I think I am best suited to write a review on this car, I have had it nearly 6 years now, with a few problems, nothing too expensive. First of all I must warn you that if you will only use this car for short cold journeys of less than 10 miles, DON'T, you will destroy it and end up out of pocket, for the first 4 years of ownership, I did this, my commute to work was a measly 2 miles, engine hardly ever got warm, the alternator failed, driveshaft corroded and brakes warped, suspension problems and I was advised to change the cambelt and water pump at 35,000 miles!! However, I now commute 50 miles to work, 5 days a week, the car has never run better.....

Ride and handling - Solid and refined at high speeds (motorways and country roads) nice and quiet and no need to raise voice at high speed, however in town, on our pothole ridden roads, it feels like being in a lowered Vauxhall nova, very firm and bone shaking.

Good points - refined ride, nice cabin layout, quality interior, good handling, cheap to repair, big boot, large amount of passenger space.

Bad points - not good for short journeys on a regular basis, manifold and DPF will fail if you do this, very quickly, they are not cheap.
Rattles can form from the door cards, parcel shelf, ash tray and interior light cluster, however they are all very easy to fix, with instructions on vectra-c.com for fixes on most problems. Your air-con WILL fail, the condenser is prone to stone damage and will keep happening.

What work I have had to have done-

Air-con condenser replaced at 30,000 miles under warranty

Water pump and cambelt (precautionary) at 37,000 miles, £300 by a mechanic friend

Alternator and battery at 40,000 miles £200 by the same friend

Brake pads and discs all round, all warped but had plenty of life left in them, 42,000 miles £210

Clutch and DMF flywheel replaced at 60,000 miles £700 cheapest I could get, expect upwards of £900 for this job.

There are a couple of things that mechanics don't have a clue about, sometimes it can rattle and bang when starting up when engine is hot, the fix is simply a new coolant temperature sensor, as a failed one will tell the ECU that the coolant is still cold and put too much of a rich fuel mixture in the startup process, this cost me £7 from euro car parts and took 10 minutes to fit, very easy

The rattles can be fixed by clever and discreet placement of little foam pads under bits of trim, mine is silent at the moment which is nice.

I have just been told that my driveshaft is possibly slightly warped now, all due to the short journeys from before.

The car has NEVER actually broken down or not started though, a taxi driver friend of mine managed to get 270,000 miles out of one of these as a taxi, with no major faults because obviously it was used all day every day, if you don't let the engine get to temperature and let the DPF regenerate, you will destroy this car and have lots of problems.

To sum it up, I still love it, people still comment on it and say it's a nice car and think it's worth a lot more than it is, now that I'm commuting a fairly big distance, the likelihood of more problems is quite slim, these cars are made to be used. They are excellent in the snow, great amount of power and torque for overtaking, great in corners too, no body roll whatsoever.

Passengers comment that it is a very nice comfortable car to be driven in.

Insurance for me, 20,000 business miles, 28 year old male with 7 years no claims is £310 fully comp with all the bells and whistles.