RE: Vauxhall Astra Nurburgring Edition

[thekirbyfake]

Agoogy said:

if you were a kid in the 80's Ford's XR range was the business.... but for our dads of that era it meant nowt. Like the ST range today doesn't mean much really

Ford still use the XR brand in Oz calling the ST the XR5 Turbo and they also have the Falcon XR6.

Ford have made a conscious effort to ditch the slightly naff XR brands of old but in effect still make an XR2, XR3i & XR4i. Today's ST buyers don't want to associate themselves with the stigma attached to the old XR brand. I certainly don't.

[Ojc]

thekirbyfake said:

Agoogy said:

if you were a kid in the 80's Ford's XR range was the business.... but for our dads of that era it meant nowt. Like the ST range today doesn't mean much really

Ford still use the XR brand in Oz calling the ST the XR5 Turbo and they also have the Falcon XR6.

Ford have made a conscious effort to ditch the slightly naff XR brands of old but in effect still make an XR2, XR3i & XR4i. Today's ST buyers don't want to associate themselves with the stigma attached to the old XR brand. I certainly don't.

Why? So if the car that you were buying was a superb drive and excelled at everything but had a XR badge on it you wouldn't buy it?

[Agoogy]

Ojc said:

thekirbyfake said:

Agoogy said:

if you were a kid in the 80's Ford's XR range was the business.... but for our dads of that era it meant nowt. Like the ST range today doesn't mean much really

Ford still use the XR brand in Oz calling the ST the XR5 Turbo and they also have the Falcon XR6.

Ford have made a conscious effort to ditch the slightly naff XR brands of old but in effect still make an XR2, XR3i & XR4i. Today's ST buyers don't want to associate themselves with the stigma attached to the old XR brand. I certainly don't.

Why? So if the car that you were buying was a superb drive and excelled at everything but had a XR badge on it you wouldn't buy it?

I'd forgotten about the Oz connection... XR is naff, because the only real Ford performance brand worth anything is RS and thats only because it been going longer, its all a bit 'rose tinted', 'things were better in my day'.... there's a thread elsewhere about BMWs and someone made a lengthy post about brand image etc.... and thats what the car industry is being reduced to with the odd gem and driving focused man...the rest is badging and marketing.... christ if Porsche can rape their history and call a tarted Boxster an RS60.... there is no hope for us.... and I love Porsche.

Anyway a Vauxhall Astra Nurburgring.... yep I'd consider one of those, don't give a stuff about the 'Nurburgring' bit. If it looks right..drives right and costs right, I'm interested...

[Ahonen]

thekirbyfake said:

Ahonen said:

Vauxhall is currently the best selling brand in Britain

Vauxhall have increased their sales in the UK by 10% (2007 vs 2006 YTD) but they're still behind Ford.

The figures I have show Ford just outselling Vauxhall (306k vs 291k YTD Oct).

I should've clarified that - I was referring to monthly sales rather than YTD. Vx outsold Ford in June, July, August and October.

[sixspeed]

Looks like a good fun hatchback

But what on earth is going on with the quality of the reports?? This was a proper "invited" test-drive, yet the only photographer they could find was a bloke with a camera phone??

[Dangly]

sixspeed said:

But what on earth is going on with the quality of the reports?? This was a proper "invited" test-drive, yet the only photographer they could find was a bloke with a camera phone??

Yeah the photos do seem a bit poo - Gets get a video of it hoooning around some track!

[thekirbyfake]

Ahonen said:

thekirbyfake said:

Ahonen said:

Vauxhall is currently the best selling brand in Britain

Vauxhall have increased their sales in the UK by 10% (2007 vs 2006 YTD) but they're still behind Ford.

The figures I have show Ford just outselling Vauxhall (306k vs 291k YTD Oct).

I should've clarified that - I was referring to monthly sales rather than YTD. Vx outsold Ford in June, July, August and October.

Fair enough. If you have them to hand I'd be interested to know if your figures are the same as mine?

