Old Top Gear (Copyright BBC Worldwide) from 1996 Jeremy Clarkson looks at the new Vauxhall Vectra. Hilarious. All songs, copyrights goes to their retrospective owners.
"(Many years ago) I refused to road-test the Vectra on Top Gear, arguing that if Vauxhall couldn’t be bothered to make the car interesting in any way whatsoever, I couldn’t be bothered to drive it. To understand just how dull this car was, you need to visualise a chartered accountant in a tweed jacket with elbow patches, playing cricket, in a period drama by Jane Austen, in Belgium, while reading out details of the Enron scandal in a Birmingham accent." - Clarkson on why he hated the Vectra, 2002
My dad had a Vectra Saloon as his second car, which was kept for domestic use ( Going out in) as apposed to work use which he kept his estate car for (Manual Labour). Both did there job okay, but if you wanted luxury you would go for a Jag or Mercedes. Top Gear, of cause went middle class then elitist forgetting what cars were for, to make life that bit easier.
@@GryphLane lol, it's in good nick and goes 110. I wouldn't mind it when I passed my test but said I don't want to learn in it any more so hes give me a couple grand to get a car of my choosing
It was 1999 and I was a sales manager working in Berkshire. Our cars were replaced every 4 years, with most of them racking up 40k a year plus. I ignored the 318's and 1.8 A4's all my colleagues chose and went for a 4 door Vectra 2.6 SRI, the budget even stretched to adding electric rear windows, CC and metallic paint! My colleagues all 'enjoyed' their wheezing 'premium' German models, while I left them behind with a throaty roar. I bought it off the company with 170k on the clock, the only thing it needed before I sold it with 190k was a new exhaust manifold and a alternator.
Same. Had a red one. It turned off the engine when you turned hard so I had to have one hand free and turn the ignition in tight turns. Loved it. Drove many girls in it. Got rear ended and scrapped.
vectras are better thant its competitions and something he doesnt mention that vectra had controls on the steering wheel..who cares about sun glasses storage..u can put them everywhere u want :D.btw i got Opel Vectra which is very reliable car and i wouldn't choose mondeo or that renault. and that stupid vauxhall badge isnt really looking good on Vectra because of that grill V..
The Vectra that Clarkson drives in this video is the GLS 1.8 and it looks depressing and it doesn't even have air-conditioning 4:07. The red one is a CDX V6, that's the one he should have reviewed.
@@30isurfer Probably right. Even the "competitors" that he showed could have exactly the same criticism and all in all Vectra wasn't an awful car. It even had a spicier version. Also if I remember well didn't he also say that V6 Mondeo was the best car on planet?
Good, solid motor, aged far better than than its rivals. I know of one that achieved in excess of half a million miles and would have done more with a new gearbox.
Yes and i know of a red mk1 mondeo 1.8td taxi that's done 1,000,000 miles! Probably had a few clutches though. Probably never thrashed and well serviced.
Absolutely. In general, I think Fords are usually just a little bit better than the equivalent Vauxhall, and I've hade plenty of both. I thought the Vectra was a good car, no less reliable than any Ford, and the styling held up well over time. Lord knows why pricks like the other bloke get so uptight about a near twenty year old car.
With all respect Clarkson was wrong with his attitude. Thousands of those 90's Vectras still drive in the entire world. But you won't fund thousands of Lagunas or Xantias... and thousands of BMW from 90's. Vectras got rusty, but still reliable. While 25 years old BMWs become just a pain. Lagunas got "de-electricized", Citroens got "de-suspensionised". Maybe those years Fords are close to survive... but not so much.
The only remotely interesting thing I can remember about this car (other than Jezza roasting it), is when I had to inspect one for contraband (whilst working in security), and noticed that it had a Vauxhall badge on the bonnet, and an Opel one on the boot. I joked with the driver that "seems you've got a cut and shut here".
I drive one for 9 years now, after 12 to 16 months we will celebrate a half a milli - still stock, still runnin smooth, still lookin good among newer cars, timeless. Most reliabe - I can get in it any time and go anywhere and Im 1000% sure it gonna take me there and back. Haters gonna hate, my Vectra gonna drive. muHahahaha... :)
In my opinion B Vectra looked very good in comparison to other cars in it's segment. However the driving qualities weren't that good and the low end torque was weak in motors 1.6-2.0. All and all I would have chosen the Mondeo even though I always liked the looks of Vectra better.
they sold is as a Saturn L300 in America, we only had two engines; the 2.2 Ecotec from the Chevy Cavalier (140hp 150lb ft) or a 3.0 V6 that was from your Vectra. I always liked the Vectras styling, the L300 was rather funny looking.
I just bought the salon 1.6 16V Vectra and really love it (my first car). Even compared to all it's rivals at the end I think it is the best by looks and all else, granted when it was new the price was a lot and at that time it may not have been something great but now in 2017 I think they are actually quite nice and for a first car really good. Only thing I really want to change on mine is the fabrics of the interior.
My dad had 3 vectras all used and cheap as chips, used as work horses (very hard lives) and ran like dreams to be honest they are not bad, have enough room to fit his market stock in every week end and his ladders on the roof with a roof rack for his window cleaning. Great work horses and comfortable enough.
i have one of these cars ,bought it second hand and its been one of the best cars i have ever had still going strong . the bbc should of let jeremy try it out with a caravan towed on the back that would have upset him.
A seminal TV moment, when the review is more about Clarkson than the Vectra. Ok so it did not set the world on fire, doesn't change direction like a housefly or accelerate to sixty in a gazillionth of a second. Nor did it cost £200,000. It was driven by decent folks doing a solid job and it did so pretty well,. From now on TG was all about JC, the Hamster and Captain Slow... blowing up caravans, hanging the tail out in those £200k cars, launching Reliant three wheeler rockets and generally trashing anything that the mortal public drove. Insight, information and a good review were dead. Because of course that is a little bit harder to do well. Bring back William Woolard. And yes, I had a 2.5 V6 back in the day - it went well and it was a decent family car. I've had them all since then including the more exciting Italians, but nothing forgives a review like this. The Jezster may still despise the Vectra, but its aged better than the man himself.
