Wow. This took me back in time to the summer of 1992. Waiting to start college I bought a 1988 130 Sri saloon in red with my own hard earned cash working various part time jobs. Blacked out the windows added K&N filter and a few visual tweeks. It was a British spec car but made in Belgium. Not many of my class mates had cars or even a driving license and the few that did had mostly old Ford Fiestas, Vauxhall Novas and 1.3 escorts. My cavalier was like a ferrari in such