New Shape Vectra

Since Buying my new shape Vectra last December I have had less than a happy
years motoring.

I've had a new steering rack, a new handbrake lever, new foam in the drivers
seat, a new clutch brake and accelerator pedal assembly (Because the spring
on the clutch pedal went, but Vauxhall couldn't just replace the spring) and
an adaptation to the front spring to stop the metal grinding noise when I
went over bumps, and last but not least I'm onto my third steering rack,
well I will be if Vauxhall admit that the one they replaced 6 months ago has
gone now aswell.

I would except it if I was driving the car like a maniac, but it's just
ordinary driving that I'm doing.

Has anyone else had as many problems as I've had? I'm meeting a area Manager
from Vauxhall in a couple of weeks - what line should I be taking with him?
any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Donald Thorburn.

 

Since Buying my new shape Vectra last December I have had less than a

All new models from all manufacturers suffer niggly faults - especially in
year 1. However, even though you have bought the first edition of a new
model you seem to have been particularly unlucky.

Legally, your transaction is with your local dealer and not with Vauxhall.
If this went to court, you'd have to sue the dealer not Vauxhall. Clearly
your dealer feels that it cannot pacify you and it's decided to get
Vauxhall's help. Vauxhall are doing the right thing (they usually do) by
stepping forward to assist.

I think you're within your rights to ask your dealer (with Vauxhall's help)
to buy your car back off you. They may argue against this but when you list
the problems (not least, 3 steering racks) and the time and inconvenience
this car has caused you, you might be able to persuade them.

Don't expect them to give to a brand new car as a replacement as this is
betterment which you are not legally entitled to.

The problem here is that year 1 depreciation is steep on all new cars and
the Vectra is among the worst, losing 50% plus; usually you hope to spread
the cost of initial depreciation by keeping the car three years. The trick
will be to get a better price than the car's trade value to compensate you
for your time and trouble and for having to pay two lots of year 1
depreciation consecutively.

However, I think the difference between the actual value of your car now and
what you'd need to get for it to make changing cost-effective will be much
more than Vauxhall are likely to offer.

If the dealer and Vauxhall agree to buy back your old car they'll doubtless
try to get you to buy a replacement at the same time. They'll offer you an
overall 'cost to change' and you'll have to decide whether you feel that's
good value.

So, the first thing you must ascertain, because it's the starting point for
all financial calculations, is the trade value of your car. If you let me
know the exact model and mileage I'll value you it for you from Glass's
Guide.

I think your dealer should sell you your new car at cost price: it costs the
dealer nothing, after selling you a dodgy car it should be keen to keep you
as a customer and it's already earned well from lucrative warranty work
(paid for by Vauxhall) repairing your current car.

Then onto the price they pay you for your old car... you'll have the trade
value I've given you to compare with. If the dealer only offers the trade
valuation I've given you'll know that Vauxhall aren't offering anything.
Don't let Vauxhall tell you that the dealer selling you the car for cost is
the same as them offering you something - it's not, they're still making
money at this price.

You need to ensure that the final cost to change is sufficiently low to
persuade you to buy another Vectra. If it were me, my starting point would
be a new car for cost, less the trade value of the old car, plus enough from
Vauxhall to compensate for having to pay two lots of year 1 depreciation
consecutively.

Unfortunately, I just can't see Vauxhall coughing up that much. If you're
interested and you post details of your car, I'll do a few rough figures for
you.

What Vauxhall will be keener to offer (and you may have to settle for this)
is extending the warranty - little help if you don't plan keeping the car
after 3 years. Possibly you may persuade them to refund a year (or more)
interest paid on car finance.

Whatever happens, next time don't buy a new Vectra - the depreciation is
just too steep. There are plenty of year old Vectras at the auctions for
around £7,500, you should be able to get one from a dealer for around
£8,500.

 

I'd be very interested in knowing why the steering rack was replaced - what
were the symptoms?

I've just had the same on my Astra -cost to VX was £650. Reason? - on the
service they spotted an oil leak and decidied a new "steering assembly" was
needed.

But if this turns out to be a common fault, I'm going to start getting
worries ..

Incidentally my previous car was a cavalier with power steering - after 7
years and 120k - no problems with it at all - no leaks, whines, going out of
track - just a couple of perished bushes at 90k. Just the kind of boredom
you want!

So are we going backwards in the designs?

 

You could take the long term approach regarding customer satisfaction and
retention. I have owned 3 vectras from new (2 SRi's 1 GSi) and work for a
company who had up until recently been Vaux through and through.

