we have a 2014 (14reg) 1.6 petrol Astra we brought new. It has been a disappointment from day one; minor things keep going wrong, servicing is through the roof; people keep driving into it (no joke!) it just seems like a cursed car. on the up side; it does have a lifetime warranty (to 100K miles) and when everything is working is a great car.
however we have found a BMW320i locally for the same price we can sell our car for (via those websites which we’ve done before) trouble is that is a 59 reg and done 60k miles has no warranty etc.

should we keep the astra knowing it will be a pain, but at least will not cost us repair bills or do we get the BMW hoping it doesn’t break down?!

Go beemer. At least if you don’t like it in 6 to 12 months it will have kept it’s value better than the Astra.

The BMW is the nicer car obviously but not sure it’s going to help lower your servicing costs (BMW service costs themselves are pretty reasonable but OEM parts can be pricey). I would say though do research on the specific model you’re looking at to see when major items might need replacing. I got shot of my 330ci at around 40k miles as it was coming up to needing some expensive bits done (or at least checked and the service costs for that can be steep).

BMW have problems just like GM (Vauxhall).

I’d stick with the car you know and have already invested in.

We bought a 320i from new (well pre reg, 11 months old, 17 miles on the clock, ‘bargain’) and it’s been driven into/hit 3 times, all hit and run, including a joyrider doing over £5k to it all before we got to 10k miles. We decided it was cursed, so the BMW might not be the safe bet 😉

Either buy the cheapest car you have least emotional attachment to or buy the one that’s nicest to be in and drive. Motoring is never hassle free and always costs one way or another.

The 320i is a nice car though, fairly thirsty, not hugely powerful but pretty smooth and refined.

Well hot dang, I was just about to start almost the exact same thread. Onlt difference is I’m looking at a 10-12reg 320i and I’ve got a leased focus going back so will have to get something.

From the research I’ve done the 2l petrol is fairly reliable other than coil packs which some had sorted under warranty. But I’ve never had a bimmer before, and not had a car without a warranty for 5+ years, whatever I get is unlikely to have a warranty now and the mrs likes the 3 series, I think we’ll probably go for it unless some sage advice/horror stories come up on here.

servicing is through the roof – why ?

if you think a bimmer will be any cheaper to service you’ll only be dissapointed.

I just sold my Civic that worked perfectly and bought a mondeo.

Why? Because I hated the civic. Simple as that.

If a car isn’t making you happy, get rid. Whatever the reason.

Life is too short to spend hours and hours in a car you don’t want to be in.

I had a 2008 320i and the only thing that needed doing was coils (well known issue).

Servicing for bimmers over 4 yrs old isn’t too bad even at main dealers as most do a special cheaper service for the older cars. I never paid more than £200 for any service or repair at a main dealer.

The 320i’s are lovely and smooth and surprisingly quick if you’re willing to rev the nuts off them (you may not be interested in this aspect 😀 )

What age is the BM?

Our 330 (2006) wasn’t too bad to run other than fuel and tax. The rear tyres were pricey (18 35 255’s). The actual servicing wasn’t too bad and if you don’t do many miles, it’s not that often. The condition based servicing is a pain though because it is designed to get the car into the garage as much as possible. Even the pollen filter has its own schedule!

Parts can be sourced for reasonable money from GSF and ECP which can help keep costs down and there are loads of good independent specialists too.

people keep driving into it (no joke!)

Is it a dark grey!?

My wife had a dark grey fiesta once and people just didn’t seem to see it – she had loads of near misses.

Can’t understand why the servicing is so high on the Astra – on new cars it’s usually just oil and filters. And anything major should be covered by warranty.

As for getting the BMW – you might be fine, you might not. If not it will cost you £££££s!

Is the Astra on finance? If so go to another dealer and see if they can offer you some sort of part-ex deal (possibly low deposit PCP). Even if it costs you a little more each month.

And your first mistake was to get a Vauxhall! 😉

Replace a two year old car with a seven year old one? Feels daft to me.

No warranty? So the seller has great faith in it. Aren’t the 320’s a reverse TARDIS? What are you gaining? I’d rather have the 5yr warranty and …this is what I did- every service time I’d ring found the closest 3main dealers and ask for their best service (fixed) price. They will compete. So a 6yr old car that may (or not) have been a lease/company hack then wound back before it’s 3rd MOT. You buy into it then spend money fixing any gremlins. They aren’t even that great a car. Dynamically the Astra is actually supposed to be a really good car to drive.

I know what you mean about certain cars seemingly being cursed.

