My dad owned the Carlton and I drove it nearly as often as he did.
The car was designed as a touring car, ideal for family holidays with large gear ratios so it has long legs and can cruise on the motorway all day without any hassles. It has a larger than average fuel tank at around 13 gallons and will return around 40mpg when fully loaded.
The boot space is enormous and can accomodate twice the luggage most other cars can handle.
One quirk of it's design does however deserve a mention - listen up all you drivers with very short inside legs measurements.
The drivers pedals are a very long stretch and many (except those with an inside leg of over 33 inches) will find they have to have the seat considerably close to the steering wheel in order to reach the pedals, which means dropping the seat angle back so your chest isn't resting on the wheel.
Great car for lanky drivers but awkward for shorties.
I have owned my Carlton 2L CDXi for 3 months now and would put it in the top 3 cars that l have owned or had the use of. It came with 12 months MOT full electric pack ABS and cruise control (that sometimes works) CD radio and tape deck, on board computer and a tow bar, and I only paid £400 for her (she's called Lily) Lots of room inside, a huge boot, keeps up with the big boys in their expensive company cars, and shows a clean pair of heals to the local boy racers. I have replaced the fuel tank and the fuel relay and she drives like a dream, nice and tight even with 129000 on the clock and being 13 years old (H reg). Just some rust on the rear arches to sort out, a good all round family car either on the motorway or in town.
So far so good. The cruise control kicks out most of the time now. Pity as it improves fuel consumption. What could be the problem? Steering follows grooves in the road-most annoying.
Have had a GSI 24v auto for the past 3 years.Its a typical vauxhall , a good engine , so so handling and bodywork that likes to rust.Had some problems with hot starting which I eventually sorted myself and the original fitment alarm.(main dealer = useless) Its not an easy car to look after yourself as being quite low its very difficult to get it on the ramps .Also alot of components live on top of the engine and make getting at things tricky.Some parts are also very expensive eg OE HT leads are £140 , (it will not be happy with the cheap ones although I have run it OK with the Bosch set which cost £80).Otherwise it makes an excellent motorway car very smooth and relaxing to drive. will do about 150 (on a nearby private road mr plod) and is averaging 24mpg in mixed traffic .
We have had our D reg carlton for many years and we have just bought a Vauxhall Carlton Diplomat which is 5 years newer. We think that they are well built and have plenty of space for storage and leg room. They definately take some beating for value and comfort for money.
Let me know what you think about these [Log in to view email] I bought a cavy 16 valver about 3 years ago (k reg) it was 800 quid, it was too reliable but someone made a mess of it trying to steal it. I am friends with a very pleasant mechanic who acquires all sorts of vehicles from I don't know where. I swapped my cavy from a 1989 black carlton gsi 12valve. I was very impressed with the rediculous speed. I have had it a year now and for some reason I have not had to replace anything apart from maybe 1 litre of engine oil. It goes 148 mph and to me that is great value. I dont know if anyone else ever had my problem but the cruise either doesnt work, or it buries the sanny down and pulls of and so on. apart from that the thing is brand new. I think i may be doing something silly, i would like advice. 2 days ago I seen a 24 valver in black, very nice it is 1991 model. I asked the driver if he would consider parting with it. To cut long story short..........Went to his house, test drove his, I liked it, felt a lot smoother but for some reason did not feel quite so fast, I hope this is because the guy was sitting next to me. I am going to give him 600 and my rusty but reliable tank. His has great bodywork etc. But it pisses me off the fact that the drivers window sticks 2 inches from top, and sunroof does not come all the way back, it also needs bushes, apart from that it drove perfectly. I really find a difference with clutch weight and power steering between both 12 and 24 valvers. Do you think I am getting a good deal?? It does look the part.
I bought my first Carlton Diplomat 2.0i a few days ago and it is such a pleasure to drive it . Silent, powerful and comfortable.
Though it is a 1992 K reg , it feels and behaves like it is new. There is 121,000 miles on the clock yet it behaves like a predator ,ready to swallow all the cars ahead.
The previous owner took good care of it, with regular services. I am myself taking it to the doctor (AA service centre) for a full check up. Wouldn't trust a Vauxhall garage after all I have read.
