What determines vehicle power and speed?

cormie

Ok cool, that's good to know Suppose the best thing is to just take one for a test drive and see how it is. Thanks again for the help everyone

Esel

Cormie, the 'slow' lane is designed for your Transit! I agree with voxpop that the panther looks slow - but looks can be deceiving..... I'd go for the jaguar myself! Da dum, tish!

cormie

demag wrote: »

I had an 01 astravan for a couple of years, make sure it's the 1.7 DTI with the 8v isuzu engine, NOT the 16v opel engine, grand van, drove like a car, topped out at about 102-105 mph (on private roads of course)

Have my eye on one at the moment. How can I make sure it's the 1.7DTI with the 8v isuzu engine and not the 16v opel? It's advertised as 1.7DTI

Is the 16v a lot worse than the 8v isuzu? Why so? Any feedback appreciated

adamshred

i'm guessing he is steering away from the 16v Opel because open engines tend to be very heavy which would make it even slower.

cormie

Test drove the one mentioned above. It didn't seem to have as much poke as the Partner but it seemed ok. Got to 80MPH going up a hill which the 1.1l peugeot 206 I've driven before and was happy with only got to 60mph. Could have got faster but ran out of hill and legal reasons

The one thing about it though, just looking at the spec of it, it seems to get 58mpg, now I just calculated my transits mpg and it seems to be only 27, at 20,000 miles per year, this would be a saving of about €2,000 in fuel :eek:

So I think I'll just buy it anyway, it may not be as nippy as the partner, but everything else I'm very happy with

However, if I did want to pump up the power a bit in the future, I've heard you can get an engine mapped? I don't know anything about this. Legality/cost etc, does anyone know a rough cost to get something like a 1.7diesel astra a bit nippier? Once done, would I have to change vehicle registration details etc too I wonder?

cormie

Ok, so after doing a few silly calculations with my eye on 2 astras, I've come to the following:

Transit gets 450 miles with 75l capacity, this is 27MPG. 20,000 miles will cost approx €3,400 @ 104c p/l

Astra A is 1.7 with 52l capacity and a MPG rating of 58 (lets say 55). 20,000 will cost €1,700 @ 104c p/l. Approx €51.5 per 600 miles

Astra B is 2.0 with 52l capacity and a MPG rating of 47. 20,000 miles will cost €2,000 @ 104c p/l. Approx €60 per 600 miles.


Astra A will require 31 fills per year, Astra B will require 37. Each fill will take approx 10 minutes between filling/paying/vat return. That's 60 minutes extra work and €300 extra per year in fuel for Astra B.

Apparantly Astra B is 130BHP :eek: I couldn't see any 2.0 astra with 130BHP in the 00-04 range. That's compared to Astra A at I think 73BHP.

Ok, just had to get that out of my head

Esel

Cormie, go to the top of the class!

Gary ITR

The difference between 73BHP and 130BHP is worth the extra cash.

demag

I'm not sure what the differences are between the Opel and Isuzu engines, I just got lucky with mine when I gave the chassis number to get parts and was told it was the Isuzu.
Apparently it's a lot more reliable and has more torque. Have a look on the Vauxhall forums for info.

cormie

Didn't notice the above replies but I'm just back from a long trip and did an MPG test. I ended up getting the 1.7 Astra. Unfortunately it's not as fuel efficient as in the manufacturers spec and based on 500 miles calculated over 2 days driving, I got 48.36MPG. 500 miles used 47 litres of Diesel. I wasn't aiming to do the most fuel efficient drive, I had the heater on low for most of it with window open a bit (heat with a supply of fresh air is my preference ), had stereo on for the whole journey as well as GPS plugged in and I was also doing a fair bit of overtaking and not keeping to the most fuel efficient speeds on Motorways.

Do I regret not getting the 1.9 Astra? No way, the 1.7 is perfect for what I need it for, it can overtake no problem and can actually accelerate going up hills. Never felt I needed more power at all. The option is still there to pay €350 to get it remapped to about 100BHP from 73 and to add another 50 or so torque, but I'm quite happy with it as it is. I just need it to be a consistent progressive drive and it is.

Remember I'm used to driving a Transit, and it's a big step up from that and saving me about €1,300 a year in fuel with the above results if I was to do the same journey in my transit.

Thanks for all the help everyone. It's a 04 so I hope I'll have no reason to come back with any problems any time soon

Rev. BlueJeans

Are you downsizing from the tranny, or expanding?

Transit connects are available from the UK for buttons, but I see you've purchased already.

cormie

Well, expanding a little Keeping the transit for sure, the Astra is just for smaller loads doing approx 20K miles per year with.

Have it all sorted now anyway so let's just hope I don't have any trouble

Mycroft H

The 2.0TDi Caddy is fairly rapid for a van. Will cruise no problems at 70-80mph