Advice needed on buying 2nd hand Astra's

[kts350]

G'day All,
My first post here my old man is looking for a newer and has roughly 11k to play with nad has told me to go find him one.. He's decided he doesnt need a car as big as a commodore anymore so he's downsizing..
His only requirements is that it has a Holden badge on it, I'm thinking Astra but I've only owned Commodores and know nothing about them can anybody give some advice on what problems to look for when looking at Astra's...
Any help will be greatly appreciated..

Cheers,

Wayne

[EL BURITO]

don't look at any thing older than 02.

require a belt change at 60,000Km

[RobCDX]

i can only say shop around and look at heaps of yards. i went all over adelaide (north to south) looking for my car, i compared 4 TS CDX's and went right to the nitty gritty before i made my pick. put heaps of time and effort in but im still happy with my purchase to this day.

[rjastra]

If its a 1.8L... cam belt changes and brake rotor changes is the expensive maintenance.

Try and get a 2.2L SRI. They have a cam chain and larger brakes that don't seem to suffer from the wear that the 1.8L have.

[blueraven]

agreed, try and get the 2.2l engine, its a ripper and relatively bulletproof.

[RobCDX]

If its a 1.8L... cam belt changes and brake rotor changes is the expensive maintenance.

Try and get a 2.2L SRI. They have a cam chain and larger brakes that don't seem to suffer from the wear that the 1.8L have.

yeah i had the 60k service done about 6 months ago, cost me almost $800. the most recent service (75k) cosst me $250. i had the front discs and pads done by another business, he charged $120 for the labour of pad change, disc change. i bought the parts from repco ($70 for the Bendix CT pads and $120 for the RDA discs)

I did think about the slotted discs, but the advice i got was that it wasnt neccessary

[Vectracious]

Stock rotors are very soft, get some aftermarked RDA's or DBA's put in and they will last a LOT longer....

[btm]

agreed, try and get the 2.2l engine, its a ripper and relatively bulletproof.

had mine for over 4 years now and havent had one issue with it

[maloo97]

Def go 2.2 manual.
In saying that i went from a Ts Cd 1.8 Auto to a Ye Calibra 2.0 manual.

[btm]

welcome to the site by the way and good luck with the purchase!

[SRI Wannabe]

Howdy Wayne, if it's the Wayne i know how's the SS?? and welcome I'm only new here myself, after stepping down from the SV6, still have tons to learn, there is a plethora of info on here, from what I've read the running costs are pretty good, it's the main service that's an eye opener for me. $800 for a 60k service dam!

[blueraven]

service costs from dealers are always ridiculous. my 60k service was closer to $600 at ultratune..