My previous Fiesta was a hateful thing, always little niggles with it. But it was never doored in a car park, rubbed against, or pranged by anyone other than me. Even seemd inpervious to stone chips, only had two tiny ones in 133k miles! Kept it for so long as it never broke down, well it didn’t until my first ever Alps adventure where it decided to not bother recharging the battery anymore outside Dijon 😡 I even tried leaving it in dodgy places thinking it’d get nicked but no, it just soldiered on annoying me.
Replaced it with a Fabia and that got hit by a shopping trolley on day 6, got a stone chip on week 7 (repaired) and then another stone chip right next to it. It’s had 5 punctures that have always needed a new tyre, every time it’s always been the left rear too. The last one is sat in the boot and can go swivel until payday! Recently had someone scuff the rear bumper, the towbar’s been rubbed a few times and it seems to be a magnet for seagulls to defacate on 👿 The most annoying one was when a dog jumped up at me while I was putting the shopping in the boot and it left three gouges in the bumper as it got off the sill. I really try to be careful with it but it’s currently got countless scratches all over it, a few little dings and bird poo in a few places. The Fiesta was ragged up fireroads, had my bikes in the boot covered in mud etc and looked like new after a valet.

Anyway, I’d keep the Astra until the warranty runs out then flog it.

A 2-3yr old car should ‘t cost more than £250 a service unless you are doing huge miles. Is the dealer coming up with a shopping list and you are saying yes ?

people keep driving into it (no joke!)

I’ve had my car for three and a half years, and have had five or six collisions in it. In every case, I was either stationary or not even in the car. That and the doors are covered in little dints from people opening doors into it in car parks.

I can understand that it must be hard to see, being a metallic red family saloon. Next service I’m going to see if I can have it demagnetised.

Re coil packs on bimmers – I had three go on my old one. Simple solution – always keep a spare in the boot (cost about £17 trade), and the AA will fit it for free.

Think what the OP means about the servicing is as it has the 100,000 mile warranty, he has to use Vauxhall for the servicing so they may be ripping him off to pay back some of the warranty ?

That lifetime warranty sounds like a load of rubbish to me. A modern car is capable of way more than 100k so it’s hardly lifetime.

Yep essentially vauxhall have me by the balls for servicing. Basically has to be serviced with them to maintain warranty. Service includes nothing and everything is extra. Charged £330 to change oil filter and brake fluid. I went ape when Mrs raving dave told me that. Car is bright red not hard to miss!

Handbrake failed on Friday rolled down Street into neighbours garden. Fortunately no one was hurt

That lifetime warranty sounds like a load of rubbish to me. A modern car is capable of way more than 100k so it’s hardly lifetime.

Who decides lifetime then?

My MG is 40+ years old, it’s had a new chassis, body, reconditioned engine and gearbox and the suspension is currently being rebuilt. But it’s still alive. Would you expect Vauxhall to cover that on a new Astra, or is 10 average years probably considerably longer than almost anyone buying a new car will keep it?

@raving £330 for brake fuild and oil is more than I pay Porsche main dealer – that’s robbery. My car only needs a service every 24 months too.

Your car doesn’t sound like a “good one” indeed more of a lemon you may get more for it and sell it more easily with some warranty. We stopped taking our Audi to main dealer due to similar rip off servicing “recommendations”

who is to say you won’t have the same problems with an older car that has done more miles, they might be selling it because it’s a lemon. At least you have warranty

Surely the benefit of a new car (which you’re paying a lot of extra money/lease/depreciation for anyway over second hand) is that it doesn’t need expensive servicing and has a warranty to cover major repairs?

With due respect sounds like you don’t know a lot about cars. Swapping to a 7 year old BMW just because it’s the same price as your Astra doesn’t sound like the way to buy a car to me. Suggest you work out what car you’d like (buy some car magazines, read reviews, go for test drives, do some research on Autocar website or similar). Once you’ve narrowed it down to the model you’d like then do more research, common faults, things to look out for specific to that model etc. It’s all out there online if you look. You’ll then go into a prospective purchase armed with all the information you need.

For example, if you’d looked into BMW’s you’d have found that the 320d (diesel) is held in far higher regarded than the 320i (petrol) both in terms of reliability, characteristics and driving experience.

Or you could bypass the above thinking it seems like too much hassle and then end up getting shafted or with another car that’s no better than you currently have?

You don’t need to get your car serviced by Vauxhall.

The EU block exemption rules mean any garage can service a car and maintain the manufacturer warranty so long as the correct parts are used. This has been the case for almost 15 years.

This can also be filed in the bulging wallet labelled “What’s the EU ever done for us”.

If the dealer have been telling you they have to service it, I’d be inclined to go for every avenue of complaint available. Credit card company if you paid with one, social media, watchdog, Vauxhall UK etc.

Yep essentially vauxhall have me by the balls for servicing. Basically has to be serviced with them to maintain warranty.