I bought my Carlton after quite a long search (6 months) for a good, low mileage model. Though I've only owned my K reg. 2.0 Diplomat for less than 6 months, it's everything I wanted it to be - and perhaps a little bit more. I logged my first 5,000 miles for fuel consumption and saw an average of 34mpg - this on an auto box checked over mixed motoring but with a fairly high number of motorway miles making best use of the cruise control! One reason I checked my consumption was to compare the results once the car had been LPG converted - something I had intended to do before purchasing the car. After just over 2,500 miles on the converted car I've found, pretty much as expected, consumption figures around the 27 mpg mark on gas - a pretty much typical 20 percent penalty on unleaded, despite having a 4th generation gas injection system professionally installed. Anyway, the car is brilliant - quiet, comfortable, economical (for it's size) highly sophisticated for its age - even down to heated windscreen washer jets - and, so far at least, reliably robust. I haven't had a particularly BAD experience with my local Vauxhall main dealer, but it wouldn't surprise me if I did, and the servicing prices are way over the top. But the car more than makes up for it, and in this Godawful weather, who would deny a seat that heats up in less than 2 miles? Mine's a long term keeper.
The vauxhall Carlton 3000 GSI is a fantastic car for the money. In my 8 short years of driving i've owned a number of cars with this being the best. Unfortunately the petrol bills are now getting too high so if your'e interested in purchasing this little beauty e mail me or call me on 07984 497 769
I love my Hreg Carlton! I never even tried the main Vauxhall dealer I just go to the car breakers for spares. In the seven months of ownership and 25k miles I have had no need to expend any money to keep it running (apart from the petrol of course). One day I covered 700 odd miles on just one tank of petrol. The are two things that drive me nuts though: 1. Rust 2. Clanking noise when you drive on rough roads. I even changed the struts, but still the noise remains... I'm thinking of p/xing for a Kreg alfa romeo 164 t.spark 2litre with glvanised body (so no more rust showing in the most unusual places, and hopefully no more knocking sound) the only thing that worries me is the rumour that alfa romeo's electrics are far from great... any comments?
i bought my 1989 carlton 3000gsi about 15 months ago and the only real problem i have had is trying to find a radiator.i eventually had to go to vauxhall,who were very helpful,and purchased one at a cost of £202+vodka and tonic(vat).i have just bought another to strip to use as spares so no more looking for parts for me.i now want a 24v but most of the owners want daft money for them.eventually,when the kids have left home i will have a lotus carlton/omega.
I've got a Carlton GSI 24V which has never let me down (touch wood) and goes well, but is made with steel which I don't think even Heinz would use for their bean cans. Build quality is appalling, cooling feeble (additional electric fan £110 from Demon Tweeks). I need to remove the cylinder head of my car to rectify an oil leak which apparently is a common fault with the 24V engine, I will however not be going to Vauxhall after reading Trevors comments!!
not about Carltons, but I did have a Cavalier once. NEVER AGAIN. Not because of the car but the *****y awful service as a victim of the lunatics at Wrights of Rickmansworth. e.g. leak in thermostat housing, reported to them when I booked the car in, and then it was stuck there for 4 days because they were waiting for the part (they didn't order it before I took the car there) Add to that the dozen or so other problems I reported that never got fixed in the three years I took the car there... Once I could leave the company car scheme I did, and I will NEVER, NEVER own a Vauxhall ever again.
My wife recently crashed my much loved vauxhall carlton into a curb. The alloy wheel was wrecked so i attempted to track down a cheap second hand alloy- the cheapest i could find was £60 including delivery. Apparently because it is a vauxhall wheel they are alot more expensive than the alloys you can buy in accesory shops. Anyway i paid out the £60 and got it fitted and balanced but still found the car was not driving well. I decided rather than get ripped off by a mickey mouse garage i would go to a vauxhall dealer. The service was quite good but they couldn't find the problem. They changed 4 bushes and a suspension arm costing me £180 but the problem remained so i took it back they had the car for the afternoon checking everything and charged me nothing but the advice given was to get a 4 wheel alignment check done which they couldn't do because they didn't have the equiptment required. luckily the technician working on my car told me that they normally used an audi garage which charge £85 but he had rung ATS and they would do it for £25. Unfortunatly the problems still exist and i won't be going back to a vauxhall garage to get it sorted, i'll find a proffesional garage instead.
