Copied and pasted as an interim post I'll add some more when I think of it ;D
Why are they such great cars?- cheap as chips - a good one can be had for as little as £750 and minters can fetch £2000
- built with nice quality metal (yes they do have rust problems but once it's cut out the existing metal welds really well)
- unbustable engines capable of huge mileages
- great gearboxes (apart from the early 3 speed autos)
- Seating for 4 in comfort
- versatile load area - rear seats fold down flat so if you need to move a freezer to the local tip it's an easy job (my non colapsable engine crane fits in perfectly and it's bloody huge
- excellent handling, neutral and without understeer (oversteer on the ragged edge when you plant the loud pedal)
As far as colours go the following is IMHO - I hope no-one takes offence
Barrat brown and any of the golds suck
Anthracite, white, black and silver are all great
Carnelian red - looks good if the paint is fresh but suffers badly from bleaching or fading and looks a bit naff when it's like that
They did a light green and a few other colours that are very rare so I haven't seen enough of them to make my mind up
Whatever colour external the inside has got be charcoal as the brown version fitted to some GSE's looks pretty poor in most colours except maybe in black or white ones
Other reasons to buy one are......
- Insurance at £150 per year fully comp and agreed miles
- Monaro style (two door coupe for peanuts)
- Opel Badge (exclusive) It attracts more comments than my LC (might be the noise tho
)
- Electric Windows
- Electric Sunroof (tilt and slide)
- Central locking
- Opening rear windows
- 6 dial intruments (Oil pressure and voltmeter)
- Trip computer
- ABS (if you hunt for one with it)
- LSD (again hunt as it was an option for some but supposedly std on UK spec GSE's)
Typical faults
Viscous failure (Senny 24V electric fan unit slots right in)
Digi dash problems (sticks on kmh or hunts between the two - easy fix)
Electric windows go slow (wiring thro the door gets brittle and increases resistance so windows go slow - easy fix)
Tailgate struts lose their gas (replacement only fix)
As mentioned earlier ECU's don't like getting wet ;D
Clutch is a weak point if subjected to donuts and GP starts
Gearbox (Getrag) is pretty strong and will take a lot of abuse
Trim - piping on the seats can waer thin but adds to patina
The biggest problem with the cars is people think Capri for less money and the trouble with that is they struggle to justify the expense of repairing one properly when it doesn't have the same "restored" value as equivilent Ford Capri.
Best advice I can give you is get someone who knows the cars well to look at any prospective purchase before you buy it....
If you are in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambs or Herts I can help anywhere else given a couple of days I'm sure I can find someone to help out a potential member
