Why do people buy vauxhalls?

[dieseluser07]

As a car brand they seem to have gone hugely downhill in terms of quality, styling and reliability.

Why do people buy them? Even their hot hatches are unreliable and poorly reviewed.

Also every vauxhall taxi i have been in has had creaking doors and an engine management light on, im not even lying. All the other brands are okay.

[Ilovejapcrap]

bloke at work had a astra as company car then a bmw 1 series.

hes gone back to vauxhall and its not money orianted !

not driven or got one , but maybe they are an ok product

[DoubleD]

All other brands are ok? So its only Vauxhall that have reliability problems?

[daemon]

dieseluser07 said:

As a car brand they seem to have gone hugely downhill in terms of quality, styling and reliability.

Why do people buy them? Even their hot hatches are unreliable and poorly reviewed.

Also every vauxhall taxi i have been in has had creaking doors and an engine management light on, im not even lying. All the other brands are okay.

Corsa VXR -

4/5 on TopGear
https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/vauxhall/corsa...

4/5 on EVO
http://www.evo.co.uk/vauxhall/corsa-vxr

The Astra VXR seems at least as well rated.

[MrGTI6]

Seems a bit unfair. They're nothing special, but no worse than most other mainstream brands.

[vikingaero]

This is What Cars Reliability Index:
Reliability by brand cars 0-3yrs
Rank Brand Score
1 Lexus 92.1%
2 Mitsubishi 90.8%
3 Toyota 89.6%
4 Suzuki 86.6%
5 Alfa Romeo 85.8%
6 Honda 84.9%
7 Hyundai 84.8%
8 MG 83.4%
9 Ford 82.1%
10 Subaru 81.8%
11 Kia 81.3%
12 Audi 80.4%
13 Skoda 80.1%
14 Mini 79.6%
15 Porsche 78.3%
16 Mazda 77.9%
17 BMW 77.6%
18 Vauxhall 76.4%
19 Dacia 75.9%
20 Renault 75.4%
21 Seat 75.2%
22 Volkswagen 74.7%
23 Mercedes-Benz 70.4%
24 Fiat 70.2%
25 Volvo 62.3%
26 Jaguar 61.9%
27 Peugeot 56.7%
28 Citroën 55.2%
29 Nissan 52.7%
30 Tesla 52.4%
31 Land Rover 50.6%
32 Jeep 42.1%

Vauxhall is mid table - 18th and beats VW & Merc.

[Too Drunk to Funk]

dieseluser07 said:

Also every vauxhall taxi i have been in has had creaking doors and an engine management light on, im not even lying. All the other brands are okay.

So your opinion on all Vauxhall cars is informed by million mile minicab ones? They make nice looking cars, that's more you can say for Ford.

[Too Drunk to Funk]

daemon said:

Corsa VXR -

4/5 on TopGear
https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/vauxhall/corsa...

4/5 on EVO
http://www.evo.co.uk/vauxhall/corsa-vxr

The Astra VXR seems at least as well rated.

And the Astra hasn't gone five door only, like so many cars in that sector.

[Jimmy Recard]

A guy at work has had Audi A4s and before that Mercedes C-Class company cars for the last twenty years and put in a request for a Vauxhall Insignia to replace his A4. Maybe some people like things you don’t care for?

[Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah]

We bought ours because of value. About a year ago looking at circa £10k E90 320d wagons. That would have put us in a 10ish plate 50-80k example. Stumbled across a 2015 Insignia Elite Nav estate, 2 litre turbo diesel, with 24k on the clock. Cat D because of a previous heavy vandal attack. £10,400. I dare say the 3 is a better car in some ways, but for Sarah to use to go up and down the motorway every day in comfort, with plenty of toys, a good lick of performance and 60+ mpg if she takes it steady it's remarkable value. If she keeps it another 4 years it still wont feel an 'old' car, by then the 3 would be a 12 year old 150k shed.

This isn't ours, but the exact same trim and colour. I think it's also a very nice looking motor.

Edited by Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah on Saturday 17th February 18:30

Edited by Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah on Saturday 17th February 18:30

[Section 8]

Perhaps some people don’t feel the need to follow the herd and drive massively financed German cars or maybe they just like the Vauxhall brand and have remained faithful to it.

It’s no great conspiracy. Every Vauxhall owner i’ve known seemed to be happy enough with their purchase.

Coming up next on PistonHeads. “ I once saw a Ford with a blown headlight so they must be crap cars”

[Drive Blind]

dieseluser07 said:

Why do people buy them? Even their hot hatches are unreliable and poorly reviewed.

here in scotland theres an arnold clark probably within 15 miles of 50% of the population - ok i've made that up but that's what it feels like.

they churn out pre registered vauxhalls by the bucket load. For normal, non car enthusiast type folk who only do 6K miles a year it's the default choice.

[keo]

I used to drive Insignia’s at work. They were ok but I didn’t like them much. Preferred the mondeo.

