I'm looking at one as a second car, ones came up that i've liked for a while.

Does anyone have any experience with them ?

It's a 2000 V Reg, 2.5 V6.

I test drove one when I was looking around '99. Very high geared and not very torquey.

I ended up buying an ST200 as I had Mondeos before and it was the better car performance and handling wise.

Perhaps not what you want to hear but it was my impression at the time. :|

Perhaps not what you want to hear but it was my impression at the time. :|

Exactly what i want to hear

Would rather be aware of these things before hand.

Thanks.

Explosive gearboxs Iirc

HTH

Explosive gearboxs Iirc

HTH

Really ?

They're not exactly powerful cars either, so thats quite surprising.

Had a lot of Vauxhalls in the past, and maybe i've been lucky, but never had issues with any of them.

The main thing with those engines is, as usual, check the cam belt, and there's an oil cooler between the banks of cylinders that can spring a leak.

I've never heard of gearbox problems. Some people don't reckon the engine as it lacks torque at low revs -but it's super smooth and sounds very nice.

Phil

I had a 140 SRi vectra, whcih had the same box as the gsi, when my box exploded (the diff), I did a bit a of research and the general feeling was that the boxes were pooh on both both models.

Oh, Ok. My Omega (which had the same engine) was an auto!

Phil

I'm looking at one as a second car, ones came up that i've liked for a while.

Does anyone have any experience with them ?

It's a 2000 V Reg, 2.5 V6.

Avoid at all costs. Exploding diff carrier in gearbox, reverse idler gears breaking, Cambelt exploding pulleys. Rust.

My cambelt pulley melted as well, but it was ok it only cost £1800 to repair, bargin imo :S

Oh yeah the box cost another £1000 as well

Best car I have ever owned that one.

Not sounding 100% good is it lol

I test drove one when I was looking around '99. Very high geared and not very torquey.

I ended up buying an ST200 as I had Mondeos before and it was the better car performance and handling wise.

Perhaps not what you want to hear but it was my impression at the time. :|

Yep exactly the same experience , tried a couple and the gearing is much too high , i also bought an st24 which just did the job much better.

ever driven a vectra???? the older ones like you looking at go round corners like a barge, eat petrol and oil, aint that quick and still cost money to insure cos of the "big" engine and sporty tag.

a basic mondeo would be miles better in almost every way and wont fall over in a bend. i wouldnt waste your cash fella.

ever driven a vectra????

Yep, i used to have a Vectra Sri. Didn't have one spot of bother with it, and despite the abuse i gave it, it just kept going, and was very chuckable through the corners.

I'm sorry to say but the general consensus seems to be avoid at all costs.

Sorry mate. :|

As a counterpoint a mate in work had the same model/age Vectra you're considering.

His wife smashed it up, so he bought the '51 reg vRS that he later sold to me to buy a W reg 325i Touring.

Of the three he said the Skoda felt the quickest but the Vectra was definitely his favourite.

brother's girlfriend has a 3.2 v6 GSI (it's a 52 plate so the slightly newer Vectra C?); it's thirsty but it's comfy, goes well and seems perfectly chuckable

MY first car was a cavalier sri and ive had my fair share of so called performance vauxhalls until about mid 2007 when i bought a different brand and havnt looked back. I stuck with the 4 cylinder c20xe/c20let engined cars, the only good thing i can think of with the vectra b gsi is the exterior looks and the recaro front seats thats where it ends im afraid.

The x25xe isnt a great engine theyre riddled with loads of problems a few of which other people have already mentioned such as cambelt tensiors failing, coilpacks, cam and crank sensors failing, rocker cover gaskets leaking and bearing in mind its a v6 the rear bank is an complete PITA to get to without taking off the inlet manifold!

Then theres the performance or lack of it, the gsi engine was based on the 170bhp 2.5 v6 sri engine but it had various tweaks and MSD camshafts to give a claimed 190 ish bhp ofcourse non of the engines ever make the claimed figure and are usually around the 170-180bhp figure anyway. Couple that with a VERY heavy flywheel and the stupidly long ratioed F25 gearbox and theyre just useless IMHO.

Trust me ive been there buying a 10 year old vauxhall isnt a good move unless you enjoy fixing your car every weekend which is definatly the case with most of the ecotec powered cars

Edited 12 December, 200916 yr by bonelorry

i think this thread might have just saved the op a few quid

ive had two mondeo ST24'a and they were excellent cars.

My mate had a GSI. He swore he would never have another Vauxhall after. He drives a pink Saxo now so it must have been bad.

If I remember rightly it cost him well over £1k in head gasket and running problems, knowing him that'd have been mates rates too.

Well after all the comments, as nice as the car is, it really is mint !

I'll give it a swerve.

Thanks for all the input guys.

I've thought about getting a vectra gsi in the past nice looking car with nice soundtrack with the v6 lump, dont think i would ever buy one, defo not now ive read this thread! lol

But one other car i thought about too is a mg zs 180, also with a v6 looks good and i think they handle well anyone know much about these?

I've thought about getting a vectra gsi in the past nice looking car with nice soundtrack with the v6 lump, dont think i would ever buy one, defo not now ive read this thread! lol

But one other car i thought about too is a mg zs 180, also with a v6 looks good and i think they handle well anyone know much about these?

someone in our town has an mg 180 , the one based on the 45 with the V6.... I once followed him from ambleside to keswick in the vRS, it was all I could do to keep up! was a little faster, and definatley handled better, especially in the high speed corners, by the end of the run I'd gone from being right behind him to being about half a mile away! Don't know anything about the reliability, but i do know the 180 can be tuned to 200bhp with out too much effort using conventinal means....

I know the engine pretty much inside out, had a fair few in pieces out of omegas, seen some pretty spectacular failures