Introduction of my family car (non-renault)

Level 8 User Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 263

I thought id post some photos of my second car, which my wife drives daily.
We have two little daughters (2 and 4 years old), so we own a station car for all those needs Wink

Anyways, enough rambling...
The car is an Opel Astra G Caravan '98. 1.6 litre with automatic transmission.
Its got now 107.000 km on the clock.
Very nice car, very comfortable and nice to drive. We've owned it for 2 years now and driven it over 40.000 km.

More photos can be found here:
http://www.simnet.is/srr/opel
Ps. When i visited London in febuary, i didnt notice any cars like this one. I know they're called Vauxhall over there in Britain but all i could see was a "van" called Vauxhall combo or something like that. It had the same body as mine but no rear seats and had no rear side windows. Doesnt this car exist in station/caravan edition for large families over there? Wink

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

yep we have them here

called an Vauxhall Astra Estate

Spammer Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 5717

its an OPEL for the rest of the world though Laughing

Retroholic Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 5685

Yeah opels here too. I had a 2.0 DTi astra saloon and then a van ages ago and i was very impressed with both, especially the saloon

Come to think of it i drove a 1.2 16v one and it was quite nippy

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

used to drive an astra estate 1.7 td up and down to dundee. Slow heap o crap.

Level 8 User Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 263

Well, our Opels has got decent power. 105hp Cool

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

yeah but thats slow!

It used to sit at 100 ok but 115 was the fastest I got out of it.

Retroholic Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 5685

The 1.7s are dreadful. the 2.0s put out 110bhp with shit loads of torque especially the car was was intercooled

Level 8 User Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 263

I used to drive long ways (400km) across Iceland often 2002 and 2003.
Usual riding speed was around 140-150km/h and it had lots left Cool

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

the one I was using had the intercooler.

like I said ok but not exactly awe inspiring and it wasn't to good on diesel either!

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

got 125 mph out of our company astra van 18.td Smile

admittedly it was on the downhill part of the M62 between leeds and manchester, unladen and at about 4am in the morning lol.

Site Subscriber Joined: 10 Jun 2004 Posts: 2317

Incidently Wicked Neo, thats exactly the same spot and time I set my speed record in my 1.9TD 19 of 120-125mph, at which point I wimped out

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

coming down to where the two sides split apart to go around that farm house stuck in the middle of the M62 ?

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

is that between leeds and manchester? If so I got nerarly 140 out the blue energy down the hill comign back fae bens.

Managed 130 with rusty asleep in the back and geo up front with me.

Site Subscriber Joined: 10 Jun 2004 Posts: 2317

Wicked Neo wrote:

coming down to where the two sides split apart to go around that farm house stuck in the middle of the M62 ?

Thats the one, almost shat meself when i saw a police merc 4x4 going the other way!

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

hehe, that can be a right nice bit of road that out of rush hour times.

althou one occasion i was the cause of a tailback on that strech, indirectly thou.

was in the fast lane bombing it along with a merc up my arse (yes we was racing, i was in my company volvo) and suddenly i spot this huge lump of metal in the fast lane, i slapped my hazzard lights on to warn the merc behind me and switched to the middle lane . . . he did not see it until the last minute when he locked up and ran over the thing, he escaped unhurt and not much damage to his car, front bumper was fucked and it took off his back box.

thankfully we had a bit of a gap between us and the following traffic which saw him lock up and slowed down, no accidents, no one hurt but the tailback was caused from where we had to get the police out to remove the lump of metal and from where ppl was rubber necking at the merc on the hard shoulder.

it could have ended up a lot worse, if a lowered car had hit this lump of metal i'm sure it would have ended up in the barrier with some injuries caused to the driver and poss worse with following traffic hitting him, or other cars swerving to avoid.

incidently the first day i picked up my brand new volvo v40 company car, i was driving up the M1 to leeds and the lorry in front lost a sheet of metal from the back, coming str8 toward me!
i ducked lol thinking it was coming thru the windscreen but it hit the drivers side front light taking it out and bounced over the top of the car and onto the central reservation.
was nice explaining that one to the boss . .