vauxhall on the other hand is sneered at and derided.
so, seeing as these really are disappearing off the road, a few grand to own an extremely low mileage time warp condition model seems not unreasonable if you like keeping endangered old cars on the road. Personally I think its sad that so many 90s bread and butter cars are getting scrapped. In 20-30 years time there will be nothing left as a record of that period of motoring.
I do agree though that a base model is a bit uninspiring. A red-top engined SRI model would be a different matter!
Agent XXX said:
I dunno whether it was FWD or RWD I was only little! Where did I mention F/RWD???? It was deffi=o a V suffix. Couldn't give a toss what drive it was as it was a hideous car.
On a V plate, it'd be the RWD Mk1.
My mother had a Mk1 hatch (Manta) - W, IIRC - wrote it off, and got a Mk1 Astra GTE instead of another Cav. My old man later had a Mk2 Cav estate, bright yellow.
greenarrow said:
I think a lot of the comments here are missing the point. The Cavalier was in its day a best selling car and therefore as much a part of UK automative heritage as any of the Fords which people go mad over. In fact it was a better drive than the rival Sierra back in the day. I owned one of those and it really was a truly hateful vehicle. But of course the nation has always taken Ford to its heart. Vauxhall on the other hand is sneered at and derided.
Always strange how people refer to "Vauxhall", and think of them as a UK manufacturer, when they're really just a single-market rebadge of Opels, and have been since the Mk1 Cav, Carlton and Chevette were launched.Agent XXX said:
s m said:
A fwd Cavalier on a V plate suffix?????
Private plate then
The fwd ones came a couple of years after
V reg would have been a rwd-er
I dunno whether it was FWD or RWD I was only little! Where did I mention F/RWD???? It was deffi=o a V suffix. Couldn't give a toss what drive it was as it was a hideous car.Private plate then
The fwd ones came a couple of years after
V reg would have been a rwd-er
Just clarifying what car you were hating
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