Potential Owner

[stewy]

Hi guys,

Nice forum, as the title says not a owner yet, more in the early stages of looking to upgrade my current ride (nissan pulsar) Am looking to stay with the 2.0+ Ltr motor, but really the main point of the car will be for daily commute and minor weekends away, so not really going to be my toy per say thats why i have a road and track bike which are my fun toys, but yeah don't want something dull to commute in either.

So here comes my question, having never owned a turbo car before, how much extra maintance is there, compared to a normal engine. How do standard sri and sri-t compare performance wise.... what sort of things should i be looking out for on both models (oh yeah btw it's not the newer shape models i am looking at either). I hear timing chains are a problem for the astra?

Anyway any feedback or advice from you guys would be great.

Cheers stewy

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[sooty]

Welcome mate,
Looking at G's (the older model) you won't have trouble finding one, the market is pretty flooded with them. As you've said the timing belt and water pump are common things to go but should be fixed at the 60k service. The owners here don't really seem to have many problems with them at all.
Difference between the n/a 2.2 and the turbo is such that many of the drivers with the 2.2 wished they bought the turbo after having driven it. You can pick one up pretty cheap and you'd have a sweet daily driver.
Other guys will tell you more soon i have no doubt

[sadavidsriturbo]

yeah dont get the 2.2 if you dont have to eg Ps $$ ect i borrowed my friends 2.2 did not like it at all

[stewy]

yeah i am not on restrictions or anything like that.....what sort of $$$ would be a fair price for the turbo models?

As again depends on maintance required as well, as thats one of my main concerns has a turbo and using it as a daily.....

[sooty]

The turbo drivers will be able to further clarify, but the maintenance isn't that far above that of a n/a petrol.
As for prices, check on carsales, seen turbos going for as cheap as like $13,500 of late..

[bluemuppet]

I am yet to even make the 3000km service in my 2.0 SRi-T, but will certainly let you know how it all adds up along the way. So far, the car has been an absolute blast to drive around. I am using it mostly for to/from work each day and it's a nice smooth ride in traffic, but can bust a nut when you need to overtake/corner. The t-steer is a little disconcerting (not used to a fwd), but very easy to deal with.