C'mon! Vauxhalls: 14/01/2007

PRICE: £29,965 to £36,995

Vauxhall borrowed the Monaro from its Australian sister company "Holden", and made the Vauxhall Monaro available in the UK.

The Monaro shares little but the badge with any other Vauxhall, shunning the 2.2 litre four cylinder in favour of a thumping V8 borrowed from a Corvette. A larger car than most coupes, the Monaro has useable back seats for a couple of adults even though it’s only a 2 door.

Monaro backs up those muscular looks with a thunderous 5.7 litre V8 powerplant. Handling is reasonable and there’s plenty of standard equipment. But you’ll be on first name terms with your local petrol stations & it's not as fast as it could be.

The standard Monaro Chevrolet V8 produces 349bhp and 353lb ft of pulling power. The VXR flagship has a 6.0 litre V8 which produces 398bhp and 391lb ft of pull.
Narrow back roads throw into focus the Monaro’s sheer size. It’s big but fairly nimble for a vehicle of its size. The steering, although slow, is accurate and provides plenty of feedback. The firm suspension keeps the body under control but small, high frequency bumps can cause it to patter.

The Monaro is kitted with a premium audio system, but the only time you’ll want to use it is during a motorway cruise. Because that V8 grumble underneth the hood is to be savoured, not muffled. Road noise is acceptably low, given the low profile tyres, and wind noise is kept to reasonable levels, too.

The powerful V8 engines and amount of kit for your money makes the Monaro seem at reasonable value, but average fuel economy is less than 20mpg or 13mpg around town. Servicing will be expensive, while insurance costs will be steep, too, due to the car’s group 20 rating. High carbon dioxide emissions earn the Monaro a place in the maximum 35% company car tax band.

Equipment may be in plentiful supply, but the switches that are used to operate it do not feel of a high enough quality. The plastics, too, are not worthy of a car that commands such a high list price. It is too early to predict the Monaro’s mechanical reliability.

The Vauxhall Monaro gets remote central locking, an alarm and deadlocks as standard. There are also a visible VIN and locking wheelnuts. Twin front and side airbags are present, as are ABS and seatbelt pre tensioners.
There’s plenty of cabin space up front. The seats adjust electrically, while the large steering wheel can be adjusted for reach as well as rake. However, the heaviness of the clutch and gearbox make the car feel more of a handful than it needs to be, especially in town. The trim is uninspired but hardy.

The Vauxhall occupies a fair amount of road space, but the good news is it’s big on the inside, too. Even with tall people in the front seats, rear occupants will not find themselves short of legroom. There’s plenty of shoulder space, too, although the tallest passengers may find their heads brushing the roof lining above the rear window.

There’s no reason for anyone to feel uncomfortable in the Monaro, because both versions come complete with climate control, leather upholstery, a top end CD multichanger with steering wheel mounted controls and electric front windows, along with remote central locking, cruise control and metallic paint.

And our next blog will be called (Vauxhall's Tiny Tigra).

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The upside to buying a Vauxhall is that it basically will sell itself, now below you'll find exactly how and were their best rated. Along with this, Vauxhall also have a great safty rating on their cars, although you should come to expect it's on more newer cars then the older ones.

(New & Used), #5 = not bad - #1 = excellent.

#1.) Vauxhall Corsa: (New) The Corsa does everything just that little bit better and more than its rivals.
#3.) Vauxhall Astra: (Used) Modern styling and comes with good equipment levels on all it's cars.
#5.) Vauxhall Astra: (New) Good enough to have the VW's worried. Astra offers a very fine drive and a spacious cabin.
#3.) Vauxhall Vectra: (Used) You get a huge lot of car for your money when it comes to the famous Vectra.
#4.) Vauxhall Vectra: (New) A fine cruiser with excellent refinement, and handling has very much improved.
#1.) Vauxhall Vectra estate: (Used) A huge boot and a smoothe ride for little cash what more could you want.
#1.) Vauxhall Vectra estate: (New) Huge load bay, spacious cabin and an economical diesel engine.
#1.) Vauxhall Zafira: (used) Ground breaking MPV, and goes for rock bottom prices.

