As the month draws to a close it was time to sell the Omega (car #3) off to
someone else, But, like I said before, and like I've said about the previous two cars, I have genuinely thought about
keeping it, and selling off one of my other cars instead. After a long
converstation with Mrs Clint, and our two little Monsters it has been decided that we would sell the
Omega, as that was the plan for all the cars in the Twelve Cars In A
Year saga!
Despite one of the Dads at the school where my little Monsters go saying he wanted first refusal on it when it came time to sell it, He asked me how much I paid for it and I told him it was just £950 which
he thought was a good price. However as the month came to a close he didn't come forward with the money, and so I decided to bung it on the bay, where I had virtually no interest
even though I had advertised it for much less than it cost me in the
hope that it might attract some bidders. But no, nothing! I really had
hoped that it would have attracted some furious bidding, and that I would get my money back on the Omega, and perhaps even cover
the cost of the shiny new alternator! But no luck whatsoever. But, after the auction had started, the Dad at my Monsters school said that he still liked
the Omega very much, and that he still would like to own it, so I joked that
mine was now up for grabs, so why didn't he just buy
it as I was ready to sell. He said that as he remembered I had
offered it to him for just £950! I said I did offer that to him for
that originally when I first bought it, but since then I have had to fit a new alternator which was getting on for
£300! His response was, Oh? And that was that. However, later that day, and with about five or six days of
the auction left to run he puts £950 in my hand and said that I could keep that as
long as he got to drive home in the Omega...
So, away it goes! I think I did quite well there, because having looked at the prices that other Omegas were selling
for on fleabay I've realised that I was never going to get the money
back to cover the alternator. Infact I think I'd going to
struggle to even get my money for the car back, or even anywhere close
to it! So my two little Monsters and I enjoyed a nice mile and a bit walk
home in the sunshine... Via the bank to put my new found
wealth in, well most of it anyway as the Monsters wanted a lolly
each on the way home! Besides, despite not getting the money back to cover the alternator as well I'm quite glad that one of my friends has it. But I have made him promise me that if and when he comes to sell it, I get
first dibs, I've never bought back a car that I've sold before, but I like this car... I really do!
So, as ever I'm rambling on like a babbling fool, and what you probably want to know is what was it like to live with. Well it was good, no actually it wasn't good, it was GREAT!! I really REALLY like this car, out of the three other cars I've had this year this one is by far and away my favourite.
So, as ever I'm rambling on like a babbling fool, and what you probably want to know is what was it like to live with. Well it was good, no actually it wasn't good, it was GREAT!! I really REALLY like this car, out of the three other cars I've had this year this one is by far and away my favourite.
When I desperately picked it up about a month ago
the odometer said 135956 miles, and by the time the other Dad drove it away from me the odometer had rolled over to 137928 miles which means that I've covered
about 1952 miles in the car, plus another 7 miles on the back of a
recovery truck! In covering these miles I have managed to burn off 279.30
litres of go-go juice, or in proper money that would be about 61
English gallons!
According to the little onboard computery thingy I was getting a massive
26.4 miles to the gallon, but according to my calculations I made it's
more like 31.7 miles to the gallon! I can only imagine that the software
that the computery thingy works it all out on is American, and
therefore works it out on American gallons. Which, incase you're wondering are smaller. The
imperial (English) gallon, is defined as exactly 4.54609 litres, which
is used in some Commonwealth countries and was originally based on the
volume of 10 pounds (approximately 4.54 kg) of water at 62 °F (17 °C).
The imperial fluid ounce is defined as 1⁄160 of an imperial gallon,
there are four quarts in a gallon, two pints in a quart, and 20 fluid
ounces in an imperial pint. The US gallon, is equal to
approximately 3.785 litres. A US liquid gallon of water weighs about
8.34 pounds or 3.78 kilograms at 62 °F (17 °C), making it about 16.6%
lighter than the imperial gallon. There are still four quarts in a gallon, two
pints in a quart but just 16 fluid ounces in a US pint, which makes a US
gallon equal to 128 fl. oz. In order to overcome the effects of
expansion and contraction with temperature when using a gallon to
specify a quantity of material for purposes of trade, it is common to
define the temperature at which the material will occupy the specified
volume. For example, the volume of petroleum products are referenced to
60 °F (16 °C) in government regulations. So what I am actually babbling on about is that the UK gallon is
about 760 millilitres larger than the US
gallon. I hope you enjoyed this little trivia, but now back to the plot!
31.7 MPG though, thats not too bad for a big(ish) car is it? I know I've covered a lot of motorway/autobahn miles, but even so I thought this was pretty good.
