All generations and engines together · 177,292 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 79k
Worse than most saloons and estates, by age and by mileage. Watch suspension and emissions/leaks. A used buy worth some caution. Check the MOT history for repeating suspension advisories before you go.
Split by first-registration year. Cars registered in a changeover year can belong to either generation.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press, with how well each report stands up. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
On manual diesels, mainly the Mk1 2.0 CDTi, the dual-mass flywheel wears and gives a juddering feeling or hesitant power delivery when you pull away or accelerate hard. It tends to show up from around 70-100k miles and a flywheel-and-clutch job runs roughly £1,000-1,300 since the two are usually replaced together. No recall exists, it is treated as a wear item, so budget for it on any high-mileage manual diesel.
The 2.0 CDTi (Mk1) and 1.6 CDTi "Whisper diesel" (Mk2) both filter up if the car is mainly used for short, stop-start journeys that never get the diesel particulate filter hot enough to regenerate. Owners notice a DPF warning light, sluggish power or limp mode, usually from 40k miles onward on town-only cars. A forced regeneration or clean is around £150-£250; a full replacement is £700-£1,200 if it has been ignored too long.
A long-running complaint across both generations: a knocking or whining noise from the front end, often traced to a worn steering rack, plus reports of snapped rear coil springs and general suspension clunks as the car ages. Vauxhall issued improved steering rack part numbers to fix the noise for good rather than just replacing like-for-like, and there was a separate recall covering a small batch of track rod ends. The measured MOT data for this model does flag suspension as the standout fault category, which lines up with what owners describe, though the data can't tell you whether it is the rack, the springs or the bushes on any one car.
Cars fitted with the 6-speed Aisin AF40 automatic can develop jerky changes once warm, a pause before Drive or Reverse engages, or occasional slipping. It is usually put down to old transmission fluid, a tired valve body or a failing solenoid rather than a single design fault, and a fluid-and-filter service or valve body repair is the first cheap thing to try before quoting for a full rebuild. Manual cars are unaffected.
On the 2017-2022 Mk2, owners report doors that won't lock or unlock on command, or locking that works intermittently. The usual cause is water getting into the door connector unit or the wiring loom breaking where it flexes in the door hinge area, not a single faulty part. A repair is typically a few hundred pounds for the affected door's lock and loom; there is no recall or acknowledged fix, so treat it as a running risk on used Mk2 cars rather than a one-off.
Some Mk2 1.6 CDTi cars are reported to develop a rattle on cold start, blamed on a timing chain tensioner design that lets oil drain back overnight. It is not as widely documented as the equivalent problem on some rival diesels, and reports are thinner than for the other faults here, so treat it as something to listen for rather than a certainty. Where it is genuine, a full timing chain job is a four-figure repair, so a cold start check at a viewing is cheap insurance either way.
Ranked from this model’s own MOT record, then from what owners report.
Saveable checklistThe physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
Drawn from the reports above rather than the MOT data. These are the model-specific ones.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 67,426 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Same segment (Saloons & estates), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.
Head to head with the other popular cars in its class on reliability and common faults.