I raise you the 3 Vauxhall vehicles my family has possessed. Though the 4th parked outside right now is fine.
I *think* you're saying there that your family's Vauxhalls have been unreliable.. If not completely ignore the next bit. That's weird though. My family currently owns 3 Opels and my dad owned 4 more in the past and only one has had some issues (or two if you count a squeaky automatic boot/trunk mechanism as a problem). The others have always been reliable and never needed much more than regular services. They do usually stay at a pretty low mileage though so that might be a difference. On the topic of Fiat reliability, my 2000 Seicento with ~114k km has definitely seen better days. It occasionally makes odd sounds and has had many parts replaced over the past couple years during maintenance.. But not sure whether that has to do with it being unreliable or the fact I (and my sister before me) mostly drive it on country roads and highways where it needs constant full throttle to get somewhere near speed limits.
And this alone exemplifies how much perception may vary, and how individual perception may influence reputation of brands. Opels are often considered prime examples of no-frills reliability and robustness in continental Europe. The Brits though seem to have a grudge with virtually identical Vauxhalls, their vehicles being often discredited as barely mediocre or perpetual second bests. Go figure. Judging reliability by just a couple of personal experiences makes no sense, but still customers tend to have the proverbial elephant's memory when it comes to problems they have had with any purchase. My family has owned more than a dozen vehicles by FCA in 30 years, among others. Never had a problem with any of them, unless those were exposed to unreasonable abuses (like, a '99 Punto running for over 400 kms with no coolant left in the ruptured radiator, after my sister tailgated a van). The only car we've owned I could consider "unreliable" was an ex-Audi in drag, a Seat Exeo with whatever electrical issue you can think of. Does this suddenly make FIATs reliable, and VAG products something you should avoid? No, because there are so many factors determining reliability of a vehicle, and not every single factor is under the complete manufacturer's control,
FCA products are actually well made, my dad has owned various FIAT Group Cars (Fiat Ritmo, Lancia Delta LX Mk1, Fiat 500 Mk1, Fiat Marea Weekend, Fiat Panda 4x4 Mk1, Fiat Panda 4x4 Mk2, Fiat Croma '09, Autobianchi A112) and never had a single problem in all these cars. I daily drive The Mk2 Panda and the Autobianchi and they are absolutely flawless, the Autobianchi sat in a garage for 10 years and then started at first glance. This may very for different people, my uncle Ritmo was as unreliable as Chinese democracy, some Mareas are destructed by time, Mk2 Pandas suffers of some quality issues... It's more about every single car and its story, we may think that with the assembly line all cars are the same but, unfortunately, this is not true
This is kind of an interesting discussion, because a lot of people think American cars are unreliable, but... my Sunbird has been nothing but bulletproof. It's run for weeks without any coolant whatsoever, in the summer no less, without skipping a beat. It seems to run out of oil rather quickly, but can put up with a lot more... abuse than you'd think in that department. The transmission is a black hole into which fluid disappears with no apparent effect, but it still shifts. All of this with my driving thrown in, too. And after sitting for 6 years, no less. Granted, it does have some electrical problems. The power window switch may randomly deplete the battery and make the engine sputter without actually moving the window if I try to use it when sitting in neutral, and the driver's side window randomly "freezes up" (the longer I let it sit, the more it will move before doing it again). Most recently, my right blinkers have become steady-burn for no apparent reason (still blink with the hazards though).
Preconceptions + expectations blown out of proportion. No manufacturer could (or would) produce shit intentionally. Those that obstinately did (hello British Leyland) are now long out of commission. Even the Chinese are quickly learning to manufacture... 4-wheeled things that work frequently enough to be called "cars". It's just that any complex product like a vehicle is inherently prone to faults, expecially since most components are designed in house but still outsourced. If you knew what the Europeans usually think of american cars... General consensus is that anything coming from across the ocean is crap. Check the sales figures and the reliability records for the Fiat Freemont, a rebadged version of the latest Dodge Journey available in continental Europe since FIAT's takeover. Both are head and shoulders above the Journey previously available (people seem to think that even a FIAT is to be preferred to a Dodge!), even if the two vehicles are pretty much the same, bar a redesigned interior and front clip, and a FIAT-sourced diesel engine...
