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[Rockhampton]

It's interesting to read this thread, as for the last few weeks I've been considering selling my Omega and getting something with a small Italian oilburning engine.... my weekly mileage is increasing, and I'm returning an average of 27mpg - not bad for a 2.6, but poor compared to the average of 49mpg on my wife's dci Scenic. I do like the drive though - and as many of you say, better the devil you know - with resources like this forum, I would consider it easier to keep my Omega on the road than something like a Multipla...

[jjleonard]

Wow! thanks all for your advice. I never thought it would generate this much attention - especially as a late night post not fully thought through....

In detail, my mig has 118k miles on it, and runs very well. It needs the following work:

* wishbones and steering idler (asap, handling is atrocious)
* cambelt, aux belt, water pump (in 3k miles)
* cam cover gaskets and breather clean (same time as the cambelt)
* oil and filter change (same time as cambelt)
* gearbox oil topup and filter change

Minor bits - glovebox handle, sunroof surround, rear blind, decent tyres (budgets on it at the moment), nearside mirror electric adjustment re-wiring, drivers door 'cracking' fix, handbrake adjustment, nearside dispack (not faulty at the moment, but signs of light cracking and it could go), rad flush (engine temp is a bit high), and at some point the minor oil leak from somewhere underneath needs attention.

In addition, it has an advisory from it's last MOT (may 2010) that the front offside shock is weeping, so a pair of front shocks will be needed, the back end is wallowing a bit more than usual, so I feel that the donut bushes will probably need replacing soon.

I take the point that it's better the devil I know - granted that any other car I get could well end up costing me a ton of cash, and I can do all the work listed above myself, thus saving a load of money, but I am going to be in real trouble financially soon. In a nutshell, I was an IT consultant for the Building Schools for the Future programme, which has been axed wholesale by the government, so my skills are largely useless elsewhere. Jobs are very thin on the ground in my skill set area at the moment, what with about 5000 other people with exactly my skills all in the market at the same time.

I got a redundancy payoff, but the money will last me about another 3 months and then I need a job. I'll get something, but it is likely to be radically less than I was earning - in the region of a 75% pay cut, which is going to be a horrible shock.

The car currently manages about 250 miles to a full tank - all my mileage is local at the moment. 250 miles for £70-£75 is pretty poor, and it's an expense that is starting to bite. To add insult to injury, a combination of stupidity on my part and sheer bad luck has left me with six points on my licence and a recent prang (to this car - fixed on insurance), which has resulted in zero no claims, so my insurance is £120 a month - this car is group 17! I'm 40! I never thought I'd pay this much in insurance!

So, I hope you understand that my desire to save money is also based on getting something that is cheaper to insure and manages slightly more to a full tank than 250 miles - those two savings in combination could make a big difference to my financial situation.

The other trade off i have, of course, is the sheer amount of work required to make it suitable for private sale - doing wishbones, steering idler, cambelt, cam cover gaskets, water pump will still be in the region of £300 even if I do it myself, and that's an investment that I definitely won't get back if I try to sell it privately, though I'm open to your opinions on that.

The vectra idea was simply because I saw one in a local dealer that didn't *look* too baggy, and I reckon I could have done a straight swap - but in retrospect that looks like a bad idea.

I have been offered, in a months time, a 2000 plate Honda accord 2 litre from a friend for about £750 - and if it's cheaper to insure and run, day to day, then it might be worth it.

In summary, though, I must say the idea of getting rid of the mig is actually quite painful - I've had it for two years, and i'm quite attached to it now, I suppose doing a lot of your own work on a car kind of bonds you closer to it!

Any way, any feedback is appreciated. If I do decide to sell it privately, I'll list it here first to at least offer the car a good home.

Thanks
John.

[humbucker]

The car currently manages about 250 miles to a full tank

thats shocking. i was managing around 450 miles a tank on my elite before i took it off the road (sadly i was doing that each week!). maybe a good service and the odd low cost repair might improve the financial viability of the car  :-?

[MaxV6]

it's not that shocking.....  if all the journeys are urban, and short.....  in those times when i am solely working locally and doing the school run, about 300 miles to a tank was a good week...

spend much time sat in Oxford's rush hour  jams around  the ring road, and it'll be the same for any miggy.

[Rockhampton]

it's not that shocking.....  if all the journeys are urban, and short.....  in those times when i am solely working locally and doing the school run, about 300 miles to a tank was a good week...

spend much time sat in Oxford's rush hour  jams around  the ring road, and it'll be the same for any miggy.

I agree - if I take a run up to North East England, I can do 352 miles and still have 1/4 tank left, but crawling along in traffic jams on the A470 every day pulls that down significantly... 

[tunnie]

incidentally, while theyre not a patch on the omega, you can get GSi vectras at a reasonable price these days, facelift ones at that. you might want to look around for one with an existing LPG conversion and kill two birds with one stone if thats the route you end up going down. 

I know somebody selling a 52 plate 3.2 GSi Vectra-C.  They seem to go for about Omega money...

If thats same person as before its taking a long time to shift it!

[cem_devecioglu]

Wow! thanks all for your advice. I never thought it would generate this much attention - especially as a late night post not fully thought through....