The thing was, Vauxhall was calling it a new model, when in reality it was scarcely changed from the preceding model. The 1990 Escort was similarly slated when launched. Reviewers won't say it's good if it's not significantly better than the outgoing model. The vectra was as if Vauxhall simply accepted that the bulk of sales were going to be as rep cars and hardly bothered to make the car in any way appealing, as its most drivers would have no choice in the matter
@@lemmykilmister4919 incorrect. Like all Vauxhall cars after the Victor FE, the design may have come from Opel but Assembly (or making, to use your terminology) took place in various factories, including Vauxhall's Ellesmere port facility.
This was my dream car in 1995. I got the CD from a number on the magazine advert. I had parts of the car cut out from brochures and stuck on the wall in my student digs.
@@iainmclaughlan1557 I thought it was a joke, I have a poster with a Bertone mk4 astra coupe on it, but I have to admit its the old calibre coachworks one on an old mac power poster
Always thought this Vectra looked brilliant. It's funny how Clarkson says no boy would ever grow up wanting one but it is one of the more memorable cars from the late 90s BTCC; Cleland, Plato and Muller all drove it. I've never quite understood his hatred for it because yes, it's a boring A-B car but there are l o a d s of boring A-B cars but none of them get anywhere near the disproportionate hatred that he gives this Vectra.
Vauxhall still gets a disproportionate amount of hate from the press, and I've never been able to figure out why. Yes, some of their products aren't that good, and the Vectra B was a high point, but the newer ones certainly don't deserve the kind of lambasting that's otherwise reserved for Protons, Ssangyongs and Suzukis.
My old local taxi firm that took me to and from school had 2 of these Vectras!! One was a maroon 2.0dti ls not too sure what the other silver one was, might have been the same! They were eventually replaced by mainly Skoda Octavias! The boss also liked the newer Vectra so had few of them in the fleet as well!
In the 1990s, fleets of these were bought by many companies, including rental giants for up to 40% less than the public paid. They sold them to the public when 18 months old at what they paid or more. Car firms achieved massive sales targets, rental firms did fine and the public thought that they were getting a good buy at auction.
these were sold as a chevrolet vectra in brazil and they were my childhood dream car... but yeah all the competitors shown in the video were at the time sold as higher segment, they were all imported. I believe the vectra was produced in brazil. it shows that this car was intended to be a lower segment car compared to what it was being sold by vauxhall, hence the blandness
A lot of them were bought by the police. As a police car they were great. Loads of space in the trunk for equipment and performance was not bad. The handling on the other hand before 1999 was quite bad. I have a 1998 model and it handles like a couch. The car has to much body roll and it understears like mad and even worse if you hit the brakes in mid corner the rear slides out. I also have a 1996 astra caravan and it has a better handling than the vectra
It really didn't effect sales. Vauxhall just got pissy for someone telling it like it was, that Opel had lumped Vauxhall with something as interesting as a bucket of wallpaper paste.
Never understood why exactly he held the Vectra grudge even years after this, going as far as saying he'd rather have some sort of plague than drive it. Besides being a boring car, it was a decently reliable one. Bought a Vectra 1.6 for 380 pounds worth . The clock never worked but besides that the thing ran 3 years without any major fixes or basically any maintenance.
+ydin9 he held a grude against the vectra for a similar reaosn that he hated the nissan Sunny and the totyoa corolla. Not bad cars, any of them but nor crucially are they godo cars. They are average cars, average in every aspect they do. All the traits he hates in people. Average, reasonable, nice, satisfactory.......(se ehis nissan sunny review on his worst cars video for reference points.
ilcool90 What's so weird about it? Needed a cheap used car. Volvo we originally had in mind had expensive looking issues with steering and suspension on test drive. The Vectra sat on the same lot, same price range. less mileage , better service history and everything worked besides the dash screen/clock,
He once said he felt that the Vectra was designed in a coffee break by someone who had no interest in cars. He also said that this was the hardest thing that he did on the old Top Gear as he felt that the Vectra didn't warrant 6 seconds of attention nevermind 6 minutes of it!
The Vectra was designed for people that aren't into cars....they just want something that is comfortable, and will get them from point A to point B with little fuss or drama.
Funny you should say that as Clarkson himself once said that he always thought that the Vectra was designed in a coffee break by someone who wasn't interested in cars! So, there you have it! It was designed by someone who wasn't interested in cars FOR people who weren't interested in cars!
Wait, we've got to the point where people's Grandads had Vectras and they're old enough to talk about it on the internet? And this comment was from 4 years ago? Where in the name of all that is holy has the time gone?
Mondeo was a better handling and riding car than the Vectra. Vectra had a better interior though, apart from its crappy rock hard seats like sitting on a wooden church bench. Vectra saloon was better looking than the mondeo though. Clarkson hated Rover and Vauxhall with a passion, but bummed up Alfa Romeo who built totally unreliable rebadged Fiat junk. He also loved Range Rovers, now that puts a dent in his credibility. Range Rover on the 90s were total garbage, air suspension failures, trim falling apart, dodgy electrics etc. The Vectra was not perfecr but nowhere near as bad as the other shit boxes he bummed up at the time.
I remember seeing this when it was first shown. It was, I think, the first time Clarkson was relentlessly rude about a car on the show and it divided opinion quite a bit at first. But funny how the show ended up going downhill rather quickly once he left. I can't help wondering if history is going to repeat itself...
z00h It depends on how honest you're willing to be. Honesty, coupled with diplomacy, is fine. But being honest without thought for the feelings of others isn't. And considering Vauxhall were doing him a favour by giving him a car to review (and therefore keeping him in a job), his excessive honesty is pretty rude.
leopold Emergency? Hi, I've got a bad case of politically correct brainwashed social justice warrior, can you send a coroner over please. Thanks and you're welcome... world.