Now for the all important Air Bag issues that people have. It should answer all your Quries.

Theres a huge concerns about children and other small passengers, especially smaller people being killed or seriously injured by malfunctioning or over powerd air bags, in 1997 the National Highway Traffic Saftey Administration (NHTSA) issued a final rule to allow auto manufacturers to use lower powered air bags. This rule permits air bags to be depowered by 20 to 35 percent. In addition, starting in 1998, all repair shops and dealers were allowed to install on/off switches that allow air bags to be deactivated. Vehicle owners could now be authorized (by the NHTSA) to get on/off switches installed for one or both air bags in their car if they (or other users of their car) fell into one or more of these specific risk groups:

For both driver and passenger sides Individuals with medical conditions in which the risks of deploying the air bag exceed the risk of impact in the absence of an air bag.

For the driver side (in addition to medical conditions) Those who cannot position themselves to properly operate their cars at least 10 inches (25.4 cm) back from the center of the driver air bag cover.

For the passenger side (in addition to medical conditions) Individuals who need to transport a baby in a rear facing child restraint in the front seat because the car has no rear seat, the rear seat is too small to accommodate a rear facing child seat or because it's necessary to constantly monitor a child's medical condition

For the passenger side (in addition to medical conditions) Individuals who need to carry children between one and 12 years old in the front seat because (a) the car has no rear seat, (b) the vehicle owner must carry more children than can fit into the back seat or (c) because it's necessary to constantly monitor a child's health.

If you would like to get an on/off switch installed in your car, you need a copy of NHTSA's brochure, Air Bags and On/Off Switches. Information for an Informed Decision, and the accompanying form, Request for Air Bag On/Off Switch. You can find these on the NHTSA web site, as well as at AAA clubs, new car dealers and state motor vehicle departments. The NHTSA will send you a letter of authorization that you can take to a repair shop. (Before you bother with all this, you should check with your auto dealer or repair shop to see if an on/off switch is available for your car.) Some retrofit on/off switches can be found and used if federal requirements are met switches must be operated by a key and equipped with warning lights to indicate whether the Air bags are turned on or off.

A group of doctors at the National Conference on Medical Indications for Air Bag Deactivation considered the medical conditions commonly reported in letters to the NHTSA as possible justification for turning off Air bags. They did not, however, recommend turning off air bags for relatively common conditions, such as pacemakers, eyeglasses, angina, emphysema, asthma, mastectomy, previous back or neck surgery, advanced age, osteoporosis, arthritis or even pregancy.

The NHTSA will authorize air bag deactivation on a case by case basis under appropriate conditions. Never try to disable the bag yourself remember.
The Future of Air Bags is aimed at maintaining and improving the lifesaving benefits of air bags that are in full swing. New NHTSA sponsored tests use improved (dummy) injury criteria based on new knowledge and research.

Cars that currently offer side air bags represent the new wave of occupant protection. Engineers say that designing effective side Air Bags is much more difficult than designing front air bags. This is because much of the energy from a front impact collision is absorbed by the bumper, hood and engine, and it takes almost 30 to 40 milliseconds before it reaches the car's occupant. In a side impact, only a relatively thin door and a few inches separate the occupant from another vehicle. This means that door mounted side air bags must begin deploying in a mere five or six milliseconds.

Volvo experimented with different ways of mounting side air bags and chose seat back installation because that protects passengers of all sizes regardless of how the seat is positioned. This arrangement allows them to place a triggering mechanical sensor on the sides of the seat cushions under the driver and front passenger. This prevents the air bag on the undamaged side of the car from inflating. Installing the entire air bag package in the seat back also offers the advantage of preventing unnecessary deployments that might be caused by collisions with pedestrians or bicycles. It takes a collision of about 12 mph to trigger side air bags.

BMW engineers have chosen door mounted air bags. The door has more space, allowing for a bigger bag that provides more coverage.
All of this makes it pretty clear that the science of air bags is still new and under rapid development. You can expect many advances in this field as designers come up with new ideas and learn from real world crash data.And our next Blog will be called (Vauxhall Manaro Holdens sister).