Southern reg Vauxhalls

They can be had very cheaply in the UK. It wouldn't really bother me to be honest, you can always swap the badge and be done with it if it did bother you. The back of AN astra means you'll have to buy a new boot lid switch alright but others are a straight swap.

Specs are actually slightly higher on the Irish ones compared to the UK equivalent. There are one or two models extra there though and they do special editions too which rarely happens here.

MuppetCheck wrote: »

Specs are actually slightly higher on the Irish ones compared to the UK equivalent. There are one or two models extra there though and they do special editions too which rarely happens here.

Thing is if you were to look for one on the second hand market, the spec would be much better in Britain. They'll buy 1.6, 1.4 and 1.6 turbo petrols or 2.0 CDTI diesels in SRi or Elite spec. The Irish will buy whatever spec is the lowest, with the boggo NA 1.4 petrol, or, since diesel is all the rage these days, the 1.3 CDTi with its miserable 95 bhp. An Irish spec SRi may be better than a British spec one, but you won't find many on the emerald isle whereas there's no shortage of them in the UK, not least because Vauxhalls are considerably more popular there than Opels are in Ireland.

Oh the black and tan shame of aircon and cruise control !

captainspeed wrote: »

Thing is if you were to look for one on the second hand market, the spec would be much better in Britain. They'll buy 1.6, 1.4 and 1.6 turbo petrols or 2.0 CDTI diesels in SRi or Elite spec. The Irish will buy whatever spec is the lowest, with the boggo NA 1.4 petrol, or, since diesel is all the rage these days, the 1.3 CDTi with its miserable 95 bhp. An Irish spec SRi may be better than a British spec one, but you won't find many on the emerald isle whereas there's no shortage of them in the UK, not least because Vauxhalls are considerably more popular there than Opels are in Ireland.

Of course they will be - it's a much larger market. From using UK forums a lot the SRI and Elite spec models are in the minority and there are a surprising amount of basic N/A petrol too. The specs aren't as high as you'd think - seems bluetooth, xenons and shiny wheels are the big ones with the odd nav. Par for the course on all makes.

What winds me up about specs here is they charge for bluebook. They do in the UK too but it should be standard.

corsav6 wrote: »

We have 2 vauxhalls, prefer the spec and the badge is far nicer.
OP, are you saying you and your dad actually waited to spend more money on a lower spec Opel just to avoid the Vauxhall badge?

I don't know why you'd do that. Big discounts on one should be expected.

Buy a Vauxhall, then go on e-bay and spend about €50 on Opel badges and an Opel grill and you get a better specced "Opel" for smaller money.

Simples

Cogsy88 wrote: »

Stay away from both opel and vauxhall. There rubbish.

What would you recommend then?

I bought an 05 astra there in November, €2600 and I'll tell you one thing by far better condition then the crap you see for sale down here. Not one scratch, interior spotless, air con, cruise control and a full service history.

Its a bit weird since its an American owned German company.

captainspeed wrote: »

Opel in Ireland has a much better reputation than Vauxhall does in the UK, remember all those motoring articles (especially in Top Gear) about how bad 90s Vauxhalls were? Especially the original Vectra (or second generation Vectra for Opel buyers).

Thing is, Vauxhall has a far higher share of the market in Britain than it does in Ireland, so reputation only counts for so much, Vauxhall is number 2 in Britain, Opel is far lower down the sales charts in Ireland...

Yes Vauxhall faired very badly in the top gear satisfaction surveys back in the day, which wasn't surprising really when you think of the muck cars they were churning out at the time.

Toyota and Honda were at the most satisfying to own in the UK at the time.

bs2014 wrote: »

My parents have had 5 opels and drove opel this past 16 years, never given a days trouble any of them, the thing is, I somewhat like them, but I want to like vauxhalls, but despite sri spec ect, the badge just irritates me!

No one has driven any car/cars for 16 years without a days trouble!

Quazzie wrote: »

Buy a Vauxhall, then go on e-bay and spend about €50 on Opel badges and an Opel grill and you get a better specced "Opel" for smaller money.

Simples

Would there not be issues with insurance as your insuring a Vauxhall not an opel, yet it would have opel badges on it?

Cogsy88 wrote: »

Anything. Jus don't buy opel/vauxhall.

I have found, contrary to another poster that Vauxhalls are quite dear to buy in the UK.
Back to why I would never buy one.
The 1.4 petrol engine, the one with the timing chain is a disaster.
The chain will struggle to get past 80k miles without being replaced.
There is a plastic water take off pipe on the water pump that becomes brittle and breaks.

They are very prone to overheating and head gasket trouble and very often self destruct in those situations.
And they do not have a temperature guage just in case you you might cop on to a heating problem developing.
Second hand engines are like hens teeth and 60k mls engines are fetching up to €1000.
I think that says it all.

Could you not get in trouble with the Gardai for rebadging a car?

Cogsy88 wrote: »

Always crap turbos, combos snap timing chains. Astras give trouble with erg valves. 1.0 liter corsas also snap chains. Older ones rust and fall apart and don't get me started on c20xes and c20lets leak oil everywhere cause of dat stupid 2 part sump gasket nd they also burn huge amounts of oil. Zaffys also Burn oil. I had an opel once nd the chain tensioner failed. Total engine wipeout. Ders a reason y der so cheap secondhand.

Total engine wipeout? Maybe you should have serviced it and the tensioner wouldn't have been oil starved.
I have owned a few vauxhalls over the years and had the usual egr problems, but regular servicing and don't thrash them until they warm up and their a sound car.
Searh Google for the cause of most of the problems you listed and you will see most can be avoided. And while your at it compare their reliability to other manufacturers, not as bad as you make out.