I served my time on Opel in Ireland in the late 90s early 00s I remember them braking timing belts and doing head gaskets All the time but thay were very easy car's to work on
Yes the 36k timing belt replacement interval was a little long! Between my own cars and a friends we had a number of 1.6 16v Astra’s from that era. My friends belt snapped at 36k the week it was booked in to be replaced.
The problem was that the cavalier pissed all over it, the mk 2 was a fantastic car and the mk 3 very good, the vectra a boring comparison, its all going that way though to a degree.
The problem is that GM screwed Opel with ridiculous cost cutting measures. The Vectra was initially launched without an adjustable steering column and the driving position was diabolical. GM's argument was that they couldn't fit airbag and steering adjustment, which was just plain BS, because in America you could buy any Chevrolet, Buick or Cadillac that had a driver's side airbag and adjustable steering. Ford launched the Mondeo with a driver's side airbag and telescopic steering two years before the Vectra was launched FFS!
I have one. Awful rust damage to internal support parts, but I love and keep it. My silver arrow will get a full restoration somewhen, once I have the budget and time. My opel Vectra is great!
The Silver one N667 DUR No tax data available no Mot etails held by the DVLA it's last MOT was May 2008 127,549 Miles passed with 3 advisories Offside Front Tyre worn to the limit brake disc slightly pitted All exhaust corroded The red one N684 DUR Untaxed since 27th November 2009 No MOT Expired 8th Feb 2008 passed its last MOT with 123,285 Miles on the clock Basically they're both dead
I always liked the Vectra, had a 51 reg which was 8 months old at the time, pretty much a brand new car and it felt amazing driving it back in 2002, had presence on the road. Rarely see them now. The CD model was nice and comfy, they had something modern day Vauxhall lack, even though i now have a Insignia and it is a good car, it does just feel like a car and I think ill have more nostalgia for my old Vectra in years to come.
He single handedly effected Vauxhall sales figures and they hated him for it. the best thing they could have done is take his opinions on board and used them to make a better car...win win situation. He would have made a mint out of them they would have an even stupider car that people would buy and sell well...
This car was so boring and mundane that Opel/Vauxhall board of ceos decided to discard Vectra name and replace this car with almost equally boring and mundane Insignia car.
Had nothing but trouble with my 96 1.8 ecotec vectra camshaft sensor, crankshaft, sensor, airflow sensor spent more time in the garage then on the road
Got to be said - you still see Vectras (and would see more if it wasn't for the scrappage scheme). When was the last time you saw a Laguna outside of this video and old touring car highlights?
After a life time of used car dealing ,a lot of what Clarkson said was utter crap .In the rep mobile class the vauxhall was vastly superior build quality to the Sierra/ mondeo duo ,the simplest way to explain this is to take any of these models at 100,000MLS and the cavalier/ vectra is still tight and drives well with very little wear .The Sierra/ mondeo,s became loose old things and could be awfully tired at that mileage ,the trim and body work were vastly superior on the vauxhall also,overall resulting in far less warranty claims .And lastly I don't think I ever got inany of the ford's drivers seats that wasn't scrap at that mileage.
I don’t how well these cars aged in Britain for long term ownership. But here in a Australia sold under the Holden name they fell apart and melted like an ice cream on a hot summer’s day.
Yes, I worked in Holden service and all the Vectras were absolute dogs. I'm amazed at all these Brits saying they got a good run out of them. They were bloody awful.
IMO his finest hour. Just enough tongue in cheek to avoid being completely unsufferable. Unfortunately, like children picking on a chosen kid at school, once he had set the precedent, the Vectra, and eventually Vauxhall, ended up with an embarrassing image, and being tacitly avoided by those doing the choosing. As a result I daresay there are those in Luton who would genuinely have him lynched were he to set foot there for the harm he did to peoples' livelihoods in the area. . He may have had a point that the Vectra was unexciting, but his ire could have just as easily been directed at any of the others in the segment, these were bread and butter cars. And thus Top Gear ceased to become a motoring magazine show and became the very popular farce it remains.
I think he's 100% right. Those cars are not worth reviewing because they get you from a to b without fuss nor emotion. They aren't bad cars, they are quite OK cars actually (I've got a mondeo mk2 and I sort of like the old thing) but they're boring like unsalted bread. I'm not interested at all in a review about something that has nothing special to it - no real flaws, no real perks. Would you like to review, or watch reviews about, I don't know, a range of teaspoons? Top Gear has always been a very informative motoring show, if you know how to listen. Anyway, now that Peugeot bought Opel I think Clarkson would love spewing even more acid at them than ever. :D
This was a Saturn L300 in America. We either had a 140hp 2.2 4 cylinder, or the 3.0 V6 carried over from the Vectra. It was a popular car when introduced, but reliability problems plauged it. Only sold from 1999-2005 and they killed it for the Aura, also based on your Vectra. We used a 252hp 3.6 V6 with 6 speed auto. It was fast. Alas, Saturn died in 2008. Americans no longer receive Vauxhall rebrands.
Buick still sells Opels. By the way, Vauxhalls are rebadged Opels. So what you are buying are essentially Opels. Probably the shittest cars made in Germany.
I bought a Vectra 5 years ago to keep the commuter miles off my BMW 535d. It had 88k miles on it when I got it and it now has 160k miles. It is a bit boring but I am amazed that it just keeps chugging along reliably. The clock - when I first got it I thought the previous owner must have been a bit anal because the clock was always spot on. Now I know why. I have grown to really like it.
I had the 2.2 turbo diesel. To this day.... Still the best car I ever had. Brilliant to drive, reliable as hell. Mine had spoiler, nice lights and tints. Was mint
Toyota, Subaru or Lexus if you want a car to last many years. Buy a good one, look after it, keep it. People waste too much money trading cars in all their lives for newer models, when there is probably nothing wrong with the one they already have.
funny enough it's replacement the opel insignia also sold as a vauxhall in england is the new holden commodore in australia with the chevrolet sourced malibu sitting below it.holden were idiots they went from audi rivals with the very last of the vectras to what was at the time daewoo sourced crap.
