RE: Shed of the Week: Vauxhall Omega Elite

[Jaguar steve]

The Don of Croy said:

Not a fan of the facelift addenda, too fussy.

Ran a 2.0 auto for 6 months in 1995 (strange deal from a GM offshoot - £80/week all in) which was GL trim (pas but no a/c).

Great car for commute from Kent to Corby - over 40mpg regularly. Didn't the adverts back then make a big thing about the seat construction? Horsehair? Anyhoo - nice car I enjoyed driving, just like the Carlton before.

But £1500 for that?

You managed 40MPG?

I wound 30k on my bosses 2.0 Omega automatic pounding the M25 and M1 everyday for a few months.
Lovely car and easily better than the XJ6 I could have taken instead but the fleet manager was convinced I'd broken it it as it rarely got over 20MPG...

[monzaxjr]

W00DY said:

Massively over-priced. That boot-lid is a mess.


The manuals are fairly popular for drifting, but an auto needs to be far better for that sort of money. Silver isn't a great colour and I prefer the pre-facelift cars too.

This ^^^^. These are decent cars but this one is a POS. Worth about £300-£400. Lovely, low mileage, immaculate early model M reg Elite was up for sale recently for £2495. Sold quickly.

[monzaxjr]

The seller is almost as deluded as this chap. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1991-Classic-Black-Ford...f:0

Wish we could have an overpriced/chancer of the week as well.

[anonymous-user]

monzaxjr said:

The seller is almost as deluded as this chap. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1991-Classic-Black-Ford...f:0

Wish we could have an overpriced/chancer of the week as well.

The price is hilarious but it's lovely to see one in such clean condition. Notice how the exhaust is the opposite of the ones on modern tat - it's a proper dual system from the manifolds back and then joins to a single tailpipe. Anything with dual exhausts (or even tailpipes) used to be properly special

[monzaxjr]

dme123 said:

The price is hilarious but it's lovely to see one in such clean condition. Notice how the exhaust is the opposite of the ones on modern tat - it's a proper dual system from the manifolds back and then joins to a single tailpipe. Anything with dual exhausts (or even tailpipes) used to be properly special

That is very true, I might be showing my age but I would prefer a discrete single exhaust pipe on most things nowadays.

[JMF894]

Now I think of it a mate had one of these some years ago. I seem to remember one of the spark plugs can be a real pain to get to/replace leading to it getting left.

Anyone attest to this?

[anonymous-user]

The stories I could tell about these beasts as hire cars in the north east of Scotland. I know of someone hitting 130 on an autobabn somewhere. Not big or clever but impressive at the time none the less

[Turbobanana]

sr.guiri said:

I love "Shed of the Week" - it's pretty much the only reason I visit this web site, and I love it because I, like most, would get real satisfaction from knowing that I've bought something cool, fast, unusual, gorgeous, or whatever adjective you choose, for the bargain price of a grand and a half.

However, the only adjectives that I can apply to this are dull, boring, ugly, boring, rubbish, dull and ugly again. It's overpriced by 1500 quid. There was no love in the design nor the engineering of this car and I don't see how it deserves the accolade of The Shed - a 3L V6 alone shouldn't be enough to elevate it to this level, unless it's an Alfa Busso V6 (and even then it'd also need to be installed in something sexier than this).

And to even mention a Lotus Carlton within the same text is blasphemy

Am I alone on this opinion?

There MUST be a better Shed than this one, no?

Are we safe to assume you haven't driven one?

[MG Mark]

Nice in principle, but not this one at that price or near it.

Great factoids about the origins of the Vauxhall name

[J4CKO]

sr.guiri said:

I love "Shed of the Week" - it's pretty much the only reason I visit this web site, and I love it because I, like most, would get real satisfaction from knowing that I've bought something cool, fast, unusual, gorgeous, or whatever adjective you choose, for the bargain price of a grand and a half.

However, the only adjectives that I can apply to this are dull, boring, ugly, boring, rubbish, dull and ugly again. It's overpriced by 1500 quid. There was no love in the design nor the engineering of this car and I don't see how it deserves the accolade of The Shed - a 3L V6 alone shouldn't be enough to elevate it to this level, unless it's an Alfa Busso V6 (and even then it'd also need to be installed in something sexier than this).

And to even mention a Lotus Carlton within the same text is blasphemy

Am I alone on this opinion?

There MUST be a better Shed than this one, no?

Shed of the week is a lucky dip, always has been.

A Lotus Carlton was based on the predecessor to these, it had more power and a bodykit, not sure how this is so terrible yet you hold those in such high regard ?