The increasing unreliability of their cars and the plummeting depreciation
suffered by them has swayed my company, for the first time ever, away from
buying Vaux.

I myself have bought a BMW - few grand more, few lightyears better (in my
personal opinion), assuming you can put up with immediately being branded a
'BMW driver' with all the implication contained therein.

I did try to mention that i wasn't overjoyed with my last vectra, a £21k
GSi, but was actually told at one point that Vaux did not really care about
the man in the street - most vectras go to companies anyway!!!

You can but try, and best of luck.

Stephen.

 

The increasing unreliability of their cars and the plummeting depreciation

This is not true in my experience, having worked at a Vauxhall main dealer.

And the 'increasing unreliability of their cars' you mention is not
reflected in reliability surveys where they seem to perform the same as
ever.

Vauxhall depreciation is no worse than it always has been for non-prestige
marques. In terms of depreciation it is inadvisable to buy a Vectra (or
most other non-prestige motors) new, but used they represent decent value
for money.

 

Thank You for your reply.

I will be in touch direct.

Donald.

 

Thank You

Donald

 

Thank you

Donald

 

I'm driving a 1.8 club 5dr hatch Manual petrol with 21k on the clock.

Well I'm pleased to hear that you have a good dealer, contrary to popular
opinion they do exist and I'm sure they're most embarrassed about selling
you this car; they'll lobby Vauxhall to do the best for you. Vauxhall are
keen to keep long standing customers and I hope they'll do the right thing
in your case.

This is quite a long email I'm afraid, but should give you the info you
require.

Having done the figures I think you're in with a shout of getting a
replacement car from Vauxhall for a fair contribution from you - but,
realistically, this will have to be more than the £1,000 you suggest.

Firstly, let's value your car: 2002/52 Vectra 1.8 Club 5dr manual 21k miles

Current trade value using Glass's Guide with cross-reference to actual
auction prices: £7,600.

So, let's put your loss on depreciation into context of the usual three
years of ownership:

Cost new: £14,755

Current value after 1 year: £7,600

Projected value after 3 years, 60k miles: £6,400*

Total depreciation over 3 years: £8,355 = £2,785 pa

* This has to be a guess because as yet there are no 3-year-old new-shape
Vectras to use as a comparison. However, it's an educated guess and I'm
fairly confident about it.

Obviously the depreciation in year 1 is by far the steepest. If you replace
your car now by buying another Vectra you'll be paying two lots of year 1
depreciation consecutively, I think this is very unfair and Vauxhall ought
to be looking to help ease this burden.

Usually you'd expect to spread the total depreciation bill over three years,
equivalent to £2,785 pa. So in a perfect world I think Vauxhall and the
dealer should, between them, give you a new car with a contribution of
£2,785 from you.

As you can see from these figures, getting a replacement car for just £1,000
contribution from you would be 'betterment'. You can argue that you deserve
some betterment as compensation for your trouble, but legally you're not
entitled to it. Getting Vauxhall to cough up what we want may be difficult
enough so it's important we start from a realistic position.

A new Vectra 1.8 Club 5dr manual retails at around £15k on the road
(standard car with no options). I've just obtained two quotes from online
car brokers for UK supplied cars from UK main dealers for £12,206 - on the
road including delivery and £145 road tax.

At this price both the broker and the dealer will be making a small profit
so the actual cost price to the dealer is probably between £11,700 and
£11,900. Some large dealers will actually sell cars to fleets and brokers
at cost or even 0.5% less than cost because they live off the volume bonuses
paid by Vauxhall for shifting vast numbers of cars.

For the purposes of our calculations, let's assume the cost price is £12k;
the dealer will be able to sell you a car for this without losing a penny
(and he shouldn't have to lose money, it's not his fault the car's dodgy).

So...

New car: £12,000

Your contribution (equivalent to 1 year's depreciation): £2,785 -

PX valuation required for your old car: £9,215

Actual PX value: £7,600 -

Vauxhall contribution to do the deal: £1,615

I think this is a fair deal for both sides. It's only fair you pay for your
use of the car for 12 months and the way I've worked out depreciation allows

for this. You pay your fair whack (what you'd have paid anyway if you
didn't change the car) and you get rid of a problem motor.

£1,615 is not so much that it will make Vauxhall wince too much, so should
be do-able. If you can get more than £1,615 off them (and you must try!)
you're doing well. Maybe, getting £2,000 would be fair, this would allow a
few hundred quid to compensate you for your time and trouble. You should
also ask your dealer to throw in the first service free - this costs them
very little is a fair gesture of goodwill.

