What do you think?!

[Migwell030744]

Mine was registered 30 September 2010 and I bought it with 12700 miles on the clock. It is a 1.4 SRi Turbo in Sovereign Silver. The thing that upsets me is that the dealers don't seem to listen to you, when you tell them what is wrong with it. My first major fault was the loss of sound from the NSF speaker, the tweeter was OK so it must have been something to do with the main door speaker. They would not listen and blamed the SOT lead for the phone kit, there was not one fitted as the phone kit I had at the time was using it's own speaker. It was the door / window seal letting water in onto the speaker. They fixed it in the end, but if they had listened it would have been fixed a lot sooner. Next problem was the M32 gear box, this time they did a lot better and replaced it at my first go at them. Other small problems like tapping sound they never found, but I cured it in the end with a length of windscreen washer tubing around the front wheel arch liners where they touch the wings. The liners had been tapping when driving over 50 MPH. Cruise Control was a sore point until they replaced the peddle switch that a lot of other people had, had replaced. I love my car and spend quite a lot of time nurturing it. It has now done 32700 miles and so far it is doing not so bad. It is fast enough for me but I am nearly 70 and cant go as fast as I used to. Having said that the other day I found myself doing 80 without knowing about it until I glanced at the speedo. The boot could have been trimmed better as there is a vast waste of space at the sides with the liner being so far from the wings, the boot could have been about 3" wider and that would have helped with the Grand kids push chare not having to be placed in diagonally taking up to much of the space I need for shopping etc. The choice at the time I bought the Astra was between the Astra and an Octavia which I sometimes I wish I had gone for, because of the boot but now I have the Astra I have to content myself as I need to look after the pennies, being retired. The fuel consumption is a bit on the heavy side for local work at about 32 to 33 MPG but that is used for 4 and 8 mile trips to Daughters collecting Grandkids. On a trip up to Edinburgh and back at Christmas time when the wind and rain was bad I managed 45 MPG now that is a lot better and the way it should be, these stupid government figures drive me daft , why can't they be realistic and tell you what you should get instead of this inflated stuff we get in the car broacher's. Another strange thing is the tire sizes 215 X 50 X 17 would have had a lot more choice and cheaper if they had used 215 X 55 X 17 and the ride would have been better too using 39 PSI.

If I ever get another car, I will be more likely to try the Octavia. But there is no such thing as the perfect car, you pay your money and take your chance after all.