[eldar]

Tintin1962 said:

Regarding big engined Vauxhalls, the 1960s Crests and Viscount models could be had with a 3.3 litre straight 6, or a 5.2 Chrysler V8 in South Africa.

The 3.3 i6 was a dog, and matched with the standard 3 speed manual box was regularly outdragged by 82 year old nuns on bicycles.

[Glasgowrob]

cracking cars i've got a facelift mv6 and a very loved prefacelict mv6


genuine 150 mph cars and will sit at 150 flat as you like,


drift for fun and you could hold .a slide forever.


big relatively simply by modern standards and tick all the boxes for me.


need a few more horses in all honesty and i'd love to supercharge mine for somewhere around 300 horses

[Lowtimer]

SidewaysSi said:

I think the original pre facelift Carbis quite a handsome thing to be honest.

Remember when it was launched Autocar saying it was a better drive than the 5 Series and really rated it.

Hmm. That was what they said about the previous generation, the Senator 24v versus the E34 535i. I was involved in marketing Vauxhalls at the time so was remarkably happy about that.

In this generation, though, the Omega versus the E39 530i, no-one of authority rated the Omega as a superior drive. Good, but not E39 good.

[teacake]

Many years ago (wavy lines) I put a deposit down and drove 200 miles to go see an "immaculate" 3.0 Omega Elite Estate. When I got there I found the car sitting in a puddle of its own leaking fluids, like an embarrassed puppy.

Worse than that, something made me suspect a rear wing had been replaced. Maybe it was because the paint didn't match. Maybe it was because I could see filler in the frame of the rear door. But mainly perhaps because there was a big fat thumbprint in the filler where they'd just smoothed it down by hand and covered it over with a rattle can.

[edkemper]

WOW i MADE IT TO SHED HISTORY

I am absolutely chuffed to bits about this....( small things..small things)


YES YES i put her up for WAY more than expected, but ya gotta try ?

a grand drives her away with fruity exhaust tones thrown in for free.

give me a tinkle if interested

Edited by edkemper on Friday 14th December 20:19

[Witchbreed]

My old man had one of these. It was the last in a long line of crap Vauxhall saloons before he gave up and bought a Mercedes.

I loved the comfort of it, the seats swallowed you up like your favourite arm chair. It was heavy and it wallowed around the corners if you went above 30 mph on anything that resembled a bend. All the gizmos and tech worked, even the weird sat nav that was the same size as a Nokia 3210 screen.

It sat on the drive for about 18 months being used sparingly until I pinched it, had it wrapped like an American cop car and hooned around Europe lights and loud hailer blaring. It never missed a beat and returned home ready for it's next banger rally.

[rambo19]

Cabbed 2 of these, 2 ltr manuals, loved them.

[edkemper]

BFleming said:

SOTW said:

The Cat C thing mentioned in the ad needn't be a worry. On older cars, Cat C status is usually an uncontroversial consequence of quite small accident repair costs outweighing the value of the vehicle.

That depends on when it was Cat C'd I suppose. Not any time recently as we are now on Cat N (non-structural damage) and Cat S (Structural damage). Cat C used to mean 'a reasonable amount of damage, can be fixed but at more cost than the car is worth'.
The ad states it was 'repaired by the previous owner to a good standard', but isn't the previous owner the seller? Or is it his mate? Or one of the other previous owners?
Either way, Cat C isn't a small accident, that would be Cat D. Cat C was always something a bit heavier, and certainly more than replaceable panels.

Not me, I didn't repair her..i am the previous owner and selling it for my friend...It's just had panel repair that's all.

[sedatepace]

greenarrow said:

So I've no idea why the earlier posted says his was so slow. I also remember a Road Wars or Traffic Cops police car chase with a Vauxhall Omega where it kept up with an Impreza Turbo being driven flat out, which btw eventually crashed. It was Pat and Carl, I think, who drove the Omegas in Road Wars. Legends, those guys!!!

When I saw this was SOTW Road Wars was my first thought! It even has the Nokia 51xx/6xxx phone cradle for the carkit in the same spot as some of the Omega's TVP used.

My favourite pursuit was the one where Pat rammed the villain car and burnt out the clutch of the Omega he was driving trying to pin it in, His reaction was priceless!



Anyway they are effortless motorway cruisers and certainly not slow.

£1100 is a tad optimistic but good luck to the seller.

[Ilovejapcrap]

ALWAYs liked these, would have to be an estate

And got to have these alloys

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Edited by Ilovejapcrap on Friday 14th December 23:10