To start the working week, I have the (dis)pleasure of reviewing what must be one of the most hated cars of the last 25 years, the Vauxhall Vectra.
After its launch in 1995, it was famously reviewed by Jeremy Clarkson in early 1996 on Top Gear, and he spent six minutes desperately trying to find things to say and failing miserably. Even if you don't like cars, this is a very entertaining piece of television:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ756HncddI
With the most exciting thing about it in the video being the door mirrors (which genuinely are rather nicely designed), and the little plastic tool inside the fuel filler cap to prevent people getting dusty fingers when removing the tyre valves, the Vectra got such a bad press from Clarkson that Vauxhall wouldn't lend him any more press cars for a time. The Vectra, in Britain at least, had such a terrible image problem following this report that General Motors (at the time Vauxhall's parent company) changed the name in 2008 of its large family car to the Insignia, and has not looked back since.
Launched to follow the celebrated MkIII Cavalier (which had been called the Opel Vectra in Europe), many drivers who had been happy with their Cavaliers up until 1995 started to desert Vauxhall in droves. As Clarkson points out, the Vectra and many rivals of the same era were looked the same, cost abut the same and they appealed to the same type of company car drivers. Only small differences (such as a biro holder, place to store sunglasses or the aforementioned tool for removing the tyre dust caps) set them apart. It was like buying a washing machine, not a car.
I had the pleasure of using one of these original Vectras back in 2008 when it was given to me by a local garage as a loan car. It was not the most pleasant experience. The car seemed far too large considering what it should be, and had a very uncomfortable driving position. Most of the pixels on the combined display above the dashboard no longer worked, and the mirrors (although they looked nice), were not very effective.
The 1.8 litre petrol engine was nothing more than average, which pretty much summed up the whole car. The ride and handling also suffered from the same sort of blandness and overall lack of character. I suppose it was spacious and probably better built than most, but that was about it.
The rear view was also poor, the interior was dark and depressing and there was no sense of character whatsoever. Unless the discerning sub £500 buyer gets hold of a V6 model, which were a bit more exciting, I don't think I can recommend this at all, but I don't think that is much of a surprise!
