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1.4T Petrol Buying Advice

7K views 19 replies 6 participants last post by  Pompeydave 
#1 ·
Hi all,

New to the forums so apologies if this is in the wrong place. I'm looking some advice if anyone can help.

I went to see about buying a 2017 1.4T petrol Astra (10900miles) on Saturday. Took it for a test drive and noticed a grinding when braking. Sales man said it was due to the car sitting on the forecourt for so long. Also, noticed a ticking noise after the test drive and the engine had been turned off. I put this down to the engine cooling and metal contracting. Have others experienced this?

Went back today for another test drive and the same issue with the brakes grinding has put me off. I had said on the first test drive about the brakes and sales man said he would get the mechanics to look at it. I even emailed after so he had my issues in writing but doesn't seem to have been anything done about it.

He has emailed me tonight after I walked away for the second time to say the sales manager is going to drive the car home tonight (20 miles) and back tomorrow which will resolve the issue of the wheels grinding.

I'm trying to figure out if the grinding is going to dust/rust etc on the brakes or if it's aomething more serious. At under 11k miles I would have assumed the brakes should be grand but I'm disappointed.

Other issues I have are that I had mentioned condensation in passenger side rear light cluster and that was still there today. The sales man said it was valeted but the alloys were covered in dirt and when the heating was on and the rear windows steamed up there was kids drawings all over the windows.

If he hasn't bothered to clean it can I trust him to have done more serious checks on the other things.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

.a
 
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#2 ·
Hi Andy
The brakes grinding most probably due to what the sales guy said...prob sat on forecourt for a few weeks and not started or driven. So sales manager obviously is going to drive the car hard tonight to get rid of noise. A daily driven Astra won't have this so wouldn't worry too much about that. Condensation is getting in all places of the Astra at the moment due to the weather temps. Anywhere from lights to sat nav screens.
All dealers are different when it comes to cleaning their cars , I see a nipper cleaning the fords at my local dealer on the morning run every couple of days but another garage down the road their cars look awful and look like they only clean them when a test drive is arranged etc.
Have a look at other cars on the forecourt and get a general vibe of the garage..was it a vx dealer ?
 
#3 ·
Yeah main vx dealer. Car has 1 year manufacturers warranty remaining but I'm guessing this won't cover if they say 'wear and tear' on brakes.

Expectation vs reality was a big let down. There was visible rust on the discs so it could well be the case. I would have thought that if I was a dealer and a potential customer said about the brakes grinding and I knew it was down to the rust I would have taken it out and sorted, if all it needed was a good run.
 
#7 ·
_andym said:
Also, do I need to make sure the new oil and ECU updates have been done on it? It's a March 2017 reg 66 plate.
You may not need them on a 2017 car , just check with them if anything has been done...better you know .
The crap weather etc doesn't help with the condition of the car at the moment. A white car can look very dirty in just a few days.
Go for a drive , get a deal out of them and just push for everything....service (if needed)full valet and clean etc.

Re the brakes , it will have a check up before being sold to you so they can give you some indication as to when they will need changing.
 
#9 ·
Hi
Brake discs can get a surface coat of rust just after washing the car. Brake pads expand when damp and make noises , that is why they often stick on when trying to take the handbrake off when the car has been stood after previously driving in the rain.
Had my 1.4T from new and it has always made exhaust contraction noises when engine stopped and cooling down, quite normal.
Moisture in lights is quite normal and tends to go after a while. The owners handbook mentions moisture in lights as normal and will go. They have vents in them and have to breathe
 
G
#10 ·
I dont think there is a problem with the car but the dealership seems a bit lazy if they cannot prepare a car properly. Ask yourself if you think they would give you a proper help if you had a genuine problem come up.
 
#11 ·
Cheers all. I had a good think about it and as Skyrimmer mentioned if the attitude to my issues was the guideline for how they would handle other issues I decided to walk away. Drove 20 minutes down the road and test drove a 1.0T. Complete night and day to the feel of the 1.4T as in the 1.0T felt nippy, clean, responsive and enough zip for what I need. So, hopefully all good. I'll (fingers crossed) be picking it up tomorrow all being well.

Thanks for advice and info though.

.a
 
#12 ·
Hi my name is Matt,

I drive a Vauxhall Astra j 1.4 turbo limited edition on a 65 plate which has done 51,100 miles . My car broke down two weeks ago with a suspected blown turbo. The garage have said the turbo is fine just the seals blown on turbo. And they said the breather pipe in rocker cover may have gone/blocked. I have tried to get hold of Vauxhall to see if there is a recall on this as my car is 4 months out of warranty. But they can't help as I haven't taken it to a Vauxhall dealership. Which I wouldn't as it is out of warranty so I have taken it to a local recommended garage by the AA. I was just wondering if anyone could help me on this issue? I have got me car repaired and the day I got it back i was driving to work and smoke started coming out of exhaust and started to judder and no power. So I have taken it back to the garage and they did tests and said there was under 50% compression in piston number 4. Any ideas how to fix this or how it is caused? And how much it would cost to fix?
 
#13 ·
_andym said:
Cheers all. I had a good think about it and as Skyrimmer mentioned if the attitude to my issues was the guideline for how they would handle other issues I decided to walk away. Drove 20 minutes down the road and test drove a 1.0T. Complete night and day to the feel of the 1.4T as in the 1.0T felt nippy, clean, responsive and enough zip for what I need. So, hopefully all good. I'll (fingers crossed) be picking it up tomorrow all being well.

Thanks for advice and info though.

.a
Well done Andy on your purchase...interesting you found the 1.0t better than the 1.4t ? Two different cars by the sounds of it.
 
#14 ·
Thanks pompeydave. I think I definitely dodged a lemon on the 1.4T. Hopefully happy days with the 1.0T. Technically it's for my wife but I wanted something that I would enjoy driving, if and when needed. Definitely a step up from a 1.3 Hyundai Getz. Also, got 2 years manufacturers warranty and a years road side breakdown cover so a bit of extra peace of mind maybe.
 
#16 ·
_andym said:
Thanks pompeydave. I think I definitely dodged a lemon on the 1.4T. Hopefully happy days with the 1.0T. Technically it's for my wife but I wanted something that I would enjoy driving, if and when needed. Definitely a step up from a 1.3 Hyundai Getz. Also, got 2 years manufacturers warranty and a years road side breakdown cover so a bit of extra peace of mind maybe.
Let us know your opinions Andy on your purchase. Hyundai Getz....actually good little car when Hyundai released it. See fewer and fewer these days.
 
#17 ·
Picked the car up yesterday. Dealer had it looking like new. Sun was shining as well which maybe helped but couldn't fault the dealer with the effort he put in. Got to drive it home which is probably the last time the wife will let me drive it but the 1T was more than enough to get going and up to legal motorway limits pretty sharpish so more than happy with power and hopefully a touch better fuel economy and cheaper insurance will be a bonus.

I had a flick through the settings and noticed on the collision warning settings there was an option for both alert and brakes. Pretty sure it doesn't have autonomous braking but was curious as to why the settings have an option for braking along with the standard collision warning? Other than that everything seemed straight forward enough.
 
#19 ·
So my wife decided she didn't like the new car the way it was and thought it would be a good idea to drive over someone else's broken coil spring that was lying in the road and it pierced the tyre, ripping a huge hole in the side of the tyre and forcing us to test out the road side assistance that we got with the car. Couldn't make it up if you tried. Nice Michelin tyres on the car all the same and uniform and then that happens and you have to go for a mid range unknown brand for the replacement. Didn't even make it 24hrs before my missus caused me stress with it...
 
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