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One of the girls bought one. Had a lift to work in it the other day. Really lovely little motor - beautiful interior. Seemed well screwed together with some lovely design touches -eons ahead of the Corsa of yore...
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Have to say, I keep looking at them and thinking them quite pretty little cars. Long time since, if not the first time I've thought that about a Vauxhall. Although the Astra coupe isn't unpretty.
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"Limited interior space. Dated engines. Not particularly good to drive"
~HJ
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And indeed he may well be right, but the styling is cute. He probably wouldn't attach much value to that given that he appears to dress in random combinations of Oxfam's finest and even then, not necessarily in his own actual size.
;-)
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>> design touches -eons ahead of the Corsa of yore...
>>
Not intended as a corsa replacement though, and the base model appears to be 12K
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Makes the top 10...
www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-3541363/The-10-disappointing-new-cars-revealed.html
:)
Actually I do think they look pretty smart; never driven one though.
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Named after Adam Opel apparently.
Are Vauxhall planning to market an Eve, and then perhaps a Garden? :)
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Makes more sense outside of the UK (like a lot of things).....Opel Adam....has a nice ring to it
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Are Vauxhall planning to market an Eve, and then perhaps a Garden?
That would be the dealership - where the snakes are.
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She didn't pay anything near that. Not sure if it's the base car she has, but it came in brand new under 10k
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Just had a look at them on the Motorpoint site. Cute names...Rocks Air, Jam, Slam, Glam
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Nice to look at and be driven in, as RP has found, and available in a huge number of colour and trim combinations, if that's what floats your boat. But I've yet to find a Vauxhall that was any fun to drive except for the Mark 2 Cavalier (I never tried a Senator, which might have been another exception); and the road testers seem to agree.
Interestingly, Runfer tells us that what the road testers themselves are wearing is relevant. I've never realised that - you learn something new every day.
Last edited by: Avant on Fri 13 May 16 at 21:21
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>> I've yet to find a Vauxhall that was any fun to drive except for the
>> Mark 2 Cavalier (I never tried a Senator, which might have been another exception); and
>> the road testers seem to agree.
>>
I've not driven one, but I hear that the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton was quite fun to drive!!
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Beaten to it by Boxsterboy
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Yes, that must be another one. And there were some memorable pre-war Vauxhalls, one of them called Prince Henry I think.
People may come up with some more - but I would still say that at least up to now, interesting Vauxhalls have been in the minority. Perhaps someone will give us their impressions of the newest Astra which has been comparatively well reviewed.
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The original Astra GTE was quite fun, but apparently had a bit of a reputation for spitting the unwary or inexperienced into ditches if they got too close to the limits of its handling.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Fri 13 May 16 at 22:18
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Neighbours wife and daughter wanted an Adam. I told him for the same money that he would get a lot more car with a Fiesta.
But they were adamant it had to be an Adam.
Went for a test drive but before they could drive it, the reclining lever on one seat broke off and the sliding mechanism on the other jammed.
They bought a Fiesta.
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Every Vauxhall I've ever had has been a bit brittle. Trim mainly, rather than the oily bits, but they've all had things that fell off. Indicator stalk on one of them, wheel trims for a pastime on a Cavalier SRi, the glovebox lid on a Signum and the paint on the same car. Just seem to skimp on the basics really by comparison to other makes.
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I had an Astra GTE 8v. 1987...Very quick car for its time, the engine exceeded the chassis' capability...
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White one? Lots of them were white.
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>> White one? Lots of them were white.
A friend of mine had white one, a Mk2, as a company car, he let me have a go in it. The company he worked for only had white cars. When the digital speedo reached 130 I got the impression he thought I had taken unwarranted advantage. I still feel embarrassed about it.
Last edited by: Manatee on Sat 14 May 16 at 23:02
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When I (years ago) did the Skye ridge, a friend (who incidentally was on his honeymoon, me having been his best man) borrowed my car (a two door mk1 Cavalier) to drive around in on the agreement he gave me a lift back to where I was camping after I had finished the walk/climb.
All went well, and he picked me up from the Sligachan Inn at closing time some 36 hours after starting. I was mildly surprised (well a bit more really, but the euphoria of finishing the ridge, accompanied by a few pints dulled the sensation somewhat) when he calmly commented - "quite a nice drive this, you know, but the roofrack gets a bit noisy at 90!".
In those days, the roads on Skye (even the "main" ones), were mostly single track.
I did quite like that car.
