Short trips / NI

[Sion]

Coming into a few quid in next few weeks and after much pondering have decided a Monaro is the car for me (flirted with a 350Z for a while but saw sense). Will be upgrading from a humble diesel and just wondering will a short daily commute of a couple of city miles be particularly sore on the Monaro? (does it take long to get up to normal operating temperature).

Also I am in N Ireland and there has not been 1 Monaro for sale here on Autotrader for at least the last month - can any NI members recommend a Network Q dealer near Belfast good to deal with as I think my only option is going to be Network Q central stock?
God knows how I'll get a test drive organised!

[V8 EOL - Rich]

Sion said:

Coming into a few quid in next few weeks and after much pondering have decided a Monaro is the car for me (flirted with a 350Z for a while but saw sense). Will be upgrading from a humble diesel and just wondering will a short daily commute of a couple of city miles be particularly sore on the Monaro? (does it take long to get up to normal operating temperature).

I bet you get less than 10 mpg. The monaro is not a city car.

It takes a "normal" amount of time to heat up. Much better than my old company vectra c that never got warm in the winter!

[stevieturbo]

I have seen quite a few Monaro's over here, but TBH, its unlikely they are going to pop up for sale on a regular basis.

Get yourself over to England, at least there will be some choice there. And choice, is much better than simply buying whatever is local.

As for daily driving....wont do it a button of harm. It is a perfectly normal car, and easy to use.

[Huffy]

Don't use mine regularly for short trips but it does pay the occasional visit to the station which is just over a couple of miles. On the way it is down hill and nearly reaches normal operating temperature. Up hill on the way home normal temperature is reached easily. If I end up using it like that for a few days I just take a longer route home once a week. Certainly warms up quicker than my old Camaro and much quicker than an Audi diesel I used to run which required about 20 miles of driving to even get close to being warm!

[Sion]

Cheers for advice folks. It will get a few long blasts as well but just glad to learn the Monaro behaves 'normal' for short trips. Think I am going to have to get the Easyjet flights booked soon.

[Raggyman]

Yeah, I have found it depends alot on the outside temperature as well. At about 20 degrees, it takes about 1 mile to get mine warm. In the mornings takes about 2 miles.

Driving around town is ok as well. I haven't found it too bad. When you are stuck in traffic is one of the worst. But it usually does for memory about 4 litres and hour.

Cheers
Jace.

[gargoyle666]

Sion said:

Coming into a few quid in next few weeks and after much pondering have decided a Monaro is the car for me (flirted with a 350Z for a while but saw sense). Will be upgrading from a humble diesel and just wondering will a short daily commute of a couple of city miles be particularly sore on the Monaro? (does it take long to get up to normal operating temperature).

Also I am in N Ireland and there has not been 1 Monaro for sale here on Autotrader for at least the last month - can any NI members recommend a Network Q dealer near Belfast good to deal with as I think my only option is going to be Network Q central stock?
God knows how I'll get a test drive organised!

I doubt you need to worry about the test drive, buy it and drive it home and you will be hooked. you won't find one here in NI but there are plenty just over the water new and used. Check out the classifieds on here to start with and go from there. Are you looking at the vxr or the cv8? if you can go for the vxr get it as you won't be disappointed, price wise you can't get 400hp for less money as standard.

[shawshank]

There are no monaro dealers in NI, nearest Edinburgh, and no dealer in NI can carry out warranty work, (important if car is less than 3 yrs old). I had to get authorisation from Vauxall UK for a airbag recall to be carried out at local dealer. It was like sucking blood from a stone. So if you can buy from some of the more monaro friendly dealers in UK thats the route I would look at. And when over in UK pick up a few filters, o-rings etc etc, then any decent mechanic can service the monaro for you.

[Sion]

Can't believe there isn't one official Monaro dealer over here, actually found that out at weekend when I went to nearest Network Q dealer. He said they can source one from central stock of which there is a grand total of one at the minute so options looking pretty limited. Considering options but thanks for advice - Scotland definitely a possibility.

[stevieturbo]

If you want choice, the only option is to travel....


Although from time to time, The Vauxhall dealer in Antrim has had one for sale.

But a choice of one isnt much good...

If you were to spend a day and head to Greens or Picador etc, at least you will have a few choices ?

[baz7175]

My Mar '06 VZ just left NI for the final time this morning - I've lived with it over there the last year as my daily driver and it's now in Scotland with me for a few days before it heads to Germany with me to the new home...

It's been for sale now for the best part of a month as I was willing to let it go to a good home and pick up a new left hooker out in Germany, but there's plenty of people been wanting a look or more importantly a drive of it, but very few with enough readies to take it off my hands which is why it's coming with me unless a large wedge of notes lands in my lap before next Monday...