[iraghava]

Originally Posted by 1100D

Is the 309 missing from this list. Read an issue in ACI or something about a person called "Peugeot Raju". It was interesting. Personally I feel The Astra's and the 309's were best suited for India. But it was not the "car" in each case which contributed to the downfall.

The 309's never sold in great numbers partly due to poor service from PAL and partly due to Peugeot shutting shop before giving any meaningful time to the market. In any case it was an old product which looked & felt old even in the company of then available products like the Esteem, Cielo, Astra etc. But yes it was a pretty good car.

Also one of my friends had one and after Peugeot's exit the spares simply could not be found and the car could not be fixed so most of them were junked. My friend sold it for less price than a motorcycle.

Originally Posted by 1100D

Had a few relatives with the Opel and the Cielo. In case of Opel many vital parts were not localised leading to high spare cost (GM had serious reservations against localising parts thinking quality would take a beating). The Indian counterparts available later never matched upto the standards set by the OEM. None of these cars the relatives could sell at decent price.

Yeah my friends average cost of servicing his Astra is 7.5k which is simply shocking. He's been trying to sell the car and its a low-mileage pristine condition car and the best he gets is Rs 1 L.

Originally Posted by 1100D

Looking at these cars one just wishes that the same fate does not go down with the Fiat cars available here. The cars themselves are gems. But the service personell, and even TATA that dealing with their cars now, dont look too serious about the fate of these machines.

Couldn't agree more with you on this subject. Fiat has screwed up twice on this front and still refuses to learn lessons from it.

[garvit2002]

hey i spotted an astra turbo (dunno if astra was turbo or it was a fake badge) celebration model with slightly different body kit

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by garvit2002

hey i spotted an astra turbo (dunno if astra was turbo or it was a fake badge) celebration model with slightly different body kit

Yeah that must have been the Turbo Diesel. It came with Turbo 1.7 badging on the back.

[devarshi84]

While I certainly agree that bringing chevrolet to India was a great decision by GM, I strongly feel the opel Brand could have taken on SKoda/Honda/Mitsubishi/toyota head on.

[vinu99@gmail.co]

You can spot all these cars in the rural markets. I have noticed quite a number of Astras and Escorts in rural villages. I wonder how they pay for replacement spares!!!

[mithun]

What I wanted to know most, is about the spare parts availability and service support of Cielo, Opel Astra, Ford Escort etc ?

If spares are not available on-the-shelf, what will be the situation after a breakdown ?

[autopsyche]

I still own a Cielo GL, the car has done 1.7lac kms and still going strong! Its the first month production model (#123) and came without power windows or steering! Boy its hard to steer the car when standind still. Plenty of Astras on delhi roads, most cielos are a budget buyer's luxury car now, i guess atleast 50% in delhi are run on either cng or lpg. Escorts have vanished, maybe one sighting in a month.

[cheap_deal]

the daewoo nexia 2xcam or some version like that had 7 gears+ reverse!!!! can someone confirm this, i kinda remmeber seeing this in kerala few yrs ago.

[amit]

the daewoo nexia 2xcam or some version like that had 7 gears+ reverse!!!!

No it didn't! The usual 5 gears. i.e. 5 forward + 1 Reverse.

[hkanitkar]

well, we still have our '98 Astra base model with us after a major repair job ( costed around 1.25k - included new engine head and an ECU )..
had planned to sell it but the quoted price was too low so decided to use it ourselves

[adya33]

What I wanted to know most, is about the spare parts availability and service support of Cielo, Opel Astra, Ford Escort etc ?

No worries about spares of Astra.

[1100D]

Originally Posted by iraghava

The 309's never sold in great numbers partly due to poor service from PAL and partly due to Peugeot shutting shop before giving any meaningful time to the market. In any case it was an old product which looked & felt old even in the company of then available products like the Esteem, Cielo, Astra etc. But yes it was a pretty good car.

The 309 was definitely old at the time of launch but it was far more capable than both the Cielo or the Esteem to deal with the Broken tarmac that was the norm rather than the exception that time. Add to that the high speed poise. This car felt like a rally car from the showroom as compared to the Japs.

If you recall the Cielo was a generatioon old (compared to Astra, Opel Kadetts became Opel Astra, Astra was the name of the Vauxhall counterpart of the Kadett) Opel Kadett with cosmetic touches to the front and rear. The Kadett was first manufactured by Daewoo as the Racer and later they brought out the Facelift. This Kadett was of the same generation as the 309. Esteem too wasn't a new product. It dated back to 1987 Swift. So Although the 309 was actually old the others were technically as old.

[devarshi84]

Originally Posted by adya33

No worries about spares of Astra.

Are you sure? My close friends Astra is running since 2 years with corsa side mirrors coz they didnt have the Astra ones. And this is in Ahmedabad which is closest to the GM factory in Halol.

They look like the cars has born with smaller ears. I myself had gone with him to fetch the car on which they spent 60+ grands.

[v12]

The 309 was definitely old at the time of launch but it was far more capable than both the Cielo or the Esteem to deal with the Broken tarmac that was the norm rather than the exception that time. Add to that the high speed poise. This car felt like a rally car from the showroom as compared to the Japs.

Add to that the TUD5 diesel engine. which was later used in the Zen, Esteem and the Accent.

[triggercool]

Nice topic i own ford escort from my experience i would say Even i like the car to drive the maintenance cost is very high spares are expensive and other thing is that you cant find spares them in time many time have to compromise on cheap parts(quality wise as no opp). Many times i had to pay for courier charges at dealers to get the spare.