01CDsedan
4th March 2007, 08:48 PM
Well guys, my VE SS arrived last Monday (and I've put 1300km on it since then...) and my 2001 TS Astra CD sedan was therefore handed over to the dealer. It's since turned up among their used cars on Carsales:
http://www.carsales.com.au/used-cars/dealer/HOLDEN/ASTRA/details.aspx?__Ns=pCar_StatusSort_Int32|1||pCar_Pr ice_Decimal|0®o=YCY17F&State=All%20States&R=976496&state_id=0&__N=0+834+285+258+287&distance=25&__Dx=mode+matchany&trecs=1&__Nne=20&__sid=11114C85B1DA&__Ntk=CarRego&silo=1000&Cr=0&__D=YCY17F&seot=0&__Ntt=YCY17F&__Ntx=mode+matchallpartial
So, a quick summary of my five years and four months with the car.
On the whole, I'm very happy with how it went and if I needed that
sort of car again, I'd happily buy another one, or recommend them to
someone looking for a small car. I would have kept mine, but we just don't need two cars in the household.
Performance is good, handling is good with no nasty characteristics
(although I'm sure the suspension has softened since new, which you'd
expect, so its handling maybe isn't as nice as it once was - or I'm
pushing it harder). Fuel consumption kept me happy, generally being
in the 6-7l/100km range on trips to Sydney and around 8l/100km around
town in Canberra.
I'd redesign the seats to have more lateral support and make the
steering ratio just slightly quicker, but other than that I think I'd
pretty well leave the rest of the design alone.
Problems I've had:
The doors were a bit rattly to begin with - this was a known problem
and different strikers were fitted that fixed the problem.
The CD player doesn't spit CDs out properly - you have to pull them
out the last little bit. It started doing this fairly early on and I
didn't think it was enough of a problem to worry about replacing it.
The crank angle sensor failed at about 15,000km - apparently this is
common. It didn't make the car undriveable but it did increase fuel
consumption while it was playing up.
The electric motor powering the driver's side mirror adjustment failed
at about 75,000km, even though I hardly ever used it.
I've had precisely zero things go wrong since the warranty expired two
and a half years ago. In fact, nothing has gone wrong since that
power mirror adjuster some time in 2004. I can only hope its
replacement will be as good.
Service costs have been allright. The 60,000km timing belt change is
a bit of a pain and costs about $700 each time. I didn't want to have
to do another one under my ownership.
Two sets of tyres - the OE Dunlops were replaced at 75k, and the
Michelin Pilot Precedas that I put on after that were replaced at
about 140k. Currently running Bridgestone Potenza GIII, which I don't
think are as good as the Michelins were - too soft.
Replaced the brakes once - rear pads and discs at about 100k or so,
front pads and discs at 130-ish I think. I don't remember the cost
but I don't remember it being expensive.
Two trips to the panelbeater - one after someone scraped it with a
white car in the hospital carpark and didn't leave a note, and one
after I collected a roo which put a tennis ball sized dent in the
bonnet.
Still looks as good as new, will probably be a cheap buy for the next
owner because of its mileage compared to its age, but they'll be
getting a better car than they would if they bought one that had done
half that mileage in Sydney IMHO.
On the whole, very happy with it, and highly recommended. I'm very
glad I bought this instead of the N16 Pulsar I was also considering at
the time.
http://www.carsales.com.au/used-cars/dealer/HOLDEN/ASTRA/details.aspx?__Ns=pCar_StatusSort_Int32|1||pCar_Pr ice_Decimal|0®o=YCY17F&State=All%20States&R=976496&state_id=0&__N=0+834+285+258+287&distance=25&__Dx=mode+matchany&trecs=1&__Nne=20&__sid=11114C85B1DA&__Ntk=CarRego&silo=1000&Cr=0&__D=YCY17F&seot=0&__Ntt=YCY17F&__Ntx=mode+matchallpartial
So, a quick summary of my five years and four months with the car.
On the whole, I'm very happy with how it went and if I needed that
sort of car again, I'd happily buy another one, or recommend them to
someone looking for a small car. I would have kept mine, but we just don't need two cars in the household.
Performance is good, handling is good with no nasty characteristics
(although I'm sure the suspension has softened since new, which you'd
expect, so its handling maybe isn't as nice as it once was - or I'm
pushing it harder). Fuel consumption kept me happy, generally being
in the 6-7l/100km range on trips to Sydney and around 8l/100km around
town in Canberra.
I'd redesign the seats to have more lateral support and make the
steering ratio just slightly quicker, but other than that I think I'd
pretty well leave the rest of the design alone.
Problems I've had:
The doors were a bit rattly to begin with - this was a known problem
and different strikers were fitted that fixed the problem.
The CD player doesn't spit CDs out properly - you have to pull them
out the last little bit. It started doing this fairly early on and I
didn't think it was enough of a problem to worry about replacing it.
The crank angle sensor failed at about 15,000km - apparently this is
common. It didn't make the car undriveable but it did increase fuel
consumption while it was playing up.
The electric motor powering the driver's side mirror adjustment failed
at about 75,000km, even though I hardly ever used it.
I've had precisely zero things go wrong since the warranty expired two
and a half years ago. In fact, nothing has gone wrong since that
power mirror adjuster some time in 2004. I can only hope its
replacement will be as good.
Service costs have been allright. The 60,000km timing belt change is
a bit of a pain and costs about $700 each time. I didn't want to have
to do another one under my ownership.
Two sets of tyres - the OE Dunlops were replaced at 75k, and the
Michelin Pilot Precedas that I put on after that were replaced at
about 140k. Currently running Bridgestone Potenza GIII, which I don't
think are as good as the Michelins were - too soft.
Replaced the brakes once - rear pads and discs at about 100k or so,
front pads and discs at 130-ish I think. I don't remember the cost
but I don't remember it being expensive.
Two trips to the panelbeater - one after someone scraped it with a
white car in the hospital carpark and didn't leave a note, and one
after I collected a roo which put a tennis ball sized dent in the
bonnet.
Still looks as good as new, will probably be a cheap buy for the next
owner because of its mileage compared to its age, but they'll be
getting a better car than they would if they bought one that had done
half that mileage in Sydney IMHO.
On the whole, very happy with it, and highly recommended. I'm very
glad I bought this instead of the N16 Pulsar I was also considering at
the time.