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DBDlloyds

zafira 1.9 cdti to buy or not to buy....

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Hi guys,

Just a note to ask your opinions on the 1.9 cdi powered Vauxhall Zafira. 

I have sold a couple of the petrol variants and they have been good but I seem to remember some negative feedback on reliability and hassle factor in previous posts on here. The reason I ask is that I already have a few hassle cars and at the moment want to avoid if possible any more.

The car is an 09 plate with 107,000 miles on the clock....

your feedback would be appreciated.

thanks Dean.

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Think they're the ones with Chocolate gearboxes (M32 gearbox),  id avoid unless it's had a new one with the uprated bearings 

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I'd rather fill out a Manheim survey than own one of those. Hateful things.

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I like the 1.6 Petrol zafs.. anything above that incl 1.8 Petrol is bad news.

Stick to what you know and all that.

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1 hour ago, AutoJacob said:

I like the 1.6 Petrol zafs.. anything above that incl 1.8 Petrol is bad news.

Stick to what you know and all that.

1.6 is totally underpowered 3000rpm at 60mph.

Early ones suffered from excessive oil comsumption due to glazed bores.

Let's have a game. Try and pick a car that nobody can find a fault with!

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20 minutes ago, David Ayers said:

1.6 is totally underpowered 3000rpm at 60mph.

Early ones suffered from excessive oil comsumption due to glazed bores.

Let's have a game. Try and pick a car that nobody can find a fault with!

Any Lexus petrol. I win!!!

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6 hours ago, David Ayers said:

Let's have a game. Try and pick a car that nobody can find a fault with!

Now this needs to be a thread on its own!:lol:

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9 hours ago, Arfur Dealy said:

BHM likes Zafira’s

The petrol ones!!!!!!!!!

 

Anyhow, selling 80-120K cars gives me an insight into the longevity of certain cars and one thing I realised a few years ago is Vauxhall don’t make/sell a good diesel engine - the 1.3, 1.7 & 1.9 are pure shit once they’ve a few miles on their backs.

Thankfully the laughable 1.3 isn’t fitted to the Zaffy, the 1.7 is on borrowed time at about 6 years old & at least most diesel Zafs are fitted with the best (of a bad bunch) 1.9 in 120 & 150bhp guise.

The 150bhp version of the 1.9 engine has the dreaded swirl flaps which added to the rest of the ‘issues’ such as blocking egrs, dpfs, the occasional sensor, rattling dmfs etc. My experience of seeing a few over the years is once the diesels start getting problems they should be thrown in the bin. Add to that little list the chocolate gearboxes!

I know the trade slag off Zafiras but I like one or two in stock - I don’t get rich on them but they’re steady money & generally nice ‘no-nonsense’ buyers. However I’ve seen sooooooo many knackered diesels ‘in the trade’ I’m permanently frightened off from them unless I can drive them & preferably see a bill for a gearbox refurbishment. 

11 hours ago, Dlloyds said:

The car is an 09 plate with 107,000 miles on the clock....

your feedback would be appreciated.

thanks Dean.

The short answer is if you can’t drive it first before buying be warned - at over 107K it’s right on the cusp of needing a new ‘box, the timing belt etc. was due at 100K and any coughing, farting, missing of the engine will mean their are problems!! Other than that the diesels are good cars :lol:

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1 hour ago, BHM said:

The petrol ones!!!!!!!!!

 

Anyhow, selling 80-120K cars gives me an insight into the longevity of certain cars and one thing I realised a few years ago is Vauxhall don’t make/sell a good diesel engine - the 1.3, 1.7 & 1.9 are pure shit once they’ve a few miles on their backs.

Thankfully the laughable 1.3 isn’t fitted to the Zaffy, the 1.7 is on borrowed time at about 6 years old & at least most diesel Zafs are fitted with the best (of a bad bunch) 1.9 in 120 & 150bhp guise.

The 150bhp version of the 1.9 engine has the dreaded swirl flaps which added to the rest of the ‘issues’ such as blocking egrs, dpfs, the occasional sensor, rattling dmfs etc. My experience of seeing a few over the years is once the diesels start getting problems they should be thrown in the bin. Add to that little list the chocolate gearboxes!

I know the trade slag off Zafiras but I like one or two in stock - I don’t get rich on them but they’re steady money & generally nice ‘no-nonsense’ buyers. However I’ve seen sooooooo many knackered diesels ‘in the trade’ I’m permanently frightened off from them unless I can drive them & preferably see a bill for a gearbox refurbishment. 

The short answer is if you can’t drive it first before buying be warned - at over 107K it’s right on the cusp of needing a new ‘box, the timing belt etc. was due at 100K and any coughing, farting, missing of the engine will mean their are problems!! Other than that the diesels are good cars :lol:

I agree with you, but a surprising number of diesel zafs are used as minicabs. Or at least down my way they are. And 'usually' minicab drivers learn what cars to avoid pretty quickly, as if its unreliable you wont be earning?