I have always wondered where Clarkson's utter hatred of Vauxhall's has come from, did he have a bad experience as a child in one or something! They are decent enough mid market cars with German development quality so I don't see what his problem is.
Boring inside and out, made of the cheapest feeling plastic out there, and not all that reliable, either. It was a case in point that Vauxhall's days of producing interesting cars were gone, and that they were enslaved to rebadging Opel's dreary metal boxes forevermore.
@@CynicalBastard511 yea but come on have you seen a mint vauxhall cavalier SRI in black they had WAY more charm and head turning power,also a RARE car If you saw a mint black Cavalier SRI at a petrol station you watch the people stop and stare💯👌
Clarkson just didn't review the right cars, we had a fleet of Vectras when they first came out at our company and they all had a problem of randomly stalling. This made them very interesting indeed, especially at roundabouts and running bump starts became the thing to do. They had strong engine mounts though.
Me too, with a 1994 Cavalier CDX, with the 2.0-litre Ecotec engine. It would tend to cut out abruptly at the most annoying/dangerous time, such as going around a fast bend or across a railway crossing! I could never get to the bottom of it and when the head gasket blew, I scrapped it.
"(Many years ago) I refused to road-test the Vectra on Top Gear, arguing that if Vauxhall couldn’t be bothered to make the car interesting in any way whatsoever, I couldn’t be bothered to drive it.
To understand just how dull this car was, you need to visualise a chartered accountant in a tweed jacket with elbow patches, playing cricket, in a period drama by Jane Austen, in Belgium, while reading out details of the Enron scandal in a Birmingham accent."
- Clarkson on why he hated the Vectra, 2002
My dad had a Vectra Saloon as his second car, which was kept for domestic use ( Going out in) as apposed to work use which he kept his estate car for (Manual Labour).
Both did there job okay, but if you wanted luxury you would go for a Jag or Mercedes. Top Gear, of cause went middle class then elitist forgetting what cars
were for, to make life that bit easier.
@@zarrow50you're wrong there, Jeremy and the gang own SUVs too and yes, they do enjoy it, they just dont like box on wheels
@@zarrow50also my father had a vectra the 1992;and was really a not good car;was thinked like an Audi 80 but for poor money people
N667DUR - scrapped in 27-06-2008
N684DUR - Untaxed since 2009
Short lives
I like to think Jeremy himself watched it get scrapped
didn't Vauxhall lose their shit when they saw this? Apparently asked the BBC to FORCE Clarkson into a proper review and he refused haha.
Yeah they were angry and said they wanted a professional car review and it not done by clarkson.
Mr Clarkson is a prize twerp but this review really is reality; the Vectra does have nice door mirrors but is like a Cavalier.
Robert Taylor it's just a boring car.
that little swoopy line of the door mirrors is really nice though and..................sorry I fell asleep again.
The car that pretty much nearly put Luton out of business....
Thing is I still see some of those Vectra's on the roads, and none of the competition.
s1d3k1ckRO Well where I live I still see Mondeo's of that era but the only Vextra's I see are the newer 2002 on.
I see shit loads of Vw Passats and the odd Mondeo and Accord, never any early Vectras though.
I just turned 17 and my dad's given me his 02 vectra to learn in.
@@notinuse2110 You poor thing!
@@GryphLane lol, it's in good nick and goes 110. I wouldn't mind it when I passed my test but said I don't want to learn in it any more so hes give me a couple grand to get a car of my choosing
It was 1999 and I was a sales manager working in Berkshire. Our cars were replaced every 4 years, with most of them racking up 40k a year plus. I ignored the 318's and 1.8 A4's all my colleagues chose and went for a 4 door Vectra 2.6 SRI, the budget even stretched to adding electric rear windows, CC and metallic paint! My colleagues all 'enjoyed' their wheezing 'premium' German models, while I left them behind with a throaty roar. I bought it off the company with 170k on the clock, the only thing it needed before I sold it with 190k was a new exhaust manifold and a alternator.
Oh dear, this car got destroyed in this review back then ... but you know what ... I still have , AND USE, my tyre dust cap removing tool :)
I've got a 2015 Astra at the moment and it does not have the dust cap removal tool! GM/Vauxhall cost cutting at its harshest I feel.
Jezza probably blew it up.
your fingers must be so clean
@@zloychechen5150 not any more. This car died years ago and I got a dirty old Mercedes to replace it.
wholesome
The dustcap removal tool is a neat feature. It prevents you from getting your fingers dirty when checking the tyre pressure.
And what prevents them from getting dirty while you're getting the air hose out and adding air to your tires?
@@wesgregg6451 Vsuxhall missed a trick by not including a box of nitrile gloves with each Vectra sold.
That was my first car. Same color also hatchback. I loved the car it never let me down. Good memories ^^
Same. Had a red one. It turned off the engine when you turned hard so I had to have one hand free and turn the ignition in tight turns.
Loved it. Drove many girls in it. Got rear ended and scrapped.
@@Osquar what were the back seats like?
They've aged quite nicely. Hard to think they turn 21 this year
+Kieran White They certainly aged quite better than the competition!
my dad had 3 vectras and he wants another one
I didn't think the last Vectras were too bad but these earlier models are disgusting and Jeremy is spot on - dull as hell
vectras are better thant its competitions and something he doesnt mention that vectra had controls on the steering wheel..who cares about sun glasses storage..u can put them everywhere u want :D.btw i got Opel Vectra which is very reliable car and i wouldn't choose mondeo or that renault. and that stupid vauxhall badge isnt really looking good on Vectra because of that grill V..
*****
did they?
The Vectra that Clarkson drives in this video is the GLS 1.8 and it looks depressing and it doesn't even have air-conditioning 4:07. The red one is a CDX V6, that's the one he should have reviewed.
