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[maracus]

After my couple of random posts about differences between corsa diesels and doing engine swaps on different diesel astras, I have settled upon the idea of getting a...

"Astra 1.9 CDTI 150 estate SRI"

I'm looking at around the 80 000 mile Mark and a budget of 4500 and hopefully be really cheeky and find a facelift.

I went to look at one yesterday, it was ok, needed the back bumper touching up, and a splitter repair doing, but at £5000 he wanted too much for a car that had done 111000 miles.

I managed to barter his price down a little but had to walk away after a drive as I'm not sure the turbo wasnt on it's way out. It just sounded a bit irratic to begin with which made me think hmmmm. No smoke, just didn't seem to come on smooth and controlled like I'd expect. Then there was the book full of ticks and stamps ("service history") but no receipts. And no proof of a water pump at the last cambelt change. It also had a oil leak and some sort of clamp-bolt missing from a bit of pipework 

Anyhow I'm off to look at another one today, thought I'd post on here and see if anyone has any pointers to mention.

I keep doing nationwide searches on autotrader so hopefully I'll find something that meets my criteria, even if it does mean driving to the moon and back trying to find it!

[mantahatch]

6 months ago I paid £5000 for a 2009 1.8 auto with air con. Base model "Life" 36k miles, fitted a decent set of 17inch genuine wheels and the car looks good.

Unless you must have a diesel due to high mileage then the petrols are much better buy IMHO. Gor for Design or Elite models to get plenty of toys.

[80mojo]

We use a lot of Diesesal Astra estates's at work and they are just transport.

Admittedly they are base models, but they motor ok, do everything thats asked of them. Nothing more, nothing less.

There is a 6-speed in the fleet too, but it's really not needed unless you commute from Edinburgh to London on a weekly basis. I'm sure it helps with the fuel economy if you do a long haul. Other than that it seems a bit of a gimmick IMHO. Certainly not needed for most drives.

As is already said, get a design or elite. Plenty of toys and nicer finish. SWMBO has a sporthatch 16 esign and it's quite handy. She doesn't push it too hard but it's got plenty of guts and is a nice car. Seems a world apart from the budget-mobile Life models at work.

I wouldn't be expecting to be travelling too far for one. There's thousands to choose from.

[maracus]

I have decided to go td mainly because theres something about the way a turbocharged car drives, be it petrol or diesel. What can I say I've been bitten by the turbo bug for a while now and I don't half miss the way my td migs drove.. Leave in 4th coming out of roundabouts and keep it in 4th until cruising speed and it's all so effortless!  I'd make plenty of use of that 6th gear most of my motoring life is spent well out of town so 60mph is a very common speed for me lol

...plus I happen to do a lot of miles anyway so deisel economy suits me fine. Plus the performance for the running costs strikes me as a damn good deal 

I haven't found any elites yet but a couple of sri's and not yet any designs that took my fancy.

Anyway I looked at two today, both smoked heavy-blue when first opened up, so i suspect both the turbos were on the way out, apparently its "because theyve been stood" yeah ok mate...
They both had a very dubious service history service record, not s receipt in sight to back anything up and the first one had fuel leak at the back of the engine!

Looks like I'll have to look hard to find one that's not a dog! When you get specific on autotrader to the tone of "astra Sri cdti estate" and a budget of £5000 it only brings up 17 cars nation-wide 

Anyway I'll keep looking and see what turns up...

[mantahatch]

If your doing lots of miles I fully understand about by a diesel. But bide your time there are good one's out there. There is also a lot of very tired ex company one's out there so beware.

If you like turbo's, we had a Volvo s40 T4 auto, 200bhp it was a lot of fun, a real wolf in sheeps clothing, really made me smile.

[Del Boy]

Gearboxes are a common thing on the 150 1.9. Any other problem is pretty common on all other common rail diesel engines really. I will point out I've had two of those engines, both needed a gearbox, but other than that they were pretty well very reliable. Had to have all my injectors replaced on one of them however. If the turbo makes a sound like a siren don't panic, one of mine did it for 10,000 miles without a problem in my hands, and the other done it from new.