Great little car I have a 1.0 basic nova with a few extras from the scrap yard but recently I have discovered a faint fluttering kind of sound from the engine area may be the tappets I'm unsure if there is anyone else who may have experineced this problem and would like to advise me on this please do so at my e-mail address as this will be very appreciated.
Quite a reliable car in the 5 years we have owned it, not much has gone wrong with it until lately.
It has developed a cam shaft problem, where as its wearing down, and making a clanging sound.
The handling of the car is suprisingly good for the skinny tyres it has, its suprising how fast you can take some of the faster corners. One area that is let down badly in the handling stakes is low speed corners, it has lots of push at the front, and that's without squeeling the tyres.
It sets off from lights like a rocket, and is very good for getting out of junctions,
The interior is quite plain, and the dash is all light grey plastic, a bit boring.
The car sounds like a sports car, and makes as much noise as one. Sounds sexy when starting from very cold weather, sounds a bit like a TVR. A good all round car, that can pull well on the flat but struggles on [Log in to view email]
nice smart cars made mostly for the younger generation .very reliable and handles well! lots available for looks and easily upgradable! simple and practical engine with cheap insurance and a good looking car i rate it a no.1 hatchback! only as i own 5 of the beauties! another good thing about them is that they sell so easily!
Hate to be the odd one out but Ive had 3 novas starting with 1.2 merit then a 1.4sr and lastly a 1.6gte all got broken into atleast once, the handling was never very good and My new VW polo 1.3 gtcoupe is qicker off the mark that my gte now for sale (in bits ::stolen recoverd) Jit
A few niggly problems here and there from my 1.2, but it used to rev like hell with the handy 4 speed gearbox, surprisingly quick for the engine size. Amazing on fuel, excellent handling as well. A brilliant, practical small car. Fuel gauges stop working after a while and keep the oil changes regular.
Dynamically very capable and dead simple to work on, though there isn't that much room in the engine bay if you've got a larger engined version. Make sure temp. sensor for the cooling fan works: its position low down on the rad near the road can get corroded contacts and then the fan may not work.
I have owned a 1992 1.4 SRI for about 6 months. Its a wee flyer but the engine needed a bit of attention. Also i owened 1 before this one,a 89 1.3 SR it was perfect in every way until it got stolen, the wee cars are too easy to get into!!
Never owned
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed March 2004.
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i have owned 2 novas, first i had a 1.2sxi which was tranformed into gte and went thru 2 engines thru running the wrong fuel pump. then it was stolen and crashed, i bought and sri and that was closly mtached to the gte engine as per performance, the sri's ran 82 bhp standard which is o.k 4 someone at 17, but i wanted more and installed a corsa 1.6 8v the same as gte but better ecu setup, with lamda and map sensor etc.. i must be running about 115 bhp which is pretty good 4 a natrally aspirated engine, all it has is a janspeed 4branch straight thru, kent nvo62 cam and k&n... when ppl say there 2litre turbo has 200+ bhp they are right because the standard 20let engine produces 210 as standard without oil or intercooler.. so ppl who are slating these statment dont know what they are talking about, surfuce to say kids do overestamate there bhp figures..
ive read ppl messages and the chassis can handle that big power with minimal welding in the engine bay... and any 200 bhp car will have wheel spin thats why lsd's were made.. parts are cheap, some renaults being french charge the odds i know coz i owned 1 with many problems. im not saying vaux dont break coz they do mine has had many, but with minimal costing. in my experience the jap cars are very reliable.. but thats not my style.. ppl with 1.0 1.2's saying that there car does 120 mph well most clocks are 10% out so ure prolly doin 110 which is possible with a 1.2 at least with minimal engine mods.
I have to say 7.1 is far more realistic than some of the figures I've heard here. It's worth pointing out that when tuning a Nova a point would be reached where the car simply won't go any quicker and all that is increased is wheelspin. Also handling on a Nova with 200BHP will be positively dangerous.
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Never owned
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed March 2004.
