Ever miss having a 'Normal' Car?

[Brett]

I sometime wounder if Im misseng the point of cars driving round in a noisy, ratlly 16 year old Astra. Why does everyone else like modern cars? I dont know and I woundered. So, with no MOT on the Astra over the weekend I got the chance to drive a normal modern car; a 97R Peugeot 306LX 1.4i, a throbbing 75bhp.

it belongs to my brother, and I'd like to thank him because the 3 mile drive I had in it restored my faith, belife and enjoyment in the GTE. I started caining it up the hill, having pulled up from a junction and wrenched the enormous gear lever throw into second, and Im pretty sure the accelerator broke, or at least for a while I thought that - as rather than accelerating, I seemed to be slowing down. Then at the top of the hill gently things started to pick up again. Now I understood, the missing 600cc's and about 10 tonnes of saftey bullshit were holding me back. I bounced it of the limiter several times because I couldnt hear the engine, and at 1 junction though I'd stalled and only to realise I hadnt when I turned the key in the ignition much to the starters noisey distress. the PAS was nastly and elkectronic or something, but it was far to light. Handled very well though, If you can ignore the body role which saw me slide gracefully onto the passenger seat on one bend. As for the brakes im going to tell my brother to report the crime, I think someones has pinched them. Maybe he can use the insurance money to buy an anchor to throw out the window. It will stop a damn site quicker than it does at the moment.

I got home, having cained the nuts of it to get up to a speed that in the GTE I would have described as 'lesuirely' and decided that next time the law can go and f*ck itslef, Im taking the Astra.

Conclusion: GTE's are great, why would I want anything else? an £800 car that can caine modern hot hatches? why ask for more:D

[_SBD16v]

i like driving both my cars for diff reasons the convertable because its nice compfy and i do not need to take out a loan every couple of months to keep it on the road

[Brett]

lol for us poor bastards who can only afford the one car (neither of which are Tb'd race specials either:D )

[_SBD16v]

i am poor i am just trying to convince myself not to turbo the convertable (my dad has a cav turbo at wor complete) :confused: :confused: :( :(

[BazW]

i used to sell cars for a living and i'd rather have a 14yo gte than most of the crap i had to sell

[astrasteve23]

brett you brothers car is very slow yeah but when i last drove it about 3 months ago the brakes were very good and had a good feel to them! (dont say its cos mine are bad!) lol. they were very good and responsive. he has been complaining that they have got worse. ill have a look at his pads tomorrow. the steering is to light i agree, does handle very well tho! i think most pugs do! and ollie reckons it only weighs a ton but im not sure if he's makin that up!? as when i had my mk3 astra 1.4spi 60bhp/1040kg and raced his 75bhp/1000kg it was dead even! his car did get quicker when he put the induction kit on it tho! still nothing compaired to a good old 75bhp mk2 astra! i am not a fan of new cars, too heavy, to many electronic engine sensors etc. that go wrong! and crappy fly by wire throttle or whatever its called! my 1.4 mk2 will give some moddern lower powered sporty cars a run for there money! e.g saxo vtr! i raced a mate in his vtr that has a high lift cam, induction kit and backbox, he was 1 up i was 2 up and it was about even to 90 then i got past it and pulled away quite a bit! i spoke to him a few weeks later and he asked if i had put bretts engine in my car! i said no its a 1400 and he was very pee'd off! why pay stupid money for a new "sports" car when they might have sporty looks but dont perform! if i had a newer car i would prob want to drive it with a bit more care because if anything happened to it, it would be more costly for spares!

[Jon S]

new cars suck . its all about the latest body shape and the fancyest head/taillight design . what a crock of shit. i dont buy into it. oldskool rules.

[BazW]

people always notice a clean old car wether it be a gte/cosworth/reno 5 turbo to get a new car noticed you've got to spend more cash (which makes it worth less aswell) to buy a new car as quick as a standard 16v will cost you at least £12k a lot of my mates run cossie's if they want something as quick theyve got to spend £25k+

[Rob_S]

i miss normal cars yeah. the zaf was brand new, always warmed up quickly and was fairly comfy. the cavs just feel old :(
the gsi is going to be the winter runabout and in feb/mar i will get the arches done and a leather interior. then probably get it sold.

[Mace]

I cant help myself i had a mk4 golf, it was black and real bad ass looking, drove lovely but i got bored, i sold it and bought the GTE and a Supra mk4, everybody thinks im mad driving the astra when they see the soop, but theres just got something about an older 'my generation' car, that keeps you going back... and dispite the amaizing supra which i love, i drive the GTE the most ;)

[dethstar]

ive had a good few new cars from work. I can safely say theres definately something missing compared to older metal, the closest i would say to beating the old GTE was a brand new corsa sri, but i think that was down to the fact my GTE is still on its original factory suspension, and the corsa obviously was crisp and firm like a go kart.

rot and suspension is the next couple of jobs so after that i doubt i will find anyhing to better the ole rust machine.