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..by all accounts the Chevette 2300HS was everything the 1256 Viva engined one wasn't.... ;-)
(I once owned a Shovit).
Last edited by: tyrednemotional on Fri 13 May 16 at 22:54
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>> ..by all accounts the Chevette 2300HS was everything the 1256 Viva engined one wasn't.... ;-)
I once drove an 1800 Viva. The 2300 in the Chevette must have been awesome at the time.
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I got to drive a Chevette Ecosse 2.3 round Snetterton for a few laps about a thousand years ago. In the rain, on slicks. That was interesting. Quick thing for its day.
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..mine managed to climb the road from Derwentwater to Watendlath (Lake District) on a Boxing Day in deep, deep snow; which for a RWD car was quite amazing.
It did have a full barrel of beer in the back over the driven wheels, though.
That was interesting... ;-)
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I suspect that back then, no one had told us you would die if you drove RWD cars in the snow so because we didn't know that, we just did it anyway. And didn't die.
;-)
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And I would put money on it not having 'elf & safety minus summer temperature rated tyres either. :-)
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...I think I would have died if the barrel of beer hadn't been in there..... ;-)
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Curious as to why you had a barrel of beer? Weight over the driven wheels? Obviously undrinkable for several days afterwards until it conditioned, settled & tapped.
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...It was actually Sam Smiths Jubilee, which was at that time (when Pontius was still a pilot) filtered and in a (standard half-barrel-sized) keg which came with it's own integral gas supply (never seen the arrangement before or since - someone had had a supply at a party earlier in the year, it was convenient, and for what was effectively keg beer, a good drink, so we resolved to take two away for Christmas for just the reasons you describe.)
One had gone up with someone from my climbing club before Christmas, and I had offered to take the second on Boxing Day, as I was travelling up on my own and had space.
When I finally got there, I discovered they had emptied the first one the previous night (and no-one fancied taking a car down through the snow) - so, if I hadn't had the barrel with me, I would have died, on the spot........ ;-)
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In a previous life Sam Smiths were my landlord when I had a shop in Wetherby. Apparently they made more profit from their property portfolio than they did from brewing.
Never heard of Jubilee, and it's a long time since I've drunk any SS
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>> ..mine managed to climb the road from Derwentwater to Watendlath (Lake District) on a Boxing
>> Day in deep, deep snow; which for a RWD car was quite amazing.
I assume you mean the Chevette...they had cross ply tyres too, or at least the one I remember did.
A friend had an accident in one, a company car. No other vehicles were involved, as they say.
The company informed him that he would have to pay a £100 excess. He put a very convincing-sounding case to the transport manager that he was not to blame because of the combination of the inferior cross plies with an emulsion of rain and spilt diesel, adverse camber, worn road surface, sun in his eyes, invisible road markings (it was one of those dome in the road mini roundabouts that send him off as he drove over it) etc etc.
The reply made no mention of his defence, and was along the lines of "would you like us to deduct it from your salary in one go or at the rate of £10 a month?"
Last edited by: Manatee on Sun 15 May 16 at 10:26
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...tbh, it was 40 years ago so I can't remember, but I would have guessed it had radials.
It was actually a tidy-handling car, which I quite liked, but it wasn't the most durable.
It suffered the then Vauxhall issue of tin-worm, and it had a few "interesting" design quirks.
It was, of course, based on the Opel Kadett with a 1256 Viva engine substituted for the 1200 Opel unit. Little re-design was done in the process, and when I finally decided to replace the starter motor (due to a combination of my then GF's reluctance to push-start, and my reluctance to lay down in the mud and use a Sunderland screwdriver to coax it into working) I was surprised to find the process was described as requiring the removal of the engine mount.
Couldn't really believe that, but it was correct. There was almost, but not quite, enough clearance to withdraw the starter motor after unbolting it, and sure enough, it was the engine mount that was in the way. It was only the matter of a few mm.
After much puzzling, I was reduced to jacking the car up, dropping it onto bricks and wooden blocks supporting the engine, and removing the engine mount and starter motor. Then, off on the bus to get an exchange unit, remount it and jack up again. In my memory, it took me some time to align the mount, but I was very pleased with myself.
Too late for the GF, though ;-(
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>> but I hear that the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton was quite fun to drive!!
Used to eat gearboxes though.
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>>I've not driven one, but I hear that the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton was quite fun to drive!!>>
It most certainly was...:-)
Also drove it on the Lotus test track at Hethel.
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Vauxhall - Adam.....Jewel of a little car. - Runfer D'Hills