Does it specifically say that in the terms? I thought you were free to get your car serviced by any reputable/qualified mechanic, as long as they use genuine (vauxhall) parts and still maintain any warranties.
[EDIT – CROSS POSTED WITH TRON!]

However, there are benefits to dealer servicing…

Our 2009 Civic had a full dealer history (up until last weekend that is) after calling them up, as a gesture of goodwill Honda changed our defective clutch for 2hrs warranty rate labour. The car was 6yrs old, out of warranty and getting on for 90,000 miles. Sounds great, and it is as the previous owner paid all the Honda service costs! Add that up and I’m sure it would have been lots cheaper to pay for the clutch.

However, I stay away from dealers at all costs, at a push I will go to an Independent but only if I really think I can’t cope with the task. An example why…I’ve just fixed the air con on the above Honda, with some Google tips. It was intermittent and stopped working after a few minutes. First I got the ‘free’ regas at KwikFit, it blatantly didn’t work but they still charged me but no matter, ten minutes later I had my refund. Then I changed a £10 ‘known fault’ relay, that didn’t work. Then I discovered a known fault with the compressor clutch. Bought a £3 shim set, removed the engine undertray and wheel arch liner, and measured the gap between the compressor clutch and its pulley. So big my fattest feeler gauge was useless. I braced the compressor clutch with a block of wood and undid one bolt to remove the clutch plate from the compressor, took out the 0.7mm shim and put it all back without even using the £3 shim set. Result, works perfectly, plus did the service and new aux belt whilst the trays were off. Honda’s solution is to replace the whole compressor, the charge for this is between £450-£600!

So I had plenty of ‘saved money’ to treat myself to a low profile socket set to get to that pulley bolt 🙂

“.3. Customer duties to retain warranty
The Lifetime Warranty is dependent on an annual visit of the vehicle to a Vauxhall Authorised Repairer who will activate and validate the warranty extension for another year starting from the 12 month period from registration or anniversary of registration. Activation and validation of the warranty is required every 12 months. This can only be carried out by a Vauxhall Authorised Repairer. The activation and validation can be performed up to 14 days after the expiry date.”

So yeah you dont have to get it serviced by them but giving them a nice big get out clause if your garage cant prove that the 60 gallon drum of oil they use is vauxhall approved….

GM Dexos 2 oil isn’t exactly expensive. You could go and buy the GM oil and filter from them if you were super paranoid and give them to your indy…

I suspect an element of the 20 minute check they do is looking for stuff that should get picked up and sorted at service that could cause knock on failures. Cracking belts and hoses, ancient brake fluid etc.

Who decides lifetime then?

Vauxhall do. When the car reaches 100k they send someone round to kill you.

You could be jumping from the frying pan into the fire with the BMW as someone has alluded to..it may be another lemon.
My twopenneth worth…what you typed abopve re annual check seems to read as just that…a check, NOT a service (happy to stand corrected)
Ring another Vauxhall dealer and ask how much they charge for the annual check then get it serviced elsewhere far far cheaper using parts bought from Vauxhall, keeping receipts. That is if you actually want to keep the car.
In your shoes I’d be part-exing it and buying something else nearly new rather than 7 yrs old. Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda etc…..

Is it true that manufacturers have a component 7yr lifespan designed into the car?

You can’t design many things so that they go pop at bang on 7 years old…

You can design things on the basis that you have a warranty of X years and balance the level of failures repaired under warranty against the cost of better performing materials.

But pushing that too hard isn’t a great strategy as residual values are important for most car manufacturers, and cars that fail massively straight out of warranty aren’t going to maintain good residuals.

The people working on developing the cars will have a very good idea of where their competitors test specs are set, but I can’t imagine many coming on here and spilling the beans! I have read that SAAB used to run their engines to the equivalent of 100k on the heavy load test to make sure they were happy with the durability. Vauxhall / GM were happy with 60k.

I don’t think it is a case of age, cost or practicality. It is having something that you think is good enough to be looked after and maintained that justifies it’s purchase.

If you like something, for whatever reasons, you enjoy it and care for it, if not you are just looking for reasons to get rid of it.

My experience of this is buying a Volvo V50, looks and ergonomics were great, but the dynamics and mechanics were nowhere near as good. A build up of small (and a slightly larger) jobs on the horizon and I sold it as the repairs would still not make it a car I would enjoy.
Replaced it with something of which I have no expectations, but is more interesting to own on a bangernomics scale, even if I have spent more repairing it than I ever did the Volvo. It does the job well with a little amusement and the price difference funded a new bike 😀
Octavia 1.8t 4×4 now btw.

Drive the BMW, it will be a far nicer car, possibly enough to forgive the reverse tardis, possibly enough to pay 20% more for parts, although parts are all much of a muchness these days until you get to high end stuff.