[DarrenH]

i was talking about this with the bro-inlaw over the weekend. he has just sold his 7 month old M3 because "you couldnt really use it" and "it was a pain for long journeys". it occured to me that even though the price difference and class were tens of thousands of pounds appart, that we actually had a small affinity.

at face level i bought my mk2 cav and subsequently the mk2 polo so that i actually had transport when the astra was off the road, but subconciously i know its because the astra is so unsocial for daily use. exactly the same reason the bro-inlaw had just swapped an M3 for a 1 series ! and the other thing when he said "you cant use it", its absolutely true, when i'm in the astra i always want to be driving it fast, thrapping past people to see if they look, taking roundabouts and corners at silly speeds.

so i dont really miss a normal car, i have one, but its become a necessity for lots of different reasons. its easy to drive, its quiet, its easy to steer, clutch, park, drive slowly. its probably saved my license too.

[_SBD16v]

if i drive my gte every day i would lose my licence in about a week

[Mace]

I drive the gte every day, and the supra regularly, never got done for speeding and theyre both very practical (apart from fuel for supra) actually my gte is my normal everyday car and theres no complaints form me, other than people think its crap :(

[BazW]

the 2 cars i got caught speeding in was a 1.5 nissan almera & a 1.4 mk4 astra :confused: ive never been stopped in my gte

[md28]

I'm thinking about this alot recently. having seen that mk2 SR for sale, I've been weighing up the pros and cons of either trying to keep both mk2 and 3 (near impossible, I think), or sell mk3 and use mk2 as everyday car (at the mo, I only need it 1 day a week for college, so most of my driving is pleasure driving! lol)

I like to feel that, if I'm spending money on a car, it must be worth it, in my eyes anyway. The SR is very rare and deserves to be brought up to a good standard with a few modern improvements. Where as the Mk3's are more common and doesn't feel as special/nimble. My old mk2 1.4 never let me down, (as has the mk3, so far) but seemed to give me less hassle than the mk3 has. Can't decide. :s

[weekenny]

I would be driving my GTE every day if it was more secure. Before I had my Evo I used the astra every day for a few months and loved it :) My cars about driving nothing more, I didnt care that there were no carpets, back seats, 'proper' windows, etc, I was just having fun. Which made it very hard for me to get a daily driver I could live with.

[Brett]

to buy a new car as quick as a standard 16v will cost you at least £12k

yeah which one?? I cant think of a single car oin the price range that will stick with a GTE. They all need turbos to haul their lardy arses into contention!!


3 months ago the brakes were very good and had a good feel to them! (dont say its cos mine are bad!)

but they are worse! Seriously you would get better feel if you replaced the brake pedal witha giant sponge! and instead of the attemting to use brakes I'd just pray if I were you. How the hell you drive that thing quick as you do is beond me LMFAO! I gave up looking for 2nd and went 1st to 3rd when I drove it down Amys road!

What worried me deep down is the realisation that one day, a stripped, caged and tubro'd Astra isnt going to be up to my needs. I mean, if Im unlucky I'll meet someone and settle down, and if I dont have a garage then all of a sudden I'll have a expensive paper weight:( maybe I'll want a 'normal' car one day.

I did think about a winter runaround and take the Astra of the road, a J plate Cav GL is attractivly priced locally, but I'd miss the GTE after a while and anyway, if I was going to get a winter car it would have to be a Senator 24v with all the trimmings!

[BazW]

i hear recaro do baby seats :p

[Tom]

I wouldnt swap my gte for anything else, it always puts a smile on my face when I drive it. Modern cars just dont cut it for me, my Mum and brother both have Renault Clios ( current shape) and to be honset they are shite ! Crap steering, brakes and dog slow.

I get people constantly saying why keep spending money on a 14 yr old car ?, just get something newer. My reply is , And be like everybody else ? No thanks.
My gte suits me fine, gets used everyday for work and hasnt let me down yet.:D

[Brett]

ditto mate.

so many reasons why its better - a girl in the office who has a (bashed) Corsa C SRi came up to me and said;

'so how much did it cost to make your car sound like a tractor then'

I replied 'Less than your last main dealer service cost you'

another time

'why do you keep wasting thousands on the car of yours, you'll never get it back'

my reply

'I can spend 6k on that thing, give it away and still not have lost as much money as you will in depreciation'

and guess whos cars been in the garage most;) (clue - Not mine:D)

[Jon S]

my gte is my normal everyday car and theres no complaints form me, other than people think its crap :(

not many people like gte's, why?
i have yet to understand..lol

[traffman]

I just cannot connect with new cars, of course there are some absolute belters out there, ive allways had a soft spot for the seat cupra leon , but how much is it?

im sure its been said before but a 14 yr old gte still puts a smile on my face.

