tony_eldridge

I'm very proud to announce the birth of our first baby We've had a baby girl, born 5/12/10 and weighing 8lb .5oz Who we've named Chloe :D

Nope Not at all mate. Lol yeah thanks Rach, i've had up to the eyes with this car. Nothing seems to be working properly. Either that or i'm just the wrong market age for it Not a dad quite yet. DD is this Sat Hopefully will be born anytime soon Whats happening with Ruby??? No, your reading wrong. Yes i went from a '03 STi to an Astra. Not the first time i've done that! But i'm not comparing them at all. How could i? I've simply analysed the car as what it is, compared to nothing save my own experience of all my old cars (i've had quite a few, including to date 6 other Astra's!! ) and my expectations of how it should be. As you can see if you re-read it, its a short list of all the crap that i'm now putting up with

Just thought i'd pop on and share with you all how i'm getting on with the new mk6 Astra i got to replace my STi. Its f****** s***, the biggest pile of w*** i've EVER owned!!! Vauxhall have tried to raise their game with the new cars to rival Audi. They don't. What they have done is have the potential to put together a really good hatch with great dynamics and style then flush all that down the bog to create a useless blob of crap handling, extremely slow, horribly thirsty over engineered tosh! I should explain here the model i have. Its a 1.6ltr (NA) 115PS SRi spec. Totally standard car and its a nice car to sit in... thats only sit in as driving it is like someone dragging their nails down a black board, whilst someone else uses a cheese grater on your head! First good points (its only fair). The exterior isn't bad looking, all the panels fit beautifully the gaps are superb, nice touches like the window surround in chrome are welcome. It has a good spec as standard, the interior is miles better than old Vauxhall and even better than do i dare, Subaru. Unfortunately thats it for good points. Bad points... Well. With 180bhp less than i'm used to it would never feel quick, but getting the same mpg as my STi used to is plain ridiculous! 27mpg is my best so far on a motorway run! Vauxhall claim over 40 so is 30-35mpg an unfair expectation? Theres the way that as you turn into any corner it actually feels like your using a remote control whilst wearing boxing gloves. The standard fit tyres, Bridgestone Turanza's which as far as i can tell offer absolutely NO grip at all! Wheel spin is the order of the day with a light throttle opening. That assuming you can get the car moving at all, for 'hill start assist' is always on hand to make you miserable every single time you stop at a junction What this will do is hold the car on the brakes on an incline for 2 seconds while you balance clutch with gas pedal stopping the danger of you rolling back. But being 29 not 92 i can actually do this without rolling back anyway. Unfortunately my car is broken and will engage 'hill start' on pretty much any surface incline or not, and will not release me from the junction/parking-space/roundabout/traffic-light even my bloody driveway until the full 2 seconds is over. When you can't get to 60mph under 14sec i don't need the extra 2 Of course the 'new Astra' comes as standard with an electric handbrake. Flick the switch and the car is held stationary, engage 1st and simply drive off it releases instantly allowing you on your way. This would work without 'hill start' at junctions/parking-spaces/traff..... Grrr It constanly fogs up, and in recent cold snaps, freezes on the inside. 3rd gear is totally useless. So is 1st, as the lever catches the gate for reverse most times, sometimes jumping it and then you can't be sure as you go to pull off which way you'll actually go! It bongs if you leave the lights on. It bings if you have a door open. It pings if you put the key in the ignition. It chimes if you don't have your seatbelt on. It goes bloody bonkers if you open the door to get out if your lights are on, keys in the igntion... "dam it car i needed something from the boot!!!"! The headlights are as bright as a couple of candles in the distance. Yet the daytime running lights will blind oncoming traffic from 2 miles. I really can go on with the list of problems but i'm fed up ranting The 'Ass'tra is booked in for the techs to fob me off on the 29th so maybe some of it will be addressed. There rant over and i feel better In the meantime hope you all are well and your looking after your Impreza's, if modern motors are anything to go by you might need to hang on to them for a while Take care Tony

Just clarify, no one thought to inform you where the ECU is Its in the passenger footwell, under the carpet you'll find a metal kick plate. Its under that. If its a Prodrive then it will have a sticker to say so. But it is possible to get the exhaust without the rest of the kit, ebay etc

Cheers guys! I'll of course pop on here from time to time

Well, its finally sold. After nearly 3 years of ownership of my 3rd (and probably last) Impreza, and over 5yrs on SIDC, it was picked up today by its new owner. The car will be heading down to the Essex area where i'm sure some of you guys on here may well see it! Sad day really, but with the price of running it and the fact i'm to become a first time dad in 8 weeks(!) it was time to make that head over heart decision and let it go! To all on here, those i know and those i haven't had the chance to meet, take care and enjoy yourselves In the words of Vinny Jones; "its been emotional"

Joe's a professional car valeter, he's allergic to 'muck'

No chance. Not without a million miles under its wheels! Or someone very very desperate to sell (read ropey car!)!

Having seen this car in the metal, all i can say is this is one tidy scoob!

Barely

The RB320 won't be alot different to your current scoob performance wise. PPP is the same etc. However the RB carries all the kudos of being, well, an RB. Limited edition, a number of cosmetic tweaks that lift above a 'standard' STi etc If you can do a deal that doesn't leave you out of pocket then go for it

Yeah ...about 600 more than last year

A WRX Vs a STi to 60 there can't be much in it anyway Especially if the WRX is modded against a standard STi. A WRX can't live with a STi for everything else though. I've no idea what mine does to 60mph. I'd hazard a guess at 5.0secs

STi for the weekend. But not so much a 'toy'. I mostly use it to take over for a day or two from our Clio. As a 'toy' maybe once every couple of months! She clocked up 3400miles in the last year.

Cheers mate. Yep gave her a run for a bit to get heat into the brakes and exhaust first. Then to the testers! 30 mins or so later, one shiny new MOT I wasn't worried at all :)