So what else, well, aesthetically I think that it's quite a handsome car
from pretty much all angles the only thing I didn't really like were the
wheels. For me I felt that they looked a bit too much like pastic wheel trims, and as some of the Omegas had a five spoke wheel I would have preferred them as they look better to my eyes! But keeping with how the thing looks, it is vaguely like a Holden Commodore VX, and infact, I would think that they're
all the same car. But for me, I quite like the larger headlights and
grille of the Omega, the Commodore headlights look too small for my
liking. Having said all that, I think that the Pontiac
GTO had the best looking nose on it, I still think the lights are too small, but they don't have that
awkward dip in the bumper where the driving lights are. I think that at some point I would like to get another Omega estate, and try to locate the nose from a Pontiac GTO to put on it. However I think getting the bits back from America might be both problematic, and expensive, so doubtful that in reality I would be able to do that. But I can dream, and you never know, an opportunity might turn up, and I might be able to build my Omega dream car. There's a sentence that I never thought I'd write!
Inside was a nice place to be, it had all the toys including heated
front seats, full leather interior, dual climate control, radio,
casette, CD multiplayer stereo, cruise control, everything you would
want really. Seated up front you had plenty of room to strech out in
comfort. I remember thinking though, back in the nineties when my Dad
had his that I thought the dashbaord peak that went over the gauges
would sag over time as it was made of a soft foamy rubbery material. I
really thought that it wouldn't age well, but to my surprise it was
still pretty stiff and hadn't sagged at all. I can only imagine the
previous owners must have been polishing it with Viagra or something to keep
it from sagging!
In the back it was the same story, plenty of room, and very comfy. My two little Monsters never complained once even when we were driving for hours
on end across Europe, even Mrs Clint who is known to voice her displeasure from time to time said it was extremely comfy in the back as she also spent most of the
drive across Europe sitting there. In short,
sitting in the Omega felt like you were sitting in something very
special, not just some old Vauxhall, but something really very good.
The boot was cavernous, admittedly not as big as the bed on the pick ups that we normally take on our European jaunts. But with 540 litres of space, and despite there being five of us, three adults, and two children this time, it still easily swallowed up our luggage and even left plenty of room for
souvineers!
The 2.6 litre V6 engine lugged us along effortlessly, and quietly, but
still had plenty of get up and go when we needed to um, well, you know
get up and go! But for the most part the Omega just glides along beautifully, and never missed a beat... Umm, well, apart from
the bit when the alternator decided that it want to play anymore! Plus, as I stated earlier, I still got pretty good MPG for a big ole bus!
So there we have it, car #3 done, so to sum up then, I would say that this 2001 Vauxhall Omega is a fabulous car, I can't emphasise enough how much I liked it, so much so that I made the new owner promise to
give me first refusal if and when he comes to sell it. I would certainly have
another one, and the funny thing is, everyone I know who has had one has
felt the same. They pretty much all say that they would have
another one. That is with the exception of one of my Brothers who worked
at GM the time and thinks they're rubbish, still, no accounting for
taste eh? The other thing I noticed is how few of them you see about on
the roads today, where have they all gone? While I was driving through
Germany we saw loads of them, especailly around Frankfurt, so whats
happened to all the ones that were sold here? Where they just all
unloved, and this made them practically worthless? Have they all rusted away like old Vauxhalls used to do? Did they all go due
to the scrappage scam? Who knows, but I think that they are very
under-rated. I liked how it looked, although having researched it now I'd like it a lot better with the Pontiac GTO face on it! But aside from the looks of the thing, I liked how drove, and how it wafted along the road
effortlessly and quitely. I liked how the interior was comfy even after
driving it all day, but most of all I liked how it felt special to
drive, yes I know, an old Vauxhall special! But I drove this thing a long way, and even when we broke down on the
side of the autobahn and we were waiting for the RAC to get their crap
together, get their fingers out their bums, and come and rescue us I
never tired of this car, I never felt fed up with it. I genuinely think
that if you can get your hands on a good one of these you should grab
one with both hands, and unlike me, hang on to it. If all the Omegas
left are like this, then they are a very under-rated car, and for the
bargain basement prices they sell for, they're pretty much the deal of
the decade! When I told my two little Monsters that I had sold the
Omega they both looked at me, made a 'L' with their hands against their
foreheads and called me a loser! So I'm guessing that they even liked it too, still, never mind, onwards and
upwards, and you never know, perhaps something even more special will
show up, I'm only three cars into the year so far, so with another nine
cars to go anything could happen, and it probably will, so on with the
show. Of course, you guys already know what car number four is!
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