Vauxhall Carlton

Twelve years ago, strapped for cash as usual, with two school aged sons, I looked for a sensible car - used of course. I shopped around, looking at the usual run of Cortina and Escorts. Pretty bored and not a little disheartened by obviously tired ex-rep cars tarted-up with lots of 'back to black' and tire paint, I happened upon a Carlton 2.0CDi. The family all examined it like street kids looking into a sweetshop window. It was a jewel amongst the dreary. So big and spacious. Luxury everywhere, front seats that adjusted up and down as well as the usual fore and aft; tilting steering adjustment; cruise control; electrically operated everything, even ...  Read the complete review

I *love* my Carlton. My husband had it originally as a company car and chose the top of the range Cdi with power steering, fuel injection, the lot.It even has a trip computer which tells me how many mpg I'm doing, how many miles I can do on what's left in the tank (very useful!) and gives me the outside temperature! The one I have is F reg and still going strong after 116,000 miles. A few years ago my husband tried to make me change what had become *my* Carlton for his old Vauxhall Calibra or let him keep the Calibra and have the new Renault Espace as my car. I refused much to his disgust. He was convinced that the Carlton would reach the end of its ...  Read the complete review

Not the best car in the world, but you can't beat it if you want to go mini-cabbing. I used to cab in a Volvo Estate, but every time it went wrong I was off the road for up to 3 days and cost me about £300 to fix. Enough is enough, I thought, most of the cars in the fleet I work for were vauxhall carltons, so off I went to find one for myself. Anyway, I found one locally for £900, G Reg, nice condition, I knocked the poor fella down to £800 even though I knew it was worth the asking price. It's a 2000GLi, what a great car! Nice and big, well enough for 3 big, drunk lads in the back, and the boot will easily take the suitcases needed by a family when I ...  Read the complete review

The Vauxhall Carlton was superseded by the Omega. The Carlton was a lovely car, very big, but also very roomy inside. It is a reasonably economic car for its age and also design, I used to get about 40 miles to the gallon out of a 1.8 injection engine. It is also not to high in the insurance classes simply because of its size. If you have only just learnt to drive it may not be the most manoeuvrable car, as the handling is different from the smaller modern cars, but if you want a car with is reliable and study as well as roomy comfortable and reasonably economic I would suggest a Carlton. In the second hand market they are also reasonably priced. ...  Read the complete review

The Vauxhall carlton has now been replaced by the Omega, but in it's day it was one of the largest and more comfortable 'big cars'. I remember that the styling wasn't that great, but you could fall asleep in one so easily, as the seats were and probably are some of the most comfortable around. At the time this wasn't the biggest Vauxhall, although it was big enough, there was the Vauxhall Senator which wasn't anywhere near as popular, but still another great car; so I suppose the Omega has replaced both of them. Carltons - plenty available second hand and you could pick up a really quick one in good shape for around £2000 which ...  Read the complete review