Looking to buy a Vectra - Petrol vs Diesel?

[gazfocus]

Hi,

I have read a lot on these forums through Google Search Results, so thought I would join up and ask some questions for myself.

I am looking to buy an Automatic Vauxhall Vectra, with a budget of around £2000 and I was just wondering whether I would be better off getting a petrol or a diesel.

Having had a look on various sites, two cars I've seen are:

2006 Vauxhall Vectra 2.2SRi Estate
83,000 Miles

2006 Vauxhall Vectra 1.9CDTi SRi 150
135,000 Miles

Both are roughly the same price and while I'm not overly bothered about MPG (as we will do most driving in my wife C4 Picasso), I don't want something that's going to cost me an arm and a leg to get to work.

I've also read that buying used diesels is a dangerous task as repairs can be more costly. Is there any truth to this?

Thanks in advance

[Pyrolysis]

Having ran a vectra cdti 150 estate for a while some time ago I can confirm they can suffer from some problems. The egr valve can clog with carbon deposits rendering it broken, this can throw the car into limp mode. I bought a blanking plate and blocked it off and had it deleted from the ecu ( all an egr really does is make the engine eat it's own st) Also, the inlet manifold swirl flaps can fail, again I had mine bonded in the open position to save any future problems. And my DPF blocked up so I had it removed and a straight pipe put in it's place (this was before the changes to the dpf tests for the mot). Finally I had it remapped to 190bhp and 300lb/ft torque, bilstein B12 suspension and a big brake upgrade. Turned out to be a decent wagon for the family run and still fun to drive.
Join vectra-c.com for more info.
The 2.2 petrol is more reliable but less powerful and harder/expensive to tune if that's your thing..

[Stenn]

I had the 1.9 CDTi (albeit in a Signum) and it cost me a fortune in repairs before I gave up and sold it. Petrol all the way.