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I love the Nova. I own a 1.6l 8v GSi and have changed the cam, head and exhaust manifold & system. Now does 0-60 in 7.1 (Trax @ Silverstone 2003) and 15.1 1/4 mile (Santa Pod) . The 2.0l Turbo version is fast. Surprisingly. Despite the wheelspin, I have seen a nova run a 13.9 second 1/4 mile (I have been at Santa Pod), beating the Impreza next to it, and how? Well here's the maths for you, they weigh around 770kgs (SR model) then add 200bhp = 250bhp+ per tonne, far more than most performance cars (Honda Type R = 1200kgs @ 200bhp = 167bhp per tonne. So the people who own a 2L16v Turbo nova have it for one reason, to embarass people in very expensive cars. I myself have beaten a BMW X5 4.4l on the motorway, a £50,000 car against a £1,500 car. Would you be upset being over taken by a 2.0L Nova?
I bought my Nova 2.0 litre CDX in 1978, complete with a six-speed gearbox (must have been a first for the late seventies). The six-cylinder engine is superb and much smoother than the four-cylinder 1.0 to 1.4s. It was much more practical as well being a five-door hatchback. Bakes were really good being vented discs all round, it could outbrake any car on the road. Like i said, i bought mine brand new in 1978 (cost me £5,798), only wish i still had it, i understand these are worth quite alot today. The only fault i found with the car was that the front trunnions kept wearing out. I sold the Nova and replaced it with a 1982 Ford Escort RS2000 MK2, big mistake.
WOT IS WRONG WITH TOY NOVA HATERS I OWN A 1.2 NOVA AND I USED TO HATE EM BUT WHEN UR 17 JUST STARTED, THERE ARNT MANY CARS OUT THERE WHICH U CAN INSURE UNLIKE U TWATS SAYING GET A 2.0 TURBO, YEA GRRREAT FIRST CAR!, JUST LEAVE IT ALONE ITS A 13 YEAR OLD AFFORDABLE CAR, WHICH IN MK2 FORM HAS QUITE NICE INTERIOR AND GOES AMAZINGLY WELL FOR THE ENGINE SIZE. IF U DONT WANT TO 2 ANY MORE GO AND SCRAPE EM ALL AND PAY FOR THE INSURANCE ON A 2.0 TURBO FOR EVERY 17 YEAR OLD!
Owned for 1 year.
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed February 2004.
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i have a 1500 td nova and it is very reliable i love driveing it
Owned for 3 months.
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed February 2004.
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no that was the astra GTE 16V with the early coscast head!!!
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Never owned
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed February 2004.
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If you wanted a fast, reliable, good looking car, you certainly would not buy one of these awful cars. Hopeless design, even worse performance and handling. There is of course only one car that meets the above three requirements, the original Golf GTi. This is a true performance car and will blow any Nova variant into the weeds. And unlike the Nova it won't be laughed at or break down. But then the original Golf GTi is the undisputed KING of the hot hatches.
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Never owned
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed February 2004.
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NO NOVA IS A MATCH FOR AN XR2
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Never owned
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed February 2004.
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Fast with a GTE and the right bits added, due to low weight.
Never owned
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed February 2004.
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ITS 2 FRONT HEAVY, WITH NOTHING AT THE BACK!! DONT U KIDS KNOW ANYTHING BOUT ENGINEERING!!!!!!!
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Never owned
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed February 2004.
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put in a bigger engine fill the speed
Never owned
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed February 2004.
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It wont handle, it wont grip, you wont win any races!!!
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Never owned
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed February 2004.
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i have a nova which has a 3.0 v6 engine with a 100 shot of nos and sitting on 17 inch alloys tsw venoms, as for looks its a two toned paint its orange changes into green, it also has a full body kit, and for sound it has a cd player with screen which i can play dvds on and whith a base box and 300watts each alpine speakers it is increadibly loud, i also have a straight through scorpion exhaust system, with green pulse neons under my car. which i would race any pricks who would like to try and race me but you would not catch me you stupid twats i will be around chester town center if you would like a race!!! ps i call my car catch me if you can!!! no chance no time waisters please
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