You know we had 2 vauxhalls that we owned directly. Between them, if not for warranty, over 10 grands worth of repair work from failures. Fuck just check the MOT history of mine, KJ04DVK, such records are public. 3 years in a row failing for the same thing. It was also on its second engine after just 50000 miles. It had multiple ABS recalls. Central locking failures. Body trim LITERALLY fell off, ever just driven along only for the plastic casing to fall off the back of your wing mirror? I have. In the time I owned it, it averaged being in the garage once every 4 weeks. It was a piece of absolute junk. Stepdads insignia was no better. The astra he has as a courtesy car while the insignia was in for engine repairs (thankfully on warranty) broke down within 2 minutes of receiving it. And you know something? I literally do not know a single vauxhall owner that has not had an issue with them. Christ, friends mom had a zafira, spontaneous combustion is fun right? Moms friend also had a zafira, power steering sensor failure at 30mph, then jammed the power steering full lock left, difficult to fight when expected let alone unexpected, broke her arm in the crash that caused. Actually no. I know 1 person that hasnt had an issue. However he doesnt have a driving license and the car hasnt moved a single inch since it was obtained for him. So its not going to have had an issue yet, then again, its a vauxhall, it will probably split in 2 tomorrow. I dont say vauxhall is trash for no reason. I say vauxhall is trash from experiencing it being literally worse than trash. --- Post updated --- My first focus, ran much higher mileages than the corsa initially did. Didnt skip a beat beyond general maintenance. The BMW that replaced the insignia has had a whopping 0 failures, literally only required oil change, tyres and pads. The shogun we had at the same time with my mom hammering on it, only issues we had with that were when she crashed it or engaged the difflock at 80mph. RAV4, abused to all hell (3 clutches in 20000 miles abuse), eventually blew a headgasket which again is probably from where mum fired up a turbodiesel cold, hammer down on it, run it flat out, clutch riding for days, not letting turbo engine cool before other end, no other failures though (so here we are, some vehicles literally abused and should break, solid reliability). It is literally only vauxhall that have ever bitten us. We've even had decent luck with peugeot and saab, both of whom have major reputations for unreliability.
Makes me wonder whether there really is such a difference between Opel and Vauxhall quality, or my family just got lucky, or yours unlucky.
And... I don't know a single Opel owner having so many issues with their car. I don't know what to say, 3 cars out of millions vehicles built every year is not a sample significant enough to draw conclusions from, but who am I to try to change your mind? Why would I, anyway? I'm glad you're happy with your current purchase (leather on the steering wheel of my Focus was melting, by the way), and quite frankly, I don't give a damn about Vauxhall's reputation. I often wonder why Vauxhall is still run today, and why anyone would choose that marque over the much better received Opel, but that's what GM did. This is going way off topic.
Today i bled the brakes on my 1970 Elcamino. I put the C5 corvette disc brakes on it to go along with the LS 5.3 engine.
