Opel Zafira 1.7 diesel. Is it any good

JabbaTheHut

Might be in the market for a car. I'm sick of paying close to a grand road tax on the Santa Fe I have , but need a seven seater. I had a look around and may settle on the Opel Zafira. The price is pretty keen on them.

So has anyone got any opinions on them? I often had Opels, and they were good to me. I have a '00 1.6 petrol Vectra for more than 10 years, and really it's bulletproof.

So I'm looking at a 2013 or 2014 Zafira 1.7 cdti 110ps. Are they reliable? Do they have common faults (Like the dual mass flywheel on the Santa Fe that WILL fail) ? They're not the most exciting car, but at the moment exciting doesn't come up far in my list of what I'm after.

Any help would be appreciated

bazz26

Flywheels fail on nearly all diesel cars at some, it's not unique to one particular brand or engine. 1.7 CDTi engine is a modernized version of the old Isuzu lump that GM have been using for 20 years or so. It was originally a very reliable unit but not sure how so it has faired over the years.

Also do some maths, while you may save money on motor tax, it could take you along time to recoup it when you take the cost of trading up to a newer car into account.

JabbaTheHut

Oh I know I'm not going to save money, full stop. But cars don't last forever, and now is a good time to change, as opposed to 5 years time when I've spent 4 grand or so more on road tax than changing now for something like this Zafira. Any time a trade up is done it's not going to be an earner, but it'd be less expensive to cut my costs now.

I had the old 1.7 Isuzu engined opel, and it was great, but suffered the fate as them all with the heads cracking. That's why I'm wondering how they are nowadays. Not just the engine, but the car as a whole.

bazz26

1.9 CDTi Fiat engine is a bit more refined but not without it's issues either. 120bhp version seems to be less troublesome than the 150bhp version.

corsav6

bazz26 wrote: »

1.9 CDTi Fiat engine is a bit more refined but not without it's issues either. 120bhp version seems to be less troublesome than the 150bhp version.

The older 150bhp gave swirl flap trouble but that's been sorted on the revised inlet manifold.
The weak point on the zafira was the m32 6 speed gearbox, not sure if that's been sorted on newer models.
The 1.7 zafira will have a fairly strong resale value, probably the most reliable one and enough power to be comfortable driving, unlike the 1.6 petrol.

We were in the market for a 1.7 zafira back in may but couldn't find any that suited. Ended up going for the 150bhp Vectra on a 09 plate as later models had revised components.

JabbaTheHut

corsav6 wrote: »

The older 150bhp gave swirl flap trouble but that's been sorted on the revised inlet manifold.
The weak point on the zafira was the m32 6 speed gearbox, not sure if that's been sorted on newer models.
The 1.7 zafira will have a fairly strong resale value, probably the most reliable one and enough power to be comfortable driving, unlike the 1.6 petrol.

We were in the market for a 1.7 zafira back in may but couldn't find any that suited. Ended up going for the 150bhp Vectra on a 09 plate as later models had revised components.

So would you reckon the car I posted about is pretty solid? The resale value I'm not that concerned about. I want it to be a reliable car that doesn't cost a lot to fix when it goes wrong. I realize that's what most people are after but in this case is the engine/car solid? You know the way some cars are a bad idea from the off, and others and rock solid years after their launch and get a name for reliability?

corsav6

JabbaTheHut wrote: »

So would you reckon the car I posted about is pretty solid? The resale value I'm not that concerned about. I want it to be a reliable car that doesn't cost a lot to fix when it goes wrong. I realize that's what most people are after but in this case is the engine/car solid? You know the way some cars are a bad idea from the off, and others and rock solid years after their launch and get a name for reliability?

As with any diesel you need to drive them properly and service the regularly. I personally service every 6k and clean the egr valve while I'm there. I drive above 2k rpm as much as I can as the turbo is fully spooled and I get better mpg also. If your tipping around town at low rpm's constantly then expect egr failures and also dmf's suffer at lower rpm's too.

So if you can service at 10k most and also drive above 2k rpm with the odd "Italian tune up" then you should be grand.
Reading through some Vauxhall forums is a good idea, plenty of user opinions and any faults that are common will be listed, often with modified fixes and preventative measures.

Best of luck with whatever car you chose.

JabbaTheHut

Thanks for that