Question: Astra MK5 Problems?

Hi,

Has anybody experienced any problems with the new Astra (MK5)?

I took delivery of a 1.8 SRi on October and have had intermittent
electrical faults ever since. eg. Alarm goes off intermittently,
courtesy lights come on randomly whilst driving, dashboard warning
lights filcker randomly, audio system loses all of it's stored
settings (radio stations, etc) intermittently, fuel guage sticks
intermittently.

The car has been back to my local Vauxhall garage six times but each
time the service team find no faults and advise that their nationwide
service database shows that no other new Astra's have had these
problems.

I'd be interested to hear from any MK5 Astra owners with similar
experiences.

Cheers,

Kev

 

Apart from that everything seems OK so far.

Tony.

 

My boss has got an alarm siren on order cos his alarm goes off every now and
then.
My mate has got a new set of instruments on order cos his fuel gauge lies
Maybe you need to change dealer?

 

funny that I have MK5 and my fuel guage lies as well

 

I took delivery of a 1.8 SRi on October and have had intermittent

I think you should consider rejecting the car. Honest John in the Telegraph
was talking about this just last Saturday. Here's what he said to someone
whose garage had failed to rectify a fault on a new City Rover 3 times:

"The way case law stands, you have a good chance of rejecting the car if a
dealer has been given three chances to rectify a fault within the first six
months but still hasn't succeeded. The dealer will resist, of course. The
car must be returned to the original supplier together with all keys and
paperwork. You must also send a recorded-delivery letter to the vendor to
outline why the car has been rejected. To obtain your money back in full,
you have to reject the car within the first six months. Lesser refunds may
be obtained outside that period but will take into account any mileage
covered."

 

Christ glad im not the only one with problems then! Ive had the SIM unit
(Not sure of spelling) replaced 3 times. First time the noises couldnt be
heard for indicators and such like, second time the traction control kept
turing itself off and on, apparently thats due to a common center steering
align fault which the new unit has fixed touch wood! The buttons in the door
rattle like mad when I have the stereo on and now the clips that hold the
mats in places has come unscrewed so the only way to put it back is to pull
the trim up.

Looks like you should ask them to replace the SIM unit as that seems to do
the trick everytime something goes wrong in my MK5 Astra.

I get worried everytime I take it in the garage as it took a bit of going
back a few times to get it sorted. I swear they think im crazy and make
these things up.

Matt

 

Steve / Matt,

Thanks for your responses.

I have since contacted Trading Standards and BBC Watchdog and it turns
out that both (especially Watchdog!) - are currently investigating car
dealers and their inability to repair or exchange faulty vehicles.
They have both taken an interest in my case.

Cheers,

Kev

 

I have since contacted Trading Standards

In my (considerable) experience Trading Standards are about as much use as a
chocolate teapot, but good luck!

 

Well good luck, I wont start on the problems I had with my MK4 astra! I
bought a new MK5 in the hope that it would all be great. Mines developed a
new intermittant fault where if I start the engine from warm it cuts out,
its fine on second start. Id be wasting my time if I took it to the
dealership. One thing you can do it take it to another VX dealership, they
can fix it and send the bill to the dealership you bought it from. Id like
to get my door rattles fixed at some point but perhaps I should leave that
until service time.

Cheers

Matt