JELH I agree, they're great cars nonetheless.
If he had chosen to drive the red v6, It wouldn’t help his intention to show the car as the worst. Probably got paid by the competition.
@@30isurfer TG didn’t work like that
Air conditioning wasn't too common in 1995.
@@30isurfer Probably right. Even the "competitors" that he showed could have exactly the same criticism and all in all Vectra wasn't an awful car. It even had a spicier version. Also if I remember well didn't he also say that V6 Mondeo was the best car on planet?
Arguably the beginning of new top gear lol
Good, solid motor, aged far better than than its rivals. I know of one that achieved in excess of half a million miles and would have done more with a new gearbox.
Wow, so it's Japanese level reliability?
Yes and i know of a red mk1 mondeo 1.8td taxi that's done 1,000,000 miles! Probably had a few clutches though. Probably never thrashed and well serviced.
Calm down little man.
Each to their own I say. Ford vs gm. BMW vs mercs. Ferrari vs lambs. It never ends. Competition is healthy out there.
Absolutely. In general, I think Fords are usually just a little bit better than the equivalent Vauxhall, and I've hade plenty of both. I thought the Vectra was a good car, no less reliable than any Ford, and the styling held up well over time. Lord knows why pricks like the other bloke get so uptight about a near twenty year old car.
What the hell! 30+ years of driving and I've just found out what that stick of plastic behind the fuel cap was. Wish I'd kept one now.
I thought that was for toggling the child lock
When top gear reviewed realistic people's cars and not £200,000 super cars
True that!
But be honest...which one would you rather watch?
this is why they stopped
@@mikeandhisdogs niether now lol
I think this kind of review showed that it was pretty pointless. That was the whole point of this review and why they ended up changing the show.
JC showing his colours long before 'new Top Gear'. He was special even then.
The man was the main attraction of BBC car journalism looooooong before 2002.
I had an all leather SRI 140. Stonking car. Engine was lovely and it never missed a beat in 3 years.
With all respect Clarkson was wrong with his attitude. Thousands of those 90's Vectras still drive in the entire world. But you won't fund thousands of Lagunas or Xantias... and thousands of BMW from 90's. Vectras got rusty, but still reliable. While 25 years old BMWs become just a pain. Lagunas got "de-electricized", Citroens got "de-suspensionised". Maybe those years Fords are close to survive... but not so much.
The only remotely interesting thing I can remember about this car (other than Jezza roasting it), is when I had to inspect one for contraband (whilst working in security), and noticed that it had a Vauxhall badge on the bonnet, and an Opel one on the boot. I joked with the driver that "seems you've got a cut and shut here".
Lmao good one
My 2001 Opel Vectra B 1.6 is now 21 years old and still runs strong.
Joking aside. The last laugh is on Clarkson. The Vectra has definitely aged better than him 😆😆😆
I had a V6 SRi I bought for £800. Was a riot. Great engine note and made me smile. Clarkson is right though. Box on wheels.
I drive one for 9 years now, after 12 to 16 months we will celebrate a half a milli - still stock, still runnin smooth, still lookin good among newer cars, timeless. Most reliabe - I can get in it any time and go anywhere and Im 1000% sure it gonna take me there and back. Haters gonna hate, my Vectra gonna drive. muHahahaha... :)
In my opinion B Vectra looked very good in comparison to other cars in it's segment. However the driving qualities weren't that good and the low end torque was weak in motors 1.6-2.0. All and all I would have chosen the Mondeo even though I always liked the looks of Vectra better.
they sold is as a Saturn L300 in America, we only had two engines; the 2.2 Ecotec from the Chevy Cavalier (140hp 150lb ft) or a 3.0 V6 that was from your Vectra. I always liked the Vectras styling, the L300 was rather funny looking.
The Vectra was really a facelifted Cavalier like when British Leyland updated the Austin Princess and Morris Marina to the Ambassador and Ital.
It wasn't.
I just bought the salon 1.6 16V Vectra and really love it (my first car). Even compared to all it's rivals at the end I think it is the best by looks and all else, granted when it was new the price was a lot and at that time it may not have been something great but now in 2017 I think they are actually quite nice and for a first car really good. Only thing I really want to change on mine is the fabrics of the interior.
Does it cut hair?
My dad had 3 vectras all used and cheap as chips, used as work horses (very hard lives) and ran like dreams to be honest they are not bad, have enough room to fit his market stock in every week end and his ladders on the roof with a roof rack for his window cleaning. Great work horses and comfortable enough.
i have one of these cars ,bought it second hand and its been one of the best cars i have ever had still going strong . the bbc should of let jeremy try it out with a caravan towed on the back that would have upset him.
A seminal TV moment, when the review is more about Clarkson than the Vectra. Ok so it did not set the world on fire, doesn't change direction like a housefly or accelerate to sixty in a gazillionth of a second.
Nor did it cost £200,000.
It was driven by decent folks doing a solid job and it did so pretty well,. From now on TG was all about JC, the Hamster and Captain Slow... blowing up caravans, hanging the tail out in those £200k cars, launching Reliant three wheeler rockets and generally trashing anything that the mortal public drove.
Insight, information and a good review were dead. Because of course that is a little bit harder to do well. Bring back William Woolard.
And yes, I had a 2.5 V6 back in the day - it went well and it was a decent family car. I've had them all since then including the more exciting Italians, but nothing forgives a review like this.
The Jezster may still despise the Vectra, but its aged better than the man himself.
these cars handled like they were on rails... when you turn the wheel it kept going straight....
The thing was, Vauxhall was calling it a new model, when in reality it was scarcely changed from the preceding model. The 1990 Escort was similarly slated when launched. Reviewers won't say it's good if it's not significantly better than the outgoing model. The vectra was as if Vauxhall simply accepted that the bulk of sales were going to be as rep cars and hardly bothered to make the car in any way appealing, as its most drivers would have no choice in the matter
Vauxhall didn't make anything. Both the last generation Cavalier and first gen Vectra were sourced from Opel.