I had a corsa as my first car. Rubbish but what do you expect from a 3 pot 1.0 first car? It was reliable even though I drove it in typical 17 year old fashion!

[bobbo89]

vikingaero said:

This is What Cars Reliability Index:
Reliability by brand cars 0-3yrs
Rank Brand Score

25 Volvo 62.3%

Surprised Volvo are that low down the table!

[Jimmy Recard]

My example:

A couple of years ago I set myself a budget of £4000 to buy a car that was reasonably quick, practical for four people, cheap to run and with a six speed manual gearbox.

I looked at the Golf GTI, Focus ST and Astra SRi Turbo 200 among others. Favourite was the Ford, then the Vauxhall and then the VW. The Vauxhall was much cheaper to buy and run than the Ford, so I bought it for under half my budget. Turned out to be a great choice, in my opinion

[Torcars]

I am neither a Vauxhall lover nor hater.

The new Insignia - in terms of styling as I've only ever seen them rather than driven one - looks more than OK to me.

Astras don't look horrible.

As for quality, I can't comment other than many years ago I had a new Astra which was better screwed together than some of the premium cars that have followed.

I guess people buy them because they can. You may as well ask why people buy Hotpoint washing machines, Wrangler jeans, Pepsi or Sudacrem. Because, to misquote Billie Piper, they want to.

Maybe people buy them because they are not automotive snobs. (I am but that's my hang up.) Maybe because they !Ike them. Maybe they buy a car in the same way I would buy a fridge with simple requirements like does it keep stuff cold? Is it big enough? Anything else and I don't care.

Why do many on here have set and established PH points of view? I'm guilty of this.

Why is a Vauxhall a pile of council crap, yet an Eastern European built cheap as chips using old Renault bits Dacia is OK?

Why the love of grey boring VAG products, except theres a little dislike of SEAT,which at least bring a tiny bit of flair into the VAG mix?

Why do people get so hung up on how someone acquires their car? Who cares if it's leased PCPd or bought with a few spare grand from Great Grandpa's will. God help us if the car is for a disabled person.Motability = scroungers and the back seat will be soaked in piss. (Wealth whispers Yadda Yadda)

Thanks to PH I get these skewed received attitudes. I find myself being surprised that I like the new Insignia. My non-car loving Dacia Duster owning neighbour I see as cool because his stty unwashed cheap car with scratches is supposed to be cool. My other neighbour just got a new big grey Mercedes. It looks expensive, I bet he's leasing it the flash fker.

An here I am with my JLR products that get replaced every two years or so, bought but never owned on the never never but deep down I know I am a fraud because I'm just renting them with their cheap private plates.

Perhaps should get real. Pay cash for what I can afford and toddle down to Vauxhall and buy an Astra?

Maybe that's it? Maybe people buy Vauxhalls because -unlike me - they're not weighed down with PH received hang ups and prejudices.

Perhaps they buy Vauxhalls because they can afford them and like me and my fridge, they don't really care about it, or care what people think about them not caring about it.

I'm not having a go at you OP. If anything I'm having a go at myself for buying into a lot of this crap.

fk me! autocorrect had a field day here!

Edited by Torcars on Saturday 17th February 10:43

Edited by Torcars on Saturday 17th February 10:47

[Bladefist]

I think you are exaggerating. They are middle of the road in everything, they aren't the best, nor the worst at anything. Nothing special, but nothing terrible either. The only really bad about them that from recent times are unreliable M32 gearboxes. But every automaker produces some duds.

[Jonny_]

dieseluser07 said:

As a car brand they seem to have gone hugely downhill in terms of quality, styling and reliability.

Why do people buy them? Even their hot hatches are unreliable and poorly reviewed.

Also every vauxhall taxi i have been in has had creaking doors and an engine management light on, im not even lying. All the other brands are okay.

Really? To me they seem to have improved dramatically over the last 8 or so years. First Insignia a giant step forward from the Vectra, and the new Insignia looks to be a big step on from its predecessor. And the current Astra is approximately eleventy billion times better than the POS it replaced in 2009.

I had a Mokka X hire car recently and, although not a car I'd consider desirable, it was perfectly alright. Drove fine, was comfy, felt well made, not notably worse in any respect than a Golf.

Think a lot of people still judge Vauxhall/Opel on the garbage they knocked out from the mid 90s until the end of the "noughties".

[ChocolateFrog]

I was with my ex for 7 years and I used to point out how st the Corsa D was whenever I was unlucky enough to get one at the hire desk.

When we split up she financed a new one, people are free to do what they want with their money and don't like being told what to do.

[Mike335i]

Vauxhall is a decent manufacturer of decent cars. Nothing more, nothing less. They are perhaps a little bland for the most part and entirely uninspiring, but they are affordable and easy to drive.

They are widely available and I guess some probably think that they are British, so misplaced 'patriotic duty' might play a part (just don't mention that the are of course German).

An Insignia is just as much a car as a Mondeo, which for its target market it exactly what they are after. Just a car.