[Brett]

they are Vauxhalls, they dont handle great as standard and they have a reputaion for rust.

I tend to let my right foot do the talking however, when I come up against the Golf GTi/205GTi/CivicVTi crew. Being fastest what its all about at the end of the day - and the Astra is comfortably faster.

I'm yet to be beaten by any other 'hot hatch' moder or older. that shuts them up.

I've raced a raced a Seat Leon Cupra R Paul, standard 210/220bhp I think, it was dead even. Needless to say the other chap was gutted when we compared my £900 quid investment to his £18,000 one!!!

[Jon S]

one thing i like about the valver is when doing 130mph it seems so safe and and stable , not many cars have that do they?

[Brett]

Im scared shitless in mine at 130.. chickened out at 143. Its stable but the noise is immense!

[Jon S]

143 ?

[Jon S]

sure u aint got a let engine?

[astrasteve23]

I'm thinking about this alot recently. having seen that mk2 SR for sale, I've been weighing up the pros and cons of either trying to keep both mk2 and 3 (near impossible, I think), or sell mk3 and use mk2 as everyday car (at the mo, I only need it 1 day a week for college, so most of my driving is pleasure driving! lol)

I like to feel that, if I'm spending money on a car, it must be worth it, in my eyes anyway. The SR is very rare and deserves to be brought up to a good standard with a few modern improvements. Where as the Mk3's are more common and doesn't feel as special/nimble. My old mk2 1.4 never let me down, (as has the mk3, so far) but seemed to give me less hassle than the mk3 has. Can't decide. :s


mate sell the mk3 and get the mk2 sr! i have owned a mk3 and they are no where near as fun to drive! mk3's are common and mk2's are gettin rarer by the minit! as reliability goes they are both bloody reliable! my old mk3 had done 154000 miles when i got rid of it and its still goin strong, doesn't smoke or burn oil! i done 32000 miles in it and ragged it every day because it was so slow i had to! i kept it serviced and it done me well! my mk2 as more fun to drive, i have done about 13000 miles since i got it, its now showing 100000 miles and the only real prob i had with it was on monday night the origional bosch rotor arm broke! (lasted 100000miles!) a new one cost me £2.50! oh yeah i have fukt 1 gearbox in the mk3 and 2 in the mk2 but thats down to the way i treat them!

[astrasteve23]

yeah which one?? I cant think of a single car oin the price range that will stick with a GTE. They all need turbos to haul their lardy arses into contention!!



but they are worse! Seriously you would get better feel if you replaced the brake pedal witha giant sponge! and instead of the attemting to use brakes I'd just pray if I were you. How the hell you drive that thing quick as you do is beond me LMFAO! I gave up looking for 2nd and went 1st to 3rd when I drove it down Amys road!

What worried me deep down is the realisation that one day, a stripped, caged and tubro'd Astra isnt going to be up to my needs. I mean, if Im unlucky I'll meet someone and settle down, and if I dont have a garage then all of a sudden I'll have a expensive paper weight:( maybe I'll want a 'normal' car one day.

I did think about a winter runaround and take the Astra of the road, a J plate Cav GL is attractivly priced locally, but I'd miss the GTE after a while and anyway, if I was going to get a winter car it would have to be a Senator 24v with all the trimmings!


brett i checked ollies pads and they have about 2/3mm of pad left! past wear line! as for my car the brakes need bleeding! and it does go into 2nd you just have to blip the throttle slightly then it slips in! im used to it!

[astrasteve23]

oh yeah i have been in bretts car at 135mph on the M5 racing a 5 series beemer (that we shat on!) and it felt fine, and stopped bloody quick from that speed to! the fastest iv driven bretts car is about 110 and it felt ok and stopped ok, felt like i was doin 70!

[DarrenH]

i think the gte is also getting to the stage where its becoming a rare site on the roads, and to the stage where its losing the 1990's boy racer kudos. 30 something’s like it because its familiar to their youth, and it still has notoriety with barry corsa and saxo kev as "those rapid astras". Its also beginning to take on that retro rocket thing, everyone likes quick old cars. its not such a cliche' hot hatch as a golf gti or 205 gti, and its not perfect but that only seems to be a problem with people whove never owned one, the underdog thing. it plays on its strengths, nimble light chassis (it would be firmly in the super-mini category by todays standards), excellent equipment for its age, and one of the best 4 valve engines ever made.

i genuinely think the gte16v is one of the best all-vauxhall productions to date. i also still think its the best "mark" of astra too. in order of preference. mk2, mk1, mk3, mk4. ive driven both of the modern day equivelants of the gte16v i.e the mk3 astra gsi and the mk4 sri 2.2. they dont even come close.