@@lemmykilmister4919 incorrect. Like all Vauxhall cars after the Victor FE, the design may have come from Opel but Assembly (or making, to use your terminology) took place in various factories, including Vauxhall's Ellesmere port facility.
Believe it or not my vectra was the most reliable car I've owned. 170 k miles with no issues. Was very dull tho.
This was my dream car in 1995. I got the CD from a number on the magazine advert. I had parts of the car cut out from brochures and stuck on the wall in my student digs.
🤣🤣
Yes, I know I am weird
@@iainmclaughlan1557 I thought it was a joke, I have a poster with a Bertone mk4 astra coupe on it, but I have to admit its the old calibre coachworks one on an old mac power poster
I remember watching this episode when it went out on the telly
What did you think of it?
I owned a Mondeo. Didn't know what the "biro holder" was for until I saw this.
Sleek & stylish - _I loved the Vectras body work!_ My only gripe was the rigid wing mirrors - in a tight spot you want retractable mirrors!
This is why literally everyone in the UK now drives a 3-Series
top gear was so ahead of his time
His finest performance.... { Search: [applause] - no emoji found }
... it was downhill from then on
4 wheels and a fucking seat.
I love Planes, Trains & Auomobiles. Great film.
Clarkson was always Clarkson :))
Its probably the car that made that brought out the Jezza we have today.
Always thought this Vectra looked brilliant. It's funny how Clarkson says no boy would ever grow up wanting one but it is one of the more memorable cars from the late 90s BTCC; Cleland, Plato and Muller all drove it. I've never quite understood his hatred for it because yes, it's a boring A-B car but there are l o a d s of boring A-B cars but none of them get anywhere near the disproportionate hatred that he gives this Vectra.
Vauxhall still gets a disproportionate amount of hate from the press, and I've never been able to figure out why. Yes, some of their products aren't that good, and the Vectra B was a high point, but the newer ones certainly don't deserve the kind of lambasting that's otherwise reserved for Protons, Ssangyongs and Suzukis.
My Dad bought a Vectra in 2000. 2.6 Litre V6 170bhp. Fantastic Car! You can go 240km/h in that car!
My old local taxi firm that took me to and from school had 2 of these Vectras!!
One was a maroon 2.0dti ls not too sure what the other silver one was, might have been the same!
They were eventually replaced by mainly Skoda Octavias!
The boss also liked the newer Vectra so had few of them in the fleet as well!
In the 1990s, fleets of these were bought by many companies, including rental giants for up to 40% less than the public paid. They sold them to the public when 18 months old at what they paid or more. Car firms achieved massive sales targets, rental firms did fine and the public thought that they were getting a good buy at auction.
Win, win all round.
Not everything in life has to be exciting, women, cars, vacations ... etc etc. Sometimes, I just want something nice and reliable.
+greathey1234 Yeah, well they arent even reliable.
+Bunka Fas they are lol had one for over 15 years with no problems what so ever
+greathey1234 vector's are notorious for being unreliable.
+Tom Forrest well if yours lasted i guess we're all wrong.
stitcha123
Hahaha, exactly !
i owned one of these. best seats ever!
I still like those door mirrors. Always quietly reminded me of a tiny part of female anatomy, but I'm willing to accept that's just me.
its the driver that reminds me of the female anatomy.
"I would rather have double pneumonia than a Vectra."
these were sold as a chevrolet vectra in brazil and they were my childhood dream car... but yeah all the competitors shown in the video were at the time sold as higher segment, they were all imported. I believe the vectra was produced in brazil. it shows that this car was intended to be a lower segment car compared to what it was being sold by vauxhall, hence the blandness
It’s aged far better than Clarkson.
this is so famous - killed the vectra's sales
A lot of them were bought by the police. As a police car they were great. Loads of space in the trunk for equipment and performance was not bad. The handling on the other hand before 1999 was quite bad. I have a 1998 model and it handles like a couch. The car has to much body roll and it understears like mad and even worse if you hit the brakes in mid corner the rear slides out. I also have a 1996 astra caravan and it has a better handling than the vectra
Nope.
It really didn't effect sales. Vauxhall just got pissy for someone telling it like it was, that Opel had lumped Vauxhall with something as interesting as a bucket of wallpaper paste.
that guy at 4:46 is right! a vauxhall vector is not an apollo moon mission! genius.
Never understood why exactly he held the Vectra grudge even years after this, going as far as saying he'd rather have some sort of plague than drive it. Besides being a boring car, it was a decently reliable one. Bought a Vectra 1.6 for 380 pounds worth . The clock never worked but besides that the thing ran 3 years without any major fixes or basically any maintenance.
+ydin9 he held a grude against the vectra for a similar reaosn that he hated the nissan Sunny and the totyoa corolla. Not bad cars, any of them but nor crucially are they godo cars. They are average cars, average in every aspect they do. All the traits he hates in people. Average, reasonable, nice, satisfactory.......(se ehis nissan sunny review on his worst cars video for reference points.
Certainly not anyones dream cars, that's for sure.
+ydin9
How on earth did you came to a decision to buy a Vectra ?
ilcool90
What's so weird about it? Needed a cheap used car. Volvo we originally had in mind had expensive looking issues with steering and suspension on test drive. The Vectra sat on the same lot, same price range. less mileage , better service history and everything worked besides the dash screen/clock,
He once said he felt that the Vectra was designed in a coffee break by someone who had no interest in cars. He also said that this was the hardest thing that he did on the old Top Gear as he felt that the Vectra didn't warrant 6 seconds of attention nevermind 6 minutes of it!
I had this car. Infact identical. Never had a problem at all and was brilliant. So this review is harsh. Personally mine was awesome and lived it.
I don’t think it’s harsh it’s just reality that it’s a boring car
The Vectra was designed for people that aren't into cars....they just want something that is comfortable, and will get them from point A to point B with little fuss or drama.
