I've got one of these as a courtesy car while the Mazda's in for repair. (father in law smashed into it) it's an 07 model in silver. 140BHP.

First Impressions: It's a Vauxhall Vectra.

General Design: Looks like a Vectra with an Astra welded to the front.

Interior: Who said that? It's very dark in here. Oh hang on I've just been blinded by those shiny shiny plastics.

Driving: I tend not to. It's slow and asthmatic. You can feel the weight of the car holding you back and pitching you dramatically into every corner. The brakes are neither smooth nor progressive, they're either on or off. The suspension has obviously been inspired by a day out at the seaside and several hours spent on the Bouncy Castle. I've never driven a car that bounces and rolls about so much, it's like a ship at sea. Oh, but wait I remember a MK4 Astra that felt similar.

The gearchange is terrible, it feels like you're trying to poke a toad in a vat of jelly with a miniature pogo stick. The sound system is weak, the steering wheel controls are fiddly and complicated to operate. The driving position is poor, although the seat goes up and down and the steering wheel has rake/reach, it's still really hard to feel comfortable. The engine is really really noisy and sounds like it's going to explode at 4K revs even though the red line starts at 7K, I'd swear it was a 1.6l engine.

It's a horrible horrible car and I can't believe people actually pay hard currency for these cars. Vauxhall should be arrested for obtaining money by deception. This car is quite clearly a Mk 1 cavalier with a new body welded on.

Nice review.

A friend had a previous shape vectra 2.5 that blew up cause he hadn't bothered to get the cam bet changed.

He bought one of the current shape 1.8s (about 5 years old) as it was the first car they offered him and I did wonder about his sanity at the time

I drove a vectra once for 3 miles........ got out of it with back ache..

one of the things I don't like about my punto is the power steering system... guess what? it's a vauxhall power streering system :(

1.8 is the slug, it's underpowered, also Life spec is very low and it reflects on the car when you get 1st impressions, try a 2.2 Direct or one of the CDTi's in Design/Elite spec, you'll change your view, seat's are firm to start, your body does adjust to them, but the squabs are too short for my liking.

Agree with everything said by OP. Had one for a week and impressions were not favourable. 1.8 engine is pants. Fuel economy is poor. Only saving grace is you could chuck it into the corners once you managed to attain 50 or more. But it was a petrol and a diesel car of the same model is always a different kettle of fish.Glad to get a Fabia 1.2 HTTP as a temporary replacement.

Drove one 20 metres last week at work, customer hired one from europe car whilst their VDub was in for repair as we were out of loan cars... gotta say it is bloody awful and I only drove it far enough to repark it. Talk about feeling cheap.

Did a quick test in a Signum Elite 150cdti this weekend and even that felt a bit cheap (The dash is crap but the Sat Nav worked well) although it seems a much better package considering you can get a 1 year old one with 6k on the clock for

I have the unfortunate pleasure of a 1.8 Vectra while my lovely Octavia is built........

It's crap...................

Bad points:

Pretty much the same as OP but i'll say them anyway.

The ride is hilarious, when driving over the expansion joints found on motorway interchange corners the car wallows and yaws like it's running on jelly.

The fuel economy is averaging about 23mpg as it's full of tools, shocking!

The plasti-chrome vent controls: what were they thinking!!!

The faux alloys: nasty!

Stereo: rubbish

Gearbox: like stirring gravel

The indicators are total garbage and I don't care what spec or engine combination you can have, I will never hand over my hard earnt for one of these.

Good points:

I'll have my L&K very soon

my dad has the 1.8 16V VVT 140bhp engine in his astra and it feels fine and pulls quite well :confused: but the rest i cannot agree or argue with as i haven't had the misfortune of driving a new vectra

are the indicators the one touch things? if they are then whats so confusing about them? they are on my dads car and i find them very good to drive with if you understand how they work