October sales
Vx 24,938 (YTD 291,228)
Ford 22,559 (YTD 306,054)

Astra 8,804 (YTD 99,940)
Focus 7,540 (YTD 111,677)
Corsa 6,767 (YTD 82,948)
Fiesta 5,341 (YTD 91,036)

[Mr Whippy]

I like the Astra looks loads more than the Focus, problem is when you get inside the Astra, numbers upside frikkin down on the gauges isn't clever or arty, it's shit.

Same for that centre console.

If I could put the Ford interior into the Vauxhall body, then I'd be tempted.


When an VXR Astra is down at £7k I won't mind the interior though

Dave

[Ojc]

Mr Whippy said:

I like the Astra looks loads more than the Focus, problem is when you get inside the Astra, numbers upside frikkin down on the gauges isn't clever or arty, it's shit.

Same for that centre console.

If I could put the Ford interior into the Vauxhall body, then I'd be tempted.


When an VXR Astra is down at £7k I won't mind the interior though

Dave

Upside down gauges? Where? I didn't spot anything upside in mine.

[Mr Whippy]

thekirbyfake said:

Agoogy said:

if you were a kid in the 80's Ford's XR range was the business.... but for our dads of that era it meant nowt. Like the ST range today doesn't mean much really

Ford still use the XR brand in Oz calling the ST the XR5 Turbo and they also have the Falcon XR6.

Ford have made a conscious effort to ditch the slightly naff XR brands of old but in effect still make an XR2, XR3i & XR4i. Today's ST buyers don't want to associate themselves with the stigma attached to the old XR brand. I certainly don't.

Hmmmm, yeah, the 'ST' brand... Sanitary Towel branding eh

Honestly, it's just a name. But while you are coming up with acronyms why not come up with one that doesn't mean something else to 50% of the population?

I actually rather like the Aus designations for the Ford range still. They also seem to have a better range of sporty Fords.

Dave

[morgrp]

crocop said:

Ahonen said:

morgrp said:

crocop said:

I bet the ST500 owners feel pretty dumb, and those who were too late to order one, jumping with joy. Another 500 notes, and they have a car that will leave the ST500 behind by at least a week on the german circuit. ST resale value, after 3 years, average miles??! my guess is half of the Astra's.

You say that but I bet that time was set by a serious pro - put an amateur behind the wheel like myslef and I bet they'd both set the same lap time (very slow!) - its same as 0-60 times that are all done by total pro's on an empty, dry flat runway with an empty tank of petrol, empty boot and no wind etc -

Manuel Reuter set the lap time, as I said earlier, in a standard OPC (VXR) car. He is, of course, a very good driver.

0-60 times, from major manufacturers, are all carried out with a 125kg payload.

The general level of over-excitement, foaming at the mouth, wailing, gnashing of teeth and foot-stamping from some on this thread is very funny. That word 'Vauxhall' seems to provoke considerable reaction, which must delight their marketing fellows.

I wonder how much more successful would Vauxhall cars be if they were marketed as what they REALLY are...as OPELS!!

I've said that for years - To me vauxhall is like primark! Opel is a cooler brand

[Yugguy]

Aye, it seems fashionable, almost compulsory, on here to hate anything with a Vx badge, except when it can be twisted to not be a Vx.

[Agoogy]

Yugguy said:

Aye, it seems fashionable, almost compulsory, on here to hate anything with a Vx badge, except when it can be twisted to not be a Vx.

agreed.. although on a looks/sound basis, its only the the more expensive brands that actually sound nice... or have nice looking emblems

I mean: Ferrari, Porsche, Bentley, Mercedes (just)
or: Ford, Vauxhall, BMW, Audi

[Fallen Angel]

Agree... opel badge is far cooler

What I don't really understand is... and if anyone can help me out here - why the fake CF? Would be far better and lighter if cf was used... maybe a bit more expensive but at only an 850 run (I think - can't be bothered going back to read - sorry), the extra expense would have been worth it?