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I try to stay away from diesels but I reckon most of the problems are caused by the type of person who nurse them. taxi drivers reps etc usually drive cars  'hard' or at least in the right gear ,saves a lot of problems. No wonder the dmf break when Polly is costing along at 40 MPH in 5th gear. diesels of yesteryear had a voice and soon let you now how to drive em

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15 hours ago, BHM said:

The petrol ones!!!!!!!!!

 

Anyhow, selling 80-120K cars gives me an insight into the longevity of certain cars and one thing I realised a few years ago is Vauxhall don’t make/sell a good diesel engine - the 1.3, 1.7 & 1.9 are pure shit once they’ve a few miles on their backs.

Thankfully the laughable 1.3 isn’t fitted to the Zaffy, the 1.7 is on borrowed time at about 6 years old & at least most diesel Zafs are fitted with the best (of a bad bunch) 1.9 in 120 & 150bhp guise.

The 150bhp version of the 1.9 engine has the dreaded swirl flaps which added to the rest of the ‘issues’ such as blocking egrs, dpfs, the occasional sensor, rattling dmfs etc. My experience of seeing a few over the years is once the diesels start getting problems they should be thrown in the bin. Add to that little list the chocolate gearboxes!

I know the trade slag off Zafiras but I like one or two in stock - I don’t get rich on them but they’re steady money & generally nice ‘no-nonsense’ buyers. However I’ve seen sooooooo many knackered diesels ‘in the trade’ I’m permanently frightened off from them unless I can drive them & preferably see a bill for a gearbox refurbishment. 

The short answer is if you can’t drive it first before buying be warned - at over 107K it’s right on the cusp of needing a new ‘box, the timing belt etc. was due at 100K and any coughing, farting, missing of the engine will mean their are problems!! Other than that the diesels are good cars :lol:

Thanks very much... phoned the guy to check if gearbox had had work done and it hadn’t so cancelled the viewing.

This game is certainly a learning curve.... 1 year in and more confused than ever ha ha.

on a serious note I need to change my stock profile, this is why I was looking at the Zafira. I sell mainly Clio’s which have super reliable engines but poo electrics so prep times are long and margins are small.

cheers.

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You’ll always work for pennies as long as you ‘specialise’ in Clios. Those type of buyers have no money.

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1 hour ago, BHM said:

You’ll always work for pennies as long as you ‘specialise’ in Clios. Those type of buyers have no money.

does it not depend on the age of clio?

when i used to sell the mk2? 99 to 05 they were mainly bought to go to council estates as they were getting old

the later model always went to teacher types with pretensions of being middle class

i always did good with them but always low mileage

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You’re asking the wrong man, I hate the small car market with its greedy clientele. I’ve never made anything like proper money on a small car, they always sit for months & then I end up selling for peanuts, sometimes barely wiping my nose. Tbh whenever I get one I’m always told by others in the trade “Ahhh, if only it had 20,000 less miles”.

I’m the man who, about 5 years ago, had an automatic Clio with under 50K miles on it and it took me 6 months to sell. At the time it booked at £2Kish - if memory serves I got about £800 in the end. Good sellers everyone said! Yeah right!!! Apparently the colour was wrong for small cars!?!!! Dark blue!!!!! How the f*** can the colour be wrong on a 50K mile automatic small car????? 

The small car market is full of fussy, greedy penniless scum who want gold for the price of silver and then want comeback, their arses wiping, a tank of juice, bumper scuffs repairing, want it cheaper, want even less miles, want to communicate via 15 gormless emails etc. etc. etc. Basically the small car market does not compute with me at all.

Give me a mangy old high mileage estate any day of the week.

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12 minutes ago, Dan W said:

don't mess about BHM, say it as you mean lol

Hahaha, I was holding back!

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The Diesels up to and including 1.9 cdti are notorious for engine issues.

That's why you buy the 2.0 or 2.2 litre versions.

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11 minutes ago, Frankieola said:

Aren't the 1.3 and 1.9 fiat engines and the 1.7 an izuzu unit? 

Yup I was about to post the same thing, Vauxhall never really had their own Diesel engine apart from maybe the old 2.0dti from the Zafira A/Astra G, they just used other manufacturers. Even the 2.0cdti in the insignia/Astra is just a bored out 1.9.

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1 hour ago, Frankieola said:

Aren't the 1.3 and 1.9 fiat engines and the 1.7 an izuzu unit? 

Unfortunately all have the shite gearboxes though

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8 hours ago, Lakeside said:

Yup I was about to post the same thing, Vauxhall never really had their own Diesel engine apart from maybe the old 2.0dti from the Zafira A/Astra G, they just used other manufacturers. Even the 2.0cdti in the insignia/Astra is just a bored out 1.9.

Their new 1.6 CDti engine is their own, and I don’t reckon much to that! 

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