[Mace]

i genuinely think the gte16v is one of the best all-vauxhall productions to date.

I remember vauxhall had some sort of top ten best cars for their 100th Or W.H.Y, and it was the astra gte 16v that was top,
check the link from mig a while back:

http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/archive/index.php/t-82038

[Xedrah]

Really enjoying this thread. :D Specially the stories of Brett. I've more or less the same experiences.

People tell me I'm crazy to put so much money in an old car. But hey! who's crazy? I think it stupid to buy a new car every four years that will never touch the specs of a (slightly modified) Astra GTE. A new car cost you lots of money with no fun in return, except for the first 1 or 2 months of ownership. After that period, it's just a car. An Astra GTE is always fun to drive, especially when you improve it sometimes. :)

[md28]

mate sell the mk3 and get the mk2 sr! i have owned a mk3 and they are no where near as fun to drive! mk3's are common and mk2's are gettin rarer by the minit! as reliability goes they are both bloody reliable! my old mk3 had done 154000 miles when i got rid of it and its still goin strong, doesn't smoke or burn oil! i done 32000 miles in it and ragged it every day because it was so slow i had to! i kept it serviced and it done me well! my mk2 as more fun to drive, i have done about 13000 miles since i got it, its now showing 100000 miles and the only real prob i had with it was on monday night the origional bosch rotor arm broke! (lasted 100000miles!) a new one cost me £2.50! oh yeah i have fukt 1 gearbox in the mk3 and 2 in the mk2 but thats down to the way i treat them!So you went from a mk3 to a mk2, and no regrets? Having owned one as my first car, i know what they are like. What i'm after really, is something that is more fun to drive with some subtle mods, looks better and is more exclusive/rare and the mk2 SR certainly fits that criteria.

As I don't and won't be using it everyday, a car that is more fun to drive than an everyday drive is more my priority.

[Gander]

I did think about a winter runaround and take the Astra of the road
Try being forced to drive round a Nova shed when your pride and joy is in pieces for coming up to a year:(

I plan to sort out a Nova GTE to use as a winter car next year, I already have the Car, it just needs some tidying:cool:

[_SBD16v]

[QUOTE=Gander]Try being forced to drive round a Nova shed when your pride and joy is in pieces for coming up to a year:(

[QUOTE]

try driving a metro diesel 1.4 non turbo for a year :o :o

[Rob_S]

just got the cav gsi of love going again, new bigass battery and its away :cool:
much nicer to drive

[Jon S]

just got the cav gsi of love going again, new bigass battery and its away :cool:
much nicer to drive
u cant beat a cavvy on comfort can ya. .although ive never driven the gsi version.

[Rob_S]

well its not bad, nice cruiser....and i put the better cams back in cos insurance was cheap so she dont half shift (checked that out with a tt225 on the way back, wasnt that much in it :))
new toyo proxies t1s doing there job quite well by the way if anyones thinking about new tyres, recommended on cavs too :cool:

[astrasteve23]

So you went from a mk3 to a mk2, and no regrets? Having owned one as my first car, i know what they are like. What i'm after really, is something that is more fun to drive with some subtle mods, looks better and is more exclusive/rare and the mk2 SR certainly fits that criteria.

As I don't and won't be using it everyday, a car that is more fun to drive than an everyday drive is more my priority.


i have no regrets atall! the mk3 felt too heavy, it understeered way too much and would hardly oversteer even lifting off in the wet! the mk2 steering feels more responsive, the car in general is more responsive when cornering and is quite well balanced! sell the mk3 and keep the mk2 sr! def do subtle mods and dont go ott! cant wait to see it!

[Brett]

just got the cav gsi of love going again, new bigass battery and its away
much nicer to drive

hit the nail on the head. It was a bit of an ordeal for me going form a Calibra 16v XE to the GTE 16v. the Calibra is a gorgeous car, comfortable and quiet. But at the end of the day its a just not as good or as much fun as the GTE, at an extra 300 kg's over my GTE!

I'm fortuante to have driven every model of the Astra range (with the exception of the MK5, will have a bash in one of those when the 3dr come out some time) and Im torn between the MK1 and 2 in terms of fun, having owned both. The mk2 is what im happiest with so it stays though!

I like 0dders interpretation of the GTE 16v's image now. Ive been pulled over by police who after dishing out the bollocking just want to talk about the car! Its getting that cool Retro image, as the 'other' hot hatch that the 1990's forgot. I like it that people dont know what my car is, what it can do and I love the suprise element that you can spring on people. Mr VTR knows what any old Civic VTi/Golf GTi is, but sure as well doesnt know what a GTE 16v is - untill its too late:D