[Yugguy]

Agoogy said:

Yugguy said:

Aye, it seems fashionable, almost compulsory, on here to hate anything with a Vx badge, except when it can be twisted to not be a Vx.

agreed.. although on a looks/sound basis, its only the the more expensive brands that actually sound nice... or have nice looking emblems

I mean: Ferrari, Porsche, Bentley, Mercedes (just)
or: Ford, Vauxhall, BMW, Audi

Well you might laugh but the Vx V6s always sounded nice IMO. Not as nice as my Alfa V6 was but quite a nice shimmy.

[TEKNOPUG]

[quote=lgmini]
Also note to those that say if they were 20+, they wouldn't buy one of these, they would go for a tvr, escort cosworth etc!, Have you seen the sorts of money insurance companies are asking for? My dad says I can have his b5 RS4 for my 21st, but I very much doubt that I will be able to get insured! So until then I will keep driving my VXR.

[quote]

If Daddy can afford to buy you a VXR when you are 20 then I'm sure that he can afford to insure you on something slightly more interesting when you are 21. Each to their own but £20k for a FWD hatch just seems a bit bonkers to me when you could get something far more interesting for a lot less money. I guess that the vast majority of VX's/Fords are sold through company car schemes and therefore I'd probably tick the box of the fastest one that my company would give me. But spend upwards of £20k of my OWN money on one??? Don't be daft!

[Mr Whippy]

Ojc said:

Mr Whippy said:

I like the Astra looks loads more than the Focus, problem is when you get inside the Astra, numbers upside frikkin down on the gauges isn't clever or arty, it's shit.

Same for that centre console.

If I could put the Ford interior into the Vauxhall body, then I'd be tempted.


When an VXR Astra is down at £7k I won't mind the interior though

Dave

Upside down gauges? Where? I didn't spot anything upside in mine.

The numbers on gauges are aligned so they sit bottom first towards the centre. It's never looked arty, it's not ergonomic, and worst of all someone actually decided it was clever, and then the bosses thought so too!

Dave

[Davie]

Hmmm.... firts off...

Stu Harris... the Cavalier (280bhp...) will hold its own the VXR boys round a track, but then again you won't let us 90's boys play in the exclusive "VXR only" track days for fear of being shown up. Im not alone in thinking many a 90's performance Vauxhall could scare todays EPS, ABS, EDC equipped efforts... how many driver aids does a car need to flatter a driver?

As for the VXR heritage... yes the VXR "brand" did well in recent BTCC events, simply becasue the budget was untold times more than other teams, plus with 3 cars running its easy to add up the points. My point is the RS brand started in the 60's, it was carried on throughout and thus we have the RS brand as it is today: owners clubs, cars, models, shows...

The VXR thing... boocks. Its merely marketing, they ran a race team, created a "performance" brand off the back off it which truth be told, isn't that fabulous. Plus, do you get "RS" towels or "RS" car wax? No... hence the VXR thing has become a brand, you can get hats, scarfs, tea shirts, car polish... yadda yadda... thats not heritage, thats boardroom and business.

The latest effort, this Nurburgring edition... yes whilst I agree it is a reasonably fast car, I totaly disagree with manufacturers cashing in on the ring, again its a marketing thing, its an image thing... its neither earned nor deserved. Im Vauxhall to the bone but in heritage stakes, Ford has the Griffin beat ever time. Its just a shame Vauxhall need to name drop the greatest place on earth simply to sell units. If the car was that good, it'd sell without special names or graphics....

Buy a 888 diesel, it'll tear a VXR arse to tit anyday. Proven.

[Yugguy]

Davie said:

. Plus, do you get "RS" towels or "RS" car wax? No... hence the VXR thing has become a brand, you can get hats, scarfs, tea shirts, car polish... yadda yadda... thats not heritage, thats boardroom and business.

er, to be fair Ferrari do exactly the same thing...

[thekirbyfake]

Edited by thekirbyfake on Saturday 8th December 18:27