Cut your loses and buy a vectra diesel a much better car and younger mechanics know them you need a old time guy to work on that cavalier, a good car in it's day but it's had it now.

You have my sympathies Cafeinated but garages are EXACTLY like doctors when it comes to diagnosing problems.

Unless the problem is really evident eg dead battery or a broken bone, both take a (hopefully) educated guess at what the likely cause is & fixes this.

If this doesn't work they then look at the possible causes & tries one of these, followed by more if this repair fails.

As you point out, the result of a medical mis-diagnosis can be death - in the papers all of the time.

Not trying to drum up work for the excessively costly franchised dealer but do I take it you didn't take it to a Vauxhall dealer?

Well, assuming the engine is original, it must have lasted nearly 20 years-that's not bad!

I'm afraid you can rap yourself on the knuckles for the car overheating in winter. That means that the coolant started to freeze and couldn't flow in and out of the engine. You must have carried on driving quite some time to blow the head...

Frozen coolant often destroys water pumps since the impellor can't rotate in the slush. Ancillary belt has to keep turning=breakage. If you'd stopped, and lef tthe car standing for 15 minutes you would have been fine.

But the garage shouldn't have carried out all that work on an engine that isn't worth much at all.

Welcome to the forum.

You'll hate me for saying this, but.... if it's a Cavalier rather than a Vectra it must be more than 15 years old. Generally it's not a good idea to spend more on repairs than a car itself is worth: there are exceptions, but a Vauxhall Cavalier isn't one of them.

Sorry - but I think you should flog it for what you can get for it. Old diesel engines can be liable to expensive failure, so think carefully whether you need a diesel.