Funny you should say that as Clarkson himself once said that he always thought that the Vectra was designed in a coffee break by someone who wasn't interested in cars! So, there you have it! It was designed by someone who wasn't interested in cars FOR people who weren't interested in cars!
@@georgejacob3162 he said that for a 160 mph Vectra though. 🤣 It's a fwd muscle car.
Great cars my grandad had one from new put it twice around the clock never any trouble because he looked after it h
Wait, we've got to the point where people's Grandads had Vectras and they're old enough to talk about it on the internet? And this comment was from 4 years ago? Where in the name of all that is holy has the time gone?
The Internet Crazy isn’t it!
The Internet The time has been eaten to death. 😂
Mondeo was a better handling and riding car than the Vectra. Vectra had a better interior though, apart from its crappy rock hard seats like sitting on a wooden church bench. Vectra saloon was better looking than the mondeo though. Clarkson hated Rover and Vauxhall with a passion, but bummed up Alfa Romeo who built totally unreliable rebadged Fiat junk. He also loved Range Rovers, now that puts a dent in his credibility. Range Rover on the 90s were total garbage, air suspension failures, trim falling apart, dodgy electrics etc. The Vectra was not perfecr but nowhere near as bad as the other shit boxes he bummed up at the time.
I remember seeing this when it was first shown. It was, I think, the first time Clarkson was relentlessly rude about a car on the show and it divided opinion quite a bit at first. But funny how the show ended up going downhill rather quickly once he left. I can't help wondering if history is going to repeat itself...
+leopold since when honest = rude?
z00h It depends on how honest you're willing to be. Honesty, coupled with diplomacy, is fine. But being honest without thought for the feelings of others isn't. And considering Vauxhall were doing him a favour by giving him a car to review (and therefore keeping him in a job), his excessive honesty is pretty rude.
leopold Emergency? Hi, I've got a bad case of politically correct brainwashed social justice warrior, can you send a coroner over please. Thanks and you're welcome... world.
***** Lefties achieved one thing for sure, they killed what we used to call sarcasm. Now being sarcastic = being rude. GTFO.
+leopold This can't have been the first time he was ever rude about a car.
The review that wrecked vauxhall... and deservedly too.
Might have been dull, but the one Clarkson drove had his last MOT in 2008 with 127,549 miles on the clock. Not bad I think
I served my time on Opel in Ireland in the late 90s early 00s I remember them braking timing belts and doing head gaskets All the time but thay were very easy car's to work on
Yes the 36k timing belt replacement interval was a little long! Between my own cars and a friends we had a number of 1.6 16v Astra’s from that era. My friends belt snapped at 36k the week it was booked in to be replaced.
Had one when i was 19 great car loved it
The problem was that the cavalier pissed all over it, the mk 2 was a fantastic car and the mk 3 very good, the vectra a boring comparison, its all going that way though to a degree.
The cavalier was a great success and my family had 3 or 4 of them over the years mk2/3's. Never had any issues with any.
The problem is that GM screwed Opel with ridiculous cost cutting measures. The Vectra was initially launched without an adjustable steering column and the driving position was diabolical. GM's argument was that they couldn't fit airbag and steering adjustment, which was just plain BS, because in America you could buy any Chevrolet, Buick or Cadillac that had a driver's side airbag and adjustable steering. Ford launched the Mondeo with a driver's side airbag and telescopic steering two years before the Vectra was launched FFS!
A box on wheels?The Vectra B have shapes and curves.
I love how they used Alright by Supergrass in this review, which came out around the same time!
I have one. Awful rust damage to internal support parts, but I love and keep it. My silver arrow will get a full restoration somewhen, once I have the budget and time. My opel Vectra is great!
people in the 90s didnt know how good they had it. indicators? controls? its 2024!
Yes, this is the review that caused GM to pretty much sever relations with Jeremy Clarkson.
And then they gave him the VX220 and suddenly all was right in the world
The Silver one N667 DUR
No tax data available
no Mot etails held by the DVLA
it's last MOT was May 2008 127,549 Miles
passed with 3 advisories
Offside Front Tyre worn to the limit
brake disc slightly pitted
All exhaust corroded
The red one N684 DUR
Untaxed since 27th November 2009
No MOT Expired 8th Feb 2008
passed its last MOT with 123,285 Miles on the clock
Basically they're both dead
I always liked the Vectra, had a 51 reg which was 8 months old at the time, pretty much a brand new car and it felt amazing driving it back in 2002, had presence on the road. Rarely see them now. The CD model was nice and comfy, they had something modern day Vauxhall lack, even though i now have a Insignia and it is a good car, it does just feel like a car and I think ill have more nostalgia for my old Vectra in years to come.
He single handedly effected Vauxhall sales figures and they hated him for it. the best thing they could have done is take his opinions on board and used them to make a better car...win win situation. He would have made a mint out of them they would have an even stupider car that people would buy and sell well...
They blamed him but he was right! They should have looked at their own product and said "You know what? He's right!"
Never have I ever seen Vectra B with working computer. :D
You haven't been about much then, have you...
" It's just a box on wheels. "
This car was so boring and mundane that Opel/Vauxhall board of ceos decided to discard Vectra name and replace this car with almost equally boring and mundane Insignia car.
Had nothing but trouble with my 96 1.8 ecotec vectra camshaft sensor, crankshaft, sensor, airflow sensor spent more time in the garage then on the road
For a beginner, this car is good . After a few years you look for more performance
Got to be said - you still see Vectras (and would see more if it wasn't for the scrappage scheme). When was the last time you saw a Laguna outside of this video and old touring car highlights?
After a life time of used car dealing ,a lot of what Clarkson said was utter crap .In the rep mobile class the vauxhall was vastly superior build quality to the Sierra/ mondeo duo ,the simplest way to explain this is to take any of these models at 100,000MLS and the cavalier/ vectra is still tight and drives well
with very little wear .The Sierra/ mondeo,s became loose old things and could be awfully tired at that mileage ,the trim and body work were vastly superior on the vauxhall also,overall resulting in far less warranty claims .And lastly I don't think I ever got inany of the ford's drivers seats that wasn't scrap at that mileage.
