Stereotype female buying an insignia

flix1

Folks....I'm clueless...let me say that at the off. I'm a single mom buying a car for me and my 2 kids. I'm looking at an Vauxhall Insignia 2009, 2 ltr diesel, 70,000 miles on the clock. Its the executive model. Has the extras that comes with that, front fogs, aircon, alloys, arm rest. I loved it but...then my brother sent me a link to the Consumer Show and to a website called Honest John...and there's talk of a problem with these cars.

Dual Mass Flywheel failure...but more frightening...the problem below. I don't know what to do now...As if buying a car as a single woman wasn't hard enough...I'd really appreciate your opinion on this!!!

Number of engine fires across Europe through power steering fluid leaking from the reservoir onto the hot exhaust manifold and diesel particulate filter of turbocharged engines. Case history featured on BBC Watchdog on 3-5-2012. October 2011 TSB refers to the pipe that carries pressurised power steering fluid to the rack cracking or leaking. The cure is to replace the power steering pressure pipe and clip. The fault affects 6,900 Insignia diesels, all manufactured in Germany between 2009 and 2010.

Renegade Mechanic

If it only affected insignias made in Germany, then they'd be opels. The Vauxhall badged variants are made in the UK so They might not be affected. I stand for correction on this though.

biko

Every single car you will look at will have problems.
Either because of a manufacturing issue or something particular to that unique vehicle.

For the described problem you can simply check with the seller is this problem was fixed and see the receipt/stamp for the work.
You buying privately or from a dealer?


Tbh, I actually take a bit offence to your title. Don't be putting all females down because you may be nervous about buying a car.
Do your research (as you seem to have started with) and buy a car with some warranty.

flix1

Thanks for that, what do you think of the price €12,000...are you a mechanic? would you buy one yourself?

Atlantic Dawn

Your main question should be do you need a diesel? If your doing just small distances it will be more trouble than a petrol. Make sure you do a full history check on the car to verify its history.

Renegade Mechanic

12k is a tad high, tbh. 09s are typically selling betwee 7.5 and 10k with a few low spec models under 7..
There's one for 12k alright but its only got 40k miles. If the car is absolutely spotless, inside and out, has full service history, a new set of tyres, long tax and NCT, then the price might be ok. I'd still be inclined to haggle though.

flix1

Thanks everyone...yes I do a lot of mileage, hence the diesel choice. Sorry for the stereotype title, no offence intended. Perhaps I should have called it a 'nervous female buyer of an insignia' Just re the history checks..it's a UK import and buying it from a dealer, any sites you'd recommend to do this check please?

bazz26

I'd be very wary of a 6 year old Vauxhall Insignia with only 70k miles on it being sold here. These cars are very popular as sales rep mobiles in the UK which means they tend to rack up alot of miles on them. There are genuine low mileage examples out there but I'd be checking the service history very carefully on the car and ringing the garages in the UK that serviced it.

Price seems too high when this similar one is asking alot less:
http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Opel/Insignia/2.0/153214287970623570/

flix1

Any recommendations which site to run a check on the UK car?

Atlantic Dawn

flix1 wrote: »

Any recommendations which site to run a check on the UK car?

www.cartell.ie or www.motorcheck.ie

What your looking for is if it was wrote off or if the mileage doesn't tally up.

Henry Ford III

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

www.cartell.ie or www.motorcheck.ie

What your looking for is if it was wrote off or if the mileage doesn't tally up.

Wouldn't trust either of those.

For a UK originated car https://www.hpi.co.uk/home/ is best, and even carries a limited guarantee.

Atlantic Dawn

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Wouldn't trust either of those.

For a UK originated car https://www.hpi.co.uk/home/ is best, and even carries a limited guarantee.

But you will want the Irish history on the car too since it was imported, presuming it is now on Irish plates. Both those sites will include the UK history.

Henry Ford III

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

But you will want the Irish history on the car too since it was imported, presuming it is now on Irish plates. Both those sites will include the UK history.

You'll need both checks then.

There are a lot of cars imported from the UK and many of them have chequered pasts. A proper check with that guarantee is well worth any additional cost in my opinion.

9935452

flix1 wrote: »

Folks....I'm clueless...let me say that at the off. I'm a single mom buying a car for me and my 2 kids. I'm looking at an Vauxhall Insignia 2009, 2 ltr diesel, 70,000 miles on the clock. Its the executive model. Has the extras that comes with that, front fogs, aircon, alloys, arm rest. I loved it but...then my brother sent me a link to the Consumer Show and to a website called Honest John...and there's talk of a problem with these cars.

Dual Mass Flywheel failure...but more frightening...the problem below. I don't know what to do now...As if buying a car as a single woman wasn't hard enough...I'd really appreciate your opinion on this!!!

Number of engine fires across Europe through power steering fluid leaking from the reservoir onto the hot exhaust manifold and diesel particulate filter of turbocharged engines. Case history featured on BBC Watchdog on 3-5-2012. October 2011 TSB refers to the pipe that carries pressurised power steering fluid to the rack cracking or leaking. The cure is to replace the power steering pressure pipe and clip. The fault affects 6,900 Insignia diesels, all manufactured in Germany between 2009 and 2010.

Definately get a check done on the car. A lot of english imports arrive over clocked.
Get a good mechanic to look it over and be happy with it.
Dont be too scared of the dual mass flywheel issues. All diesels have them. in reality they are an expensive clutch , most likely 1000-1500 to change with the clutch