Just to add to the discussion, my uncle had a zafira (before moving to a Ford galaxy). It was pretty nasty, the interior plastic was the cheapest I had ever felt (and we had a Xara Picasso for reference) and the interior trim was falling apart. Anywhere inside where anything had the ability to move it was broken in some way or form. Equally it was the most miserable car to be inside of too, once again my parents had 2 Xara Picasso's in a row and both were far nicer to be inside of than the Zafira. I think my uncle only had it for 2 years (from new) before he got rid of it and got a second hand Ford Galaxy which was miles better. However he did have a vauxhall cavalier before the Zafira and that was pretty solid afaik. As for reliability of the Citroens, the first was actually pretty bulletproof, it was the bargain basement one with a cassette player and no aircon, it was actually fairly bulletproof, but the backlighting on the LCD display was starting to die so they part exchanged that for a new one, this time the "Deluxe" model (middle of range) with a CD player and air conditioning. This one was not so good, the Turbo made weird ghost like sounds and it spent most of its life in and out of the dealership since they couldn't find the issue. Eventually it broke down at the side of a motorway, greenflag left them stranded at the side of the motorway for hours and so they got rid of the car (and changed breakdown cover) asap (since my mum has raynaud's syndrome meaning her hands get very cold and go grey very quickly). Our current car, the Hyundai I40 is really nice in my opinion, however the touch screen works half of the time at best, not sure if that has been fixed yet. Its the eco model that does 55mpg combined and my parents use it to tow a caravan (1078kg when empty), towing up steep hills does make the car smell of clutch smoke since the clutch can't handle that much although in my opinion that isn't really a big deal cause the car isn't really designed for that. The brake disks also wore down before the brake pads did, according to the dealership that is "normal"... My parents also have a hyundai I10 which hasn't really had any issues to my knowledge. Its been in and out of the garage a couple times for minor things but that is fairly normal. I guess my driving instructor also had bad experiences with vauxhaul, he specifically told me not to get one because in his opinion new drivers tend to crash them because the cars handle badly round corners.
Interesting issue with the check engine light in the Focus. It never goes out. Take the keys out of it and close the door and it's still on. I had the codes read but nothing came up, no code... Edit- Oh Yeah, It also overheats after about 15 mins of idling, not to the red zone but 75% up the gauge, then, the fans go to full blast and it cools off. First car I've ever had that has done this. Not sure what to think about it honestly.
Neither of my focuses did/does either. Actually, I never got either focus to reach 75% on the temp gauge, even with hard usage.
Yup. Right up to the max line. It doesn't move if you romp on it a bit either. Only when idling to long. When you are moving there isn't an issue.
Whoever pulled your codes didn't know what they were doing. On some vehicles (though I don't think the Fuckus is one of them) you have two code trees, one for the automatic trans, and one for the engine. You have to look in both trees under both categories (stored and pending) to be sure. If the OBDII port is not connecting, check your cigarette lighter fuse (they run the OBDII power through that circuit). As for the overheating, check the following things: Water pump (most likely the culprit if it also leaks coolant), thermostat (my personal hunch), and finally for the sake of thoroughness, test for a blown head gasket (see spoiler). Spoiler: Head test Cheap test: Remove the radiator cap while the engine is off and cold. Start the car with the cap removed, turn the heater to full blast, and wait for it to begin to warm up. If you see steam or bubbles coming out of your coolant reservoir before the gauge hits halfway you probably have a blown head gasket. Expensive but conclusive test: Buy block test, and a block test tool. follow the directions and see if it turns yellow (Make sure to not get any coolant into the tool while testing) yellow=bad, blue=good More OT: My truck is still sitting without an engine, but I figured I'd share two catastrophic failures from work today. The first was a Malibu with obliterated bearings. There was about a half inch of compacted metal silt at the bottom of the pan. It's a miracle that it hadn't already slung a rod through the side of the block. The bowl was clean before I took that sample. Those copper colored flakes are what's left of the bearings And here's the pan. Any texture you see is metal sludge. For reference, the bottom of that pan should be clean save for a thin film of oil. The other failure was a blown front axle in a Jeep. When I cracked the diff cover off nothing came out, and under further inspection, I discovered that all of the gear oil had turned into thick pudding. The passenger side wheel can be spun about 1/4 turn without affecting the other parts of the axle, and the pinion can be moved in pretty much any direction without any resistance. Ouch.
I tried to start up my 'trusty' Volvo 244..... It had other ideas..... So, taxi is going to be my transport for the next few days while it serviced.....
