Advice On 1998 Holden vectra GL?I‘m looking at aHOLDEN, VECTRA GL JS 4D SEDAN, 4 SP AUTOMATIC, 1998 Fuel consumption City 9.5 L/100km Highway 5.4 L/100km Price $4,850 INCL GOVT CHARGES 140000kmI‘ve researched a bit about them as this will be my first car and have read a few terrible accounts, which I think were mainly manual transmission problems. What should I be looking at for autos? Opinions on the car? Personal stories? Any Advice please and thank you.
the factory settings are designed for optimum tire wear and tracking straight. there are many vehicles that are not adjustable enough or at all. Some mfgrs only provide for changing toe toe setting, but not the caster or camber. to explain camber take a paper cup and roll it on the table it will go in circles. camber is like that the tire leans in or out and the car will want to go that way. caster is like the front wheels on a shopping cart if 1 sweeps back more than the other the cart will pull that way. sometimes camber and caster is adjustable but there is not enough adjustment to compensate for worn suspension parts.
For the best answers, search on this site shorturl.im/axgPZ They make sure the wheels are flat on the groung, so they wear even, if not, you will see that the tire will wear out on one side, called camber. Then they make sure the wheels are pointing forward, not towards each other or away from each other, this will keep the car from turning left or right , called taper if I remember correctly. They then straighten the steering to make sure you will drive straight with the wheel straight across, for obvious reasons. One thing they were struggling might be because they had to pull a suspension piece away from the car, but the car weight is on the suspension piece. Happened to me, had to lift a quarter of the cars weight like .12 inches higher.
Buying a used car is not about specs, it's about how THE car appears and drives. Vectras are average-reliability cars. That said, have someone knowledgeable take a long look at it, lift it and check the underside for damage, see if the body esp. front end was heavily damagedand repaired, test-drive it. If necesary, have it checked by a garage - even if you pay for it, it may prove well-spent money. Also check the expensive extra costs you might incur in such as tires, transmission, brakes, steering, suspension, electrics. Ask when the oil was last changed - you don't realy care for the answer, but watch the owner's reaction - if he/she has no clue, not a good sign; if he/she produces any kind of record, sticker etc. is a good sign. Any brand and model has its horror stories as well as good ones (the former travel faster and get farther, though).