Advice on negotiation:

Clearly the first part of the discussion will be reaching an agreement to
swap the car, once that's done it all hinges on what contribution they
expect you to make – wait for them to make an offer before you say anything.
If they come up with anything less than £2,785 we're in business. Even if
their first suggestion is better than £2,785 (and I doubt it will be) - you
should be able to negotiate this down a bit.

If their suggested contribution is more than £2,785, it's time to show them
you know what you're talking about.

Don't wade in and start asking for anything unreasonable or they'll just
clam up and you'll get nowhere. Realistically, your £1,000 contribution
scenario was unreasonable. If you can get a new car for £1,000 I salute
you, but I think you'll find insisting on this will be pointless and just
waste time.

Explain to them you feel your contribution should be a year's fair
depreciation based on the three year calculation we've used above, not the
actual depreciation in year 1. By all means make your first offer of
contribution lower than the £2,785 I suggest, just don't go mad.

If they don't go for this, lay out the figures as I've done above using the
broker-derived 'cost' price of £12k as a starting point. If you do this,
entering your own contribution of choice, followed by the actual trade value
of your car (don't muck around with this, the value I've given is what
they'll value it at) you get down to what Vauxhall's contribution should be
(on my figures, £1,615).

You can actually say to the Vauxhall guy: "Isn't it worth a mere £1,600 to
keep a long-standing customer?" After all, only the dealer's selling the new
car at cost - Vauxhall are still making a profit by selling the new car to
the dealer at that price.

Looking at the sums I think you'll be able to strike a deal. Vauxhall are,
in my experience, gentlemen when it comes to these kinds of issues. At the
end of the day, if you can get a new car for £2,785 you're doing okay,
anything better than that is a bonus. And don't forget to squeeze things
like free servicing into the deal if you can.

 

Having read all of what you have to say, it would seem that the figure of

Well, you may not have to come up with £2,785, they may go lower and it will
be interesting to see what they come up with. It's certainly worth asking
the question. Maybe they'll suggest £2,000 and you'll have to consider
whether that's affordable, possibly it's not. I can't see them going much
lower than £2,785 - they may not even want to go that far, but if they're
being fair they should.

Like I said, the first thing to do is keep schtum and see what they come up
with (whether you're discussing changing the car or what else they're
prepared to offer instead). As with all negotiations they'll make their
first offer low so you'll need to squeeze more out of them - this needn't be
difficult, I'm confident that negotiations will be very friendly.

There may be nothing wrong with keeping the car, it's entirely possible
you'll never have another problem. However, I'd like to find out if they
know the cause for the steering rack problem - is this a known issue with
their steering racks or is there something about your car (probably
impossible to work out what) which is chewing them up? If they say "It's a
known issue, we bought a batch of dodgy steering racks and we're no longer
using that supplier" that's more reassuring.

In terms of what else to ask for:

There are two parties involved here: the dealer who is not at fault
(although he is legally liable) and Vauxhall who have built a dodgy motor
(so are morally responsible).

The Vauxhall area technical manager (doubtless the person you're seeing)
probably won't want to just write a cheque as compensation, so getting
things which the dealer would have to pay for (and would like a refund for
from Vauxhall) like a stereo upgrade and free servicing might be a problem.

That said, it's been a while since I was involved in these kinds of
discussions so it's certainly worth having a go. Certainly a stereo upgrade
costs the dealer a lot less than the retail price, the same with servicing,
so it is a way for them to give you something of value without costing
themselves a lot of money.

You make a good point regarding warranty. In year 1 your car is covered by
manufacturer warranty, in years 2 and 3 you're covered by dealer warranty
which, whilst good, is
not as comprehensive as the manufacturer warranty.

I think it's entirely reasonable to expect Vauxhall to extend the
manufacturer warranty to three years (and this would, presumably, include
the full AA cover). Vauxhall should be able to make this change on their
central computer which can be checked by any dealer you take your car to.

I think at the minimum it's fair for you to say "I need a package that gives
me the confidence to hold onto this car for another two years." From my
point of view that would entail extending the manufacturer warranty and AA
cover, plus your next two / three services (although it's fair that you
should still pay for major items like tyres and brake discs when they wear
out).

So far, in terms of cash, we're talking peanuts so asking for a stereo
upgrade might be the cherry on the cake which they can offer to 'close the
deal'.

They key thing in all negotiations is to have all the information up front
so you know exactly where you stand and can identify a good deal when you're
offered it. Hopefully, you should now have this - from both points of view:
changing the car or holding onto it.

It will be interesting to see what they come up with.