Astra G (98-03) 1.4 ?

Mister Jingles

Looking at these at the moment but don't seem to know much about them.

Most of them are within my price range on DD while the others are for the dreamer thread.

Review websites seem to rate them as okay but want to know what people here think.

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O.A.P

They havent made the mark 2 since 1991 are you sure its not the mark 3 your looking at?
mark 2 (84-91)
mark 3 (91-98)
mark 4 (98-04) I think.
I have owned all of the above over the years and still have the mark 4. The most reliable of the three was one made between 91-98. I put about 140 thousand miles on it and only remember having to replace the cat for the NCT but that was expensive at the time.

Mister Jingles

O.A.P wrote: »

They havent made the mark 2 since 1991 are you sure its not the mark 3 your looking at?
mark 2 (84-91)
mark 3 (91-98)
mark 4 (98-04) I think.

The Astra G/mk4 yeah. It depends on what way you say it as Vaxuhall always called it the Astra and Opel called it the Kedett till 1991.

Nibblesworth

Not very well built, dated interior, uncomfortable to drive, noisy. In my opinion.

Mister Jingles

Compared to a Focus or Golf of the same years then ?

Ardennes1944

pretty well built, more reliable than the 1.4 golfs of that era and on par with the focus. the interior is looking pretty dated though imo. the 1.4 astra g i had was pretty nippy due to the close gear ratios but take it on a motorway and it'll fleece you in petrol costs. come to think about it, even around town it was thirsty and the 1.8 astra i have now gets better mpg, just.

O.A.P

Mister Jingles wrote: »

The Astra G/mk4 yeah. It depends on what way you say it as Vaxuhall always called it the Astra and Opel called it the Kedett till 1991.

Yes your spot on the first astra I had was a Vaxuhall astra but it was called the Kedet here.
I have had the g type for 8-9 years now and its going well for the last few years. It has almost 170 thousand miles on the clock most of them by me.
I have replaced the clutch, wiper motor, wiper linkage and the ECU in that time .It has always been serviced on time and I will keep this one until it blows up, it owes me nothing at this stage.

Marty McFly

Had one for nearly four years, was nippy enough for a 1.4. But watch out for the head gasket going on them, it went on mine and afterwards I found out it was a fairly common thing to happen.

Ardennes1944

The head gasket failures were only on the 98-02 models with the x14xe engine. Facelift z14xe engines were fine

sean_d

As the others have said, reasonable enough runabout, not as pleasant on the motorway: expect 4000rpm at 120kph. I think I was getting about 38mpg on a run.

It's a fairly cheap car to keep running - one of the best thing about it is that most of the faults are well known (loads of help & how-to's on UK vauxhall forums) and the engine is fairly straightforward and easy enough to work on. Most common faults are EGRs and coilpacks, which are cheap and easy to replace. Only downside is the timing belt has a short 40k miles change interval, I paid less than 300e to get this done.

Nissan doctor

IMO they are good solid cars, very reliable once serviced correctly, parts are cheap as chips, infinite info/clubs online.

They handle well(lotus was involved in the set up) although not as well as a Focus admittedly. The 1.4 petrols are not really geared for lots of motorway use but they feel very nippy around town as a result.

Also everything is interchangeable on these, you can get the heated leather seats from an Astra coupe and they bolt straight in and work as the wiring for almost all extra's if fitted to even the base cars.

I've an Astra G/Mk4 van myself in 1.7cdti flavour and I use it for a 150km a day commute and its very comfortable....and that's with the GSI semi bucket seats fitted.

testarossa40

The second car I owned!

Decent car, fairly reliable except as others have said for delicate head gasket & dodgy engine coil (mine was an early '98).

Decidedly lethargic mid-range performance from the 1.4 although funnily enough fairly pokey at high revs in 5th which you'll have to be be at if trying to maintain 120kph - at which point your mpg's definitely tanking.

Ride & handling's pretty sharp, but, torsion beam rear suspension made for harsh crash & thumps at the rear when cornering over rough or broken surfaces.

Still sharp looking imo and I still miss the heated wing mirrors in wet/frosty weather which even my current Beemer doesn't have

2 stroke

I'd stay away from early astra G, they seemed to get better 03 to 04. I still prefer the astra F, probably the most reliable car I've ever had.

Mister Jingles

Thanks for the replies lads.

So in all there an okay car? Not as good as the Focus but better then then Golf, or the 1.4 engine at least. The close gear ratios appeals to me. I wouldn't be doing much motorway driving so that's not a problem.

They look a nice car, especially the Njoy model. Getting one in budget shouldn't be too hard. Nearly all the 03 ones are our of my price range though.

Did a check on the insurance for them a week or so ago and the quote (1600 in or around) wasn't too bad ( for my age ) but did another check today and there gone up at least 300 quid more to insure :eek:. Same as the Focus, around 1450 not two weeks ago and now 1850. Thats from Britton. Hope prices fall again in the next couple of months otherwise I'll be getting no car at all. :mad:

ninty9er

I had a 1.6 one. Great car, really engaging to drive compared to the Focus or Golf. The Corolla is about as nippy, but of the 4 the Astra would be my choice if were in the market for that type of car again. Try get yourself a 1.6 though, doesn't experience the same head gasket issues.

firefly08

I had the early Astra G 1.4 ('00) and had no serious problems with it - I loved it. It survived me learning to drive, a year parked up on the grass, and the winters of 2009 and 2010 with no antifreeze

Go for the hatchback if you can - it looks very like the saloon version but it's better use of the space. In fact now that I think about it, did the Astra start that trend of hatchbacks that look like saloons?