Gerald Swain Don't agree, the Vectra was a dreadful car, designed by marketing men.
To be fair, you don't know those kinds of things for that amount of drive. You have to drive really a lot to notice those things.
@@chrissyman77 Amen. Only got worse with that facelift too, which also made it ugly as sin.
And in 2020 you can still see lots of Vectra's on the roads and none of the competition. LOL
Yep Clarkson has a hatred for Vauxhall, he should be sued by the people of Luton and GM.
I don’t how well these cars aged in Britain for long term ownership. But here in a Australia sold under the Holden name they fell apart and melted like an ice cream on a hot summer’s day.
Yes, I worked in Holden service and all the Vectras were absolute dogs. I'm amazed at all these Brits saying they got a good run out of them. They were bloody awful.
IMO his finest hour. Just enough tongue in cheek to avoid being completely unsufferable. Unfortunately, like children picking on a chosen kid at school, once he had set the precedent, the Vectra, and eventually Vauxhall, ended up with an embarrassing image, and being tacitly avoided by those doing the choosing. As a result I daresay there are those in Luton who would genuinely have him lynched were he to set foot there for the harm he did to peoples' livelihoods in the area. . He may have had a point that the Vectra was unexciting, but his ire could have just as easily been directed at any of the others in the segment, these were bread and butter cars. And thus Top Gear ceased to become a motoring magazine show and became the very popular farce it remains.
I think he's 100% right. Those cars are not worth reviewing because they get you from a to b without fuss nor emotion. They aren't bad cars, they are quite OK cars actually (I've got a mondeo mk2 and I sort of like the old thing) but they're boring like unsalted bread.
I'm not interested at all in a review about something that has nothing special to it - no real flaws, no real perks.
Would you like to review, or watch reviews about, I don't know, a range of teaspoons?
Top Gear has always been a very informative motoring show, if you know how to listen.
Anyway, now that Peugeot bought Opel I think Clarkson would love spewing even more acid at them than ever. :D
Now you know why this is the family car of the Dursleys in Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone.
My dad used to own one and it was boring, but the seats where some of the most comfortable i have ever come across in an Opel.
This was a Saturn L300 in America. We either had a 140hp 2.2 4 cylinder, or the 3.0 V6 carried over from the Vectra. It was a popular car when introduced, but reliability problems plauged it. Only sold from 1999-2005 and they killed it for the Aura, also based on your Vectra. We used a 252hp 3.6 V6 with 6 speed auto. It was fast.
Alas, Saturn died in 2008. Americans no longer receive Vauxhall rebrands.
9890jsp Buicks are now vauxhalls
Buick still sells Opels. By the way, Vauxhalls are rebadged Opels. So what you are buying are essentially Opels. Probably the shittest cars made in Germany.
Wikipedia alleges that Jeremy Clarkson never drove one....perhaps it would be more accurate to say he drove one with TREMENDOUS Protest all the way...
I bought a Vectra 5 years ago to keep the commuter miles off my BMW 535d. It had 88k miles on it when I got it and it now has 160k miles. It is a bit boring but I am amazed that it just keeps chugging along reliably. The clock - when I first got it I thought the previous owner must have been a bit anal because the clock was always spot on. Now I know why. I have grown to really like it.
I had the 2.2 turbo diesel. To this day.... Still the best car I ever had.
Brilliant to drive, reliable as hell.
Mine had spoiler, nice lights and tints. Was mint
What was the guy at 4.20 on about? How does it look in any way like a BMW?
They still look good even today! Yeh boring and bland but theyve outlasted all the other shite from that era ....!
Toyota, Subaru or Lexus if you want a car to last many years. Buy a good one, look after it, keep it. People waste too much money trading cars in all their lives for newer models, when there is probably nothing wrong with the one they already have.
funny enough it's replacement the opel insignia also sold as a vauxhall in england is the new holden commodore in australia with the chevrolet sourced malibu sitting below it.holden were idiots they went from audi rivals with the very last of the vectras to what was at the time daewoo sourced crap.
Best in V6 but not Vauxhalls finest moment
Whatever Clarkson says is crap....... BUY IT !! It will most likely be an excellent motor
The saloon looks bad ass.
I have always wondered where Clarkson's utter hatred of Vauxhall's has come from, did he have a bad experience as a child in one or something! They are decent enough mid market cars with German development quality so I don't see what his problem is.
They are soo boring
Boring inside and out, made of the cheapest feeling plastic out there, and not all that reliable, either.
It was a case in point that Vauxhall's days of producing interesting cars were gone, and that they were enslaved to rebadging Opel's dreary metal boxes forevermore.
This was when Top gear became more about the Presenter than the car
1995 Vauxhall Cavalier SRI 16v any day of the week
First off, the Cavalier was a Vectra. Second, 1995 has the Ecotec engine, so forget about it.
@@CynicalBastard511 yea but come on have you seen a mint vauxhall cavalier SRI in black they had WAY more charm and head turning power,also a RARE car
If you saw a mint black Cavalier SRI at a petrol station you watch the people stop and stare💯👌
@@danbruno5945 Fair enough, but I would go for the CDX V6.
Opel or Vauxhall Calibra was still the best of their creations.
who fuks all those cars? i gonna take a zastava florida over all of them any day to the end of time
Clarkson just didn't review the right cars, we had a fleet of Vectras when they first came out at our company and they all had a problem of randomly stalling. This made them very interesting indeed, especially at roundabouts and running bump starts became the thing to do. They had strong engine mounts though.
Me too, with a 1994 Cavalier CDX, with the 2.0-litre Ecotec engine. It would tend to cut out abruptly at the most annoying/dangerous time, such as going around a fast bend or across a railway crossing! I could never get to the bottom of it and when the head gasket blew, I scrapped it.