I agree with you John, Vauxhall garages suck. I dropped my car in for a service at Grimshaws in Prestwich, Manchester, and new starter motor and told them that my car was using coolant very quickly and I was pretty sure it was leaking. During the service they did a pressure test of the system which showed up no faults. Two days later I discovered that the expansion tank had split (quite easy for even a novice like me to spot), which I replaced myself. The car then carried on using coolant like it was going out of fashion and even began to misfire. I took it back. They said that the plugs would need changing as they didn't have them in when it was serviced. They did so, and the misfire remained. Then they suggested it must be the HT leads. My car is a 3.0 GSi 24v and they were £140. I bought and replaced them. The misfire remained. Eventually I began to suspect the head gasket had failed because of the previous leak. It had. Because of Grimshaws not spotting the leak, I parted with £300 in parts that they could have saved me by doing a simple test on the coolant to see if it contained oil (i.e. blown head gasket). I've seen it done and it takes no more than a minute. To add insult to injury, would you like to hear Grimshaws' quote to replace a £40 head gasket? £980. They even 'adjusted' my throttle cable... by tying a knot in it. Twats. I got a first-rate job done for £500. So if you buy one of these, find a specialist and STEER WELL CLEAR OF VAUXHALL DEALERS. Twats!
Update to my comments 5-9-00 I have just had my carlton returned after an accident required it to have a new rear wing fitted.This was carried out by a Vauxhall main dealer,MONOREP LTD of southhall.It has taken them since january to complete this work. They had made such a bodge up of it i ended up getting my insurance companys engineer to oversee the job after i had to return the car for the forth time before i gave up and accepted the car back still sporting a dent in the roof moulding. When will these garages realise how important satisfied customers are to the health of their business,or is it that they just could not care less?
I brought this car when it was 2 years old and it did not reach its first MOT before it needed new rear quarter light surrounds due to rust. This was carried out under warranty but when the car was six years and two months I noticed rust had eaten through both rear wheel arches inside the door openings. I contacted Vauxhall motors who were most unhelpfull and refused to enter any conversation about this problem even though the six year anti perforation warranty had only just expired.At about this time the differential bearings expired Vauxhall wanted £1700 YES £1700 plus vat to supply only a new diff. this must be their idea of a joke. Just recently the boot floor adjacent to the spare wheel well has rusted through. The rust and diff.problem is common on all these models so dont believe all you read in the drivers handbook about the level of corrosion protection applied to these cars itis sadly lacking,and how a modern car can rustlike this is a sad state of affairs.What at one time was Vauxhalls top of the range car has put me off buying another Vauxhall, which is a shame as i have been the owner of various models for the past 28 years
Owned for more than 5 years.
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed January 2004.
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I spent 2 years looking for a 24v Diamond Estate as there were only 150 imported. Ironically, by chance I did a search on Loot and up popped a Diamond Estate, and it was a local number. I had visions of travelling to either Inverness or Penzance for it. The ad was 10 days old, and I was certain it would be gone, but the owner still had it. He was asking far too much for it, which is why he hadn't sold it. Its burgundy colour with black leather Recaro and in mint condition. I negotiated a realistic price but still paid more than it was worth, but I had to have it. It had an extensive fully receipted service history, something I am particulary fastidious about. As they are so rare most drivers assume it is a 2.0 litre, and are suprised when it takes off like a scalded cat. I have road tested it to 136MPH on a deserted stretch of the A1 late one Sunday night against an Audi S6, and it still have 600RPM to go. This was not the speedo reading, but the max speed reading on my Garmin GPS which was running at the time. It has now developed a hunting problem on acceleration which I'm sure is down to the lambda sensor, as my fuel consumption has increased over the past few months. I rang the local VX dealer for a laugh to get a quote, and it was in excess of £100. My local spares firm can get a NGK equivalent for £45, enough said. With regards to VX servicing, this and my previous 4 Vauxhall Senators have never seen the inside of a workshop. I have always managed to source a local garage where ever I've worked, the best being Henry Jackson in Kendal. Father and son, real mechanics, not like the pristinely VX clean ones. Rather than replace a part, they'd attempt to repair it, and all this for £17.50/hr (2 years ago)
Owned for 1 year.
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed July 2003.
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i bought a carlton gsi3000,3months ago. goes like a bat out of hell.164mph machine all for £300...runs like a dream and the back end bowes out.... nice
Owned for 3 months.
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed April 2003.
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I BOUGHT MY 1989 CARLTON 2LT CDXI FROM MY SON 3 YEARS AGO..HE BOUGHT IT FROM HIS BOSS SEVERAL YEARS PREVIOUS. HE TRAVELED A LOT. WHEN I GOT IT ,IT HAD 234,000 MILES ON IT ...IT NOW HAS 252,540 ITS AUTOMATIC...I JUST PUT MY FOOT DOWN AND IT GOES ON AND ON AND ON. THE ONLY THING THAT WONT GO IS THE CRUISE CONTROL...OH WELL
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