Opel agila. Good buy?

kermitpwee

In the market for a 02 or older agila 1litre. Have driven a few and happy with them. A few questions

Are they reliable?

Any horror stories out there?

Common problems they have?


The reason i'm interested in one is the cheap tax and fuel economy. I have a budget of 1600 euro.

Thanks for looking.

Bigus

Timing chains go on them, you'll hear the rattle at idle if in needs to be done.
Good value because they're not the prettiest.

kermitpwee

Bigus wrote: »

Timing chains go on them, you'll hear the rattle at idle if in needs to be done.
Good value because they're not the prettiest.

Thanks. Because they are a 3 cylinder they all seem the same to me! Would it cost much to do the chain?

Nissan doctor

The chains themselves never go, the tensioners can fail, they also suffer head gasket failures as well as numerous sensor issues. They also can't do high milage at all. I have never seen one last much over 100k. The 1.0 3 cylinder was discontinued by Opel due to its reliability issues.

pajor

I had a Corsa with the same 1 litre engine as in the Agila. Got it scrapped last August, details not important

Anyway... the mechanic who scrapped it for me told me never buy something with less than 4 cylinders. Seems like a bit of a generalisation I know, but don't have much reason to doubt a professional motor mechanic!

vectra

This one would be nice

Nissan doctor

pajor wrote: »

I had a Corsa with the same 1 litre engine as in the Agila. Got it scrapped last August, details not important

Anyway... the mechanic who scrapped it for me told me never buy something with less than 4 cylinders. Seems like a bit of a generalisation I know, but don't have much reason to doubt a professional motor mechanic!

A rubbish statement on his part. The opel 3 cylinder engine is poor yes, however there were many 3 cylinder engines used in Japanese small cars, many with turbo's too and they were bullet proof. Its the design of the engine, not the fact that its a 3 cylinder.
As is the norm, its the small German 3 cylinders which are rubbish, the Opel unit was the first example, the current 1.2 3 cylinder VAG unit is prooving troublesome too.

shamwari

I had a 3 cylinder Suzuki Swift many moons ago and it was a fantastic little car. The engines gave no trouble whatsoever.

Then there was the Daihatsu Charade. Their three cylinder offerings were, at best weak, and sometimes abysmal. The frugal diesel was very weak and could not take any sort of abuse. I used to set the tickover speed on those things by adjusting the idle screw on the pump until the dashboard came into focus

Personally I think 3 cylinders are ok once they are properly engineered. But I wouldn't buy a diesel one (new or old) because I don't think diesel vibes with an unbalanced crank are a receipe for longevity

pajor

Nissan doctor wrote: »

A rubbish statement on his part. The opel 3 cylinder engine is poor yes, however there were many 3 cylinder engines used in Japanese small cars, many with turbo's too and they were bullet proof. Its the design of the engine, not the fact that its a 3 cylinder.
As is the norm, its the small German 3 cylinders which are rubbish, the Opel unit was the first example, the current 1.2 3 cylinder VAG unit is prooving troublesome too.

Yeah, I'd imagine you're right. Best example probably; that springs to mind is the Aygo/107/C1, never heard anything go madly wrong with them and they have been around for a few years now.

kermitpwee

shamwari wrote: »

I had a 3 cylinder Suzuki Swift many moons ago and it was a fantastic little car. The engines gave no trouble whatsoever.

Then there was the Daihatsu Charade. Their three cylinder offerings were, at best weak, and sometimes abysmal. The frugal diesel was very weak and could not take any sort of abuse. I used to set the tickover speed on those things by adjusting the idle screw on the pump until the dashboard came into focus

Personally I think 3 cylinders are ok once they are properly engineered. But I wouldn't buy a diesel one (new or old) because I don't think diesel vibes with an unbalanced crank are a receipe for longevity

Yes drove a swift and ruled it out due to the wallowing suspension which would drive me round the bend! Have heard that they are very reliable.

shamwari

kermitpwee wrote: »

Yes drove a swift and ruled it out due to the wallowing suspension which would drive me round the bend! Have heard that they are very reliable.

My Swift was a 1990 one, and Suzuki sold essentially this same car for over 13 years thereafter! Compared to something contemporary, they are very crude, bean can like, and plasticy, but apart from that, they are quite reliable. They were a good car in their day!

kermitpwee

shamwari wrote: »

My Swift was a 1990 one, and Suzuki sold essentially this same car for over 13 years thereafter! Compared to something contemporary, they are very crude, bean can like, and plasticy, but apart from that, they are quite reliable. They were a good car in their day!

Might consider one yet, the suspension seems very bad. My mate has one with 280k miles and its flying past the last 3 ncts first time.

bazz26

One of my aunts has one, terrible car with a horrible driving position that makes you feel it will topel over when you go around a bend. Basically it is a Suzuki Wagon R with an Opel badge and I would not bother with it to be honest.

I'd rather put my money into a Fiat Panda, much better car and 04/05 are going cheap these days.

taintabird

kermitpwee wrote: »

In the market for a 02 or older agila 1litre. Have driven a few and happy with them. A few questions

Are they reliable?

Any horror stories out there?

Common problems they have?


The reason i'm interested in one is the cheap tax and fuel economy. I have a budget of 1600 euro.

Thanks for looking.

Its basically a badge engineered Suzuki wagon r built by Opel in Gliwice Poland and since January 2005 the wagon r is built at the same plant

kermitpwee

taintabird wrote: »

Its basically a badge engineered Suzuki wagon r built by Opel in Gliwice Poland and since January 2005 the wagon r is built at the same plant

Thanks. Ya had a look around now and found out that suzuki used a 1litre 4 cylinder from 97-00 in their own cars and then used the 3cylinder opel unit from 01-03.

I have decided to up the budget to 2k and get a yaris.


Thanks everybody.