Whatever you think of the car (and I'm a sucker for a mk2 GTE, personally), it is genuinely heartwarming to find a 20 yr old car in this condition, let alone one of the most stolen / thrashed / abused models of its era.
tinyurl.com/nnmhnl
2,080 genuine miles from new, and absolutely pristine. £10k might be pushing it, and I note the usual car salesman bullplop in the ad, but I think this time they might genuinely have a point - where else would you find one like this? Is there another?
Cheers
DP
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£10k for an ugly shed like that, you've got to be kidding ;)
MVP
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Genuine collector's (sic) only need apply?
Is he saying he'd refuse my £10,000? Is he saying he wouldn't sell it to anyone who is going to drive it ever? Yeah, right.
This is an old Vauxhall. For that sort of money I could get a very tidy Peugeot 407 2.7 V6 HDi GT Coupe.
So I don't think the seller need worry about this non-collector waving 10 grand under his nose and having to turn it down.
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...it is genuinely heartwarming to find a 20 yr old car in this condition...
DP,
When I read that, I thought you were going a bit too far, but then I looked at the photographs.
It's the brushed pile on the seats and mats that really does it for me.
Thanks for digging out the ad, I would never have seen it otherwise.
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IYKWIM - Throgmorton? Ryves?
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A floppy jellymould convertible... definitely not my kind of car despite appearances. I preferred the brick-shaped former model actually. Had a race in my matt grey Skoda Estelle Rapid with three laughing young men in a brick-shaped GTE down the A29 once. I can't remember how but I got in front of them somehow, perhaps by going straight through Billingshurst instead of taking the bypass, but they didn't catch me again until after Pulborough. They seemed very pleased, and I was too.
All at safe speeds of course, almost down to the limit sometimes.
(Reminder to young readers: don't try this at home!)
Edited by Lud on 08/07/2009 at 16:57
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IYKWIM - Throgmorton? Ryves?
I don't worry about leaving my postcode on as it's that vague (and shared with well over 100 other addresses), but yes you're in the right ballpark. :-)
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Where can you get a sporty cabriolet with on 2K on the clock for 10K?
Still, for that money you'd really have to want it!!
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Quite a famous car on the Vauxhall Opel Drivers Club website www.vodc.co.uk/ where these sort of "freak" sales are discussed quite frequently. It has been waiting to be sold for some time now. Amazing to see something so "new" but too expensive and isn't it for sale in Ireland? Trouble is, as soon as you use it regularly it's worth about £8K less!
Edited by Victorbox on 08/07/2009 at 18:12
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do me a favour - might be fit for scrappage ...
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Looks in good condition but it's a 20 year old Astra. But then people pay lots of money for other older cars so ...
... A relative has had a few Jag XKs and many other classics over the years and an XK140 is not exactly cheap is it.
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madness
should have had a tin top on it and it might be interesting, but then the heading would be wrong,it wouldnt have been kept in storage,etc etc
ive seen mint mk1 avo escorts for less
i think
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I suspect, had it been a tin top, and particularly a valver, it would have found a buyer by now even at that money. I agree bb, the convertible wouldn't be my choice. A nice, low mileage, unmolested 16v tin top (there are probably only a handful in the whole of the UK) would tempt me even today.
To give you an idea how rare these cars are now, according to Autotrader, there are only 5 GTE Astras currently for sale in the whole of the UK. Boy racers, joyriders and rust. :-(
It's just one of those cars I have a (probably irrational) soft spot for.
Cheers
DP
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To give you an idea how rare these cars are now according to Autotrader there are only 5 GTE Astras currently for sale in the whole of the UK. Boy racers joyriders and rust. :-(
How true. Two of our company car Astra GTE's were stolen and burnt out before they were three months old in 1990!!
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That digital dash brings back memories!
When I met SWMBO she had a basic Astra E with a badly resprayed bonnet. I persuaded her to swap it for a GTE 16v London Edition - lovely metallic burgundy paint, leather Recarros and BBS multi-spoke alloys. Lovely car and very quick in a straight line. Corners were more of a challenge, although not as tricky as preventing the joy-riders, who eventually won the day, and crashed it as the Police caught them.
We got the car back after two attempts to match the burgundy paint (but it was never the same) and a 6-month wait for a new dash-board from Germany (they had stubbed their fags out on it as Plod caught them). Fitted a state-of-the-art immobiliser, and the Police actually warned us when the original perps were released - sure enough they tried to steal it again the night they were released but I caught them at it and they legged it thankfully (for me, that is!). We were fed up by now but within a week of selling it to a poor lad who had saved all his hard-earned, it was stolen again.
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Mrs P had one for a while - a lovely red 8valve (2.0 litre) thunderously fast for its time, she out 40 trouble free thousand on it - nothing, absolutely nothing, broke or failed on it and the Dealer that drove her back home in it when her new company MK3 Cav. SRi arrived said it drove like a new car-cracking little motor. The Cav was a good car as well.
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My neighbour had one. It was stolen every week or two, and when when somebody finally did her a favour by burning it out, she got an ordinary common-or-garden hatchback, which was never stolen.
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... the Police actually warned us when the original perps were released...
Good work by the constables.
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I bought an Astra GTE 16v in white brandnew in 1989 one of the 1st & on an F there were a few on an E. The performance for its day was stunning. I had fantastic fun for 2 years with some of the best drives ever without the cameras!
I never had it stolen or vandelised . The raw power was breath taking untill vauxhall detuned them a tad.
The strange thing was that it could wheel spin in 4th at 70+ & in the wet was lethal. The dealer recalled the car for a replacement ECU although I hadn't experienced any trouble & the replacement really did tame it.
Rumour had it that some of the 1st were piushing well inexcess of 160 bhp but I had no way of proving it.
I do remember pulling to the rev limiter in 5th clocking 152 on the digital dash! probably doing around 145 oh & the sound with the 16v head was something else,
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That was a very nice engine...
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The dealer recalled the car for a replacement ECU although I hadn't experienced any trouble & the replacement really did tame it.
!!!
What did you say to them id? Was there no chance of getting the original engine chip back? Weren't you absolutely furious? Didn't you sue? Hadn't anyone warned you?
Hell's bells, the damned insolence of it! Ruining a 150mph Eurorepbox! It's beyond belief!
Edited by Lud on 10/07/2009 at 00:45
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