In detail, my mig has 118k miles on it, and runs very well. It needs the following work:

* wishbones and steering idler (asap, handling is atrocious)
* cambelt, aux belt, water pump (in 3k miles)
* cam cover gaskets and breather clean (same time as the cambelt)
* oil and filter change (same time as cambelt)
* gearbox oil topup and filter change

Minor bits - glovebox handle, sunroof surround, rear blind, decent tyres (budgets on it at the moment), nearside mirror electric adjustment re-wiring, drivers door 'cracking' fix, handbrake adjustment, nearside dispack (not faulty at the moment, but signs of light cracking and it could go), rad flush (engine temp is a bit high), and at some point the minor oil leak from somewhere underneath needs attention.

In addition, it has an advisory from it's last MOT (may 2010) that the front offside shock is weeping, so a pair of front shocks will be needed, the back end is wallowing a bit more than usual, so I feel that the donut bushes will probably need replacing soon.

I take the point that it's better the devil I know - granted that any other car I get could well end up costing me a ton of cash, and I can do all the work listed above myself, thus saving a load of money, but I am going to be in real trouble financially soon. In a nutshell, I was an IT consultant for the Building Schools for the Future programme, which has been axed wholesale by the government, so my skills are largely useless elsewhere. Jobs are very thin on the ground in my skill set area at the moment, what with about 5000 other people with exactly my skills all in the market at the same time.

I got a redundancy payoff, but the money will last me about another 3 months and then I need a job. I'll get something, but it is likely to be radically less than I was earning - in the region of a 75% pay cut, which is going to be a horrible shock.

The car currently manages about 250 miles to a full tank - all my mileage is local at the moment. 250 miles for £70-£75 is pretty poor, and it's an expense that is starting to bite. To add insult to injury, a combination of stupidity on my part and sheer bad luck has left me with six points on my licence and a recent prang (to this car - fixed on insurance), which has resulted in zero no claims, so my insurance is £120 a month - this car is group 17! I'm 40! I never thought I'd pay this much in insurance!

So, I hope you understand that my desire to save money is also based on getting something that is cheaper to insure and manages slightly more to a full tank than 250 miles - those two savings in combination could make a big difference to my financial situation.

The other trade off i have, of course, is the sheer amount of work required to make it suitable for private sale - doing wishbones, steering idler, cambelt, cam cover gaskets, water pump will still be in the region of £300 even if I do it myself, and that's an investment that I definitely won't get back if I try to sell it privately, though I'm open to your opinions on that.

The vectra idea was simply because I saw one in a local dealer that didn't *look* too baggy, and I reckon I could have done a straight swap - but in retrospect that looks like a bad idea.

I have been offered, in a months time, a 2000 plate Honda accord 2 litre from a friend for about £750 - and if it's cheaper to insure and run, day to day, then it might be worth it.

In summary, though, I must say the idea of getting rid of the mig is actually quite painful - I've had it for two years, and i'm quite attached to it now, I suppose doing a lot of your own work on a car kind of bonds you closer to it!

Any way, any feedback is appreciated. If I do decide to sell it privately, I'll list it here first to at least offer the car a good home.

Thanks
John.

Hi jj,

honestly miggy is not a cheap car to run but also vectra and accord 2.0 :-/

accords normally dont cause much headache, but once have problem parts are really expensive..but a 2.0 accord (especially auto) wont be very different than your miggy.. personally I wont consider vectra's as they also cause many problems..

imo, either lpg the miggy (which is not so cheap :-/) or go for a 1.4 , 1.6 4pot jap car.. they wont cause much problems , will consume less.. and pay less insurance..

ps: if you go for a jap car, prepare a check list , you can find from the net for the model you choose and control them in detail.. so you wont have to pay for repair..(which makes the purchase meaningless)

[tunnie]

The car currently manages about 250 miles to a full tank

thats shocking. i was managing around 450 miles a tank on my elite before i took it off the road (sadly i was doing that each week!). maybe a good service and the odd low cost repair might improve the financial viability of the car  :-?

On LPG using 90L tank (74L usable) - I get about 370-400 miles from a tank of gas. Costs £37 to fill it up 

[humbucker]

ive seen some ph1 or ph2 2.5 v6 vectra gsi estates go for sensible money recently, might be an option

[Teebee]

IMO a dealer won't do a straight swap for a car with the defects you list unless the car he is swapping is worse still.......

While you are unemployed talk to your insurer about a limited mileage policy, it can save a bucket load.

And I hesitate to say it here but if the situation really is that bad do the parts that will affect its sale price. From your 'major' list the only line thats needs doing is the first, from the secondary list do anything cheap that affects appearance/saleability.

It probably sounds harsh but quite honestly that's what so many other people are doing out there.

[jjleonard]

Thanks all for the info. I've decided that unless I can get a really good deal, I'll keep the mig for a bit. At the moment, it's not doing anything other than sitting outside the house, so the cost per week to drive it is a lot less!

And a good point about the insurance - i'll call the company pronto.

Most of this decision was sealed when I took it out for a spin the other night - with the sport button on, I can really drive like a hooligan, and a little jap motor is probably going to depress me!