Lacks charisma and reliability (Vauxhall Chevette)

Member Name: ahenry

Product:	Vauxhall Chevette
Date:	22/02/01 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap to fix

Disadvantages: You'll get practice

The Vauxhall Chevette is a car which is too outdated to stand comparison with a modern car, and too slow and without the charisma be a classic. Cars have moved on in the last 20 years in many ways. The day to day reliability has improved enormously with fuel injection and electronic engine management even if it does cost a fortune if it ever does go wrong. The passive safety (air bags, ABS, side impact bars, improved crumple zones etc), security (deadlocks, immobilisers).
I owned a Chevette when it was 6 years old with about 50,000 miles. At that time, there was a fair amount of rust coming through behind the headlights. It was on its third engine and second gear box. I had the saloon which had a fairly big boot, but which wasn't particularly flexible. The rear seat in the hatchback folded, but it didn't fold flat and the load space was a lot more cramped than with the equivalent modern supermini. The 1256cc engine was never a ball of fire. The top speed was 90mph. With rear wheel drive, it was fun to drive in the snow or around a gravelly car park, but the handling was too soggy, with lots of understeer to be much fun on a country lane. With a four speed gearbox, cruising on motorways wasn't quiet.
Good things about it are that its easy to repair, with lots of space to get at the engine and it was reasonably comfortable on long journeys, but I don't think I'll be buying another. Modern cars are much more practical.

Summary: