Hello, after 8 years now of running a 899cc cinq and a 1.2 8v punto I'm now looking at moving to a big Fiat! Both the cinq and the punto have been fabulous little reliable, cheap and easy to fix cars, I have been very impressed by both of them.

I have started looking at cromas to replace our old Renault scenic family car, I want space and comfort and from what. I've read a croma will give both. What I'm not sure about is what to watch out for when buying and the merits of either diesel and petrols.

We do around 10000miles a year mainly shortish journeys with the odd longish run.

I want to factor all costs in not just mpg. Performance is not a big deal for me so the lower hp diesels would be fine and I'd only be interested in the 1.8 petrols. I'd ideally like somthing under 80k miles.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks.

seller said:

Ca belt and water pump changed at 50,000 serviced every year by my husband who's a mechanic even though it only done about 5000 miles a year during the past few years.

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not bad if she is truthfull http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171888281830?euid=5df45c8860b14206a832a269d1ea7330&cp=1

I've had my Croma (1.9 16V mJTD Eleganza manual) for 8 months now and am very pleased. I'd noticed the welsh one on ebay and it looks ok.
Cromas do have issues, but so do lots of cars. My alternate car choices cost at least £2000 more and did not give as much or were higher milage. £2000 will pay for a lot of repairs on a Croma.
I'm an engineer and like working on my cars. So far I've not HAD to do anything, but have done the following: EGR restrictor, pollen filter, cleaned and painted battery box, replaced wing mirror glasses and drivers sun visor. I've budgeted for drive shafts in the next year. This is about £100 for used Vectra C shafts and new diff seals, hub nuts etc if I change them myself.
I like the Diesel (and it's cheaper thn petrol for the first time in years) but if you are not reguarly doing trips more than 20 minutes at 40MPH plus I'd gosuggest the petrol due to DPF regeneration issues.

Robert G8RPI.

I've mine since new and to be honest most of the problems I had in the early years could and should have been resolved by the main dealer.

The Croma's just really a Vectra under the skin and the benefit of this is that parts are generally plentiful and comparitvely cheap.

I'd agree that the petrol will probably give fewer issues than a diesel as far as egr valve / particulate filter regeneration issues are concerned if you're not interested in getting your hands dirty but the diesels on the whole will be cheaper to run.

I've got a 1.9d 8v and even fully loaded it happily pulls my caravan without any difficulty. Performance is lively enough.

Things to check - does it have the panaroma sunroof? If so make sure that it opens and closes properly as they've got a horrible habit of sticking open. Check the rear wiper works as the motors have a habit of rusting from the inside due to the design of the grommet. If you go for one of the 150bhp diesels be very wary of any vibration from the wheels - don't just assume it's an unbalanced wheel or that the wheels are out of alignment as it could be the driveshafts. Other than that if it's got a reasonably new battery, no warning lights and a decent MoT you should be reasonably well set for some cheap motoring.

Hi,

I have a 1.8 16V petrol and it is a complete dog of an engine.
It has at times reduce me to tears. No joke.

There have been a few times where I thought "it's not going to make it". Once when driving up a ramp on a ferry to the upper deck, and once on a hilly back road in Devon.

If you are ever going to drive up a hill, or ever want to overtake anything without revving to 6k+ then please avoid.

Grand for cruising around though.

I had two happy days with my Croma - the day I bought it and the day I got rid of it. With lots of gloomy days spent at the side of roads and in breakdown trucks in between.

They're cheap, as long as you're not bothered about it not working at random unpredictable times with no warning.

We just got to the point where we couldn't rely on it anymore.

I know how you feel Doofer but mine's got reliable over the years, certainly since I discovered this forum and ditched Arnold Clark anyway.

Still, I'm always expecting something to break - I suppose it's the flip side of the GM parts being plentiful and cheap, they're also not always very good.

Having said that, I've got a couple of friends with relatively new VWs who've had their turbos blow and the seemingly never ending safety recalls of Toyotas who knows what to buy these days?

BrianMcL said:

I know how you feel Doofer but mine's got reliable over the years, certainly since I discovered this forum and ditched Arnold Clark anyway.

Still, I'm always expecting something to break - I suppose it's the flip side of the GM parts being plentiful and cheap, they're also not always very good.

Having said that, I've got a couple of friends with relatively new VWs who've had their turbos blow and the seemingly never ending safety recalls of Toyotas who knows what to buy these days?

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Also BMWs breaking timing chains, Mercs with leaking and corroded injectors, Fords with warped brake disks. The list goes on. We only hear about the bad stuff. I do think that modern main dealers are pretty poor though, they have turned into oil and ECU changers. Maybe i've been lucky, but my Cromas not failed to start or get me were I wanted yet. The wife's petrol Focus, two years younger and half the mileage has failed to start twice for no apparent reason (we took the Croma ).

Robert G8RPI.

When I had a look on the Vectra forums to see what I could find out about turbos as Dave's has blown and there's enough there to put you off GM cars for life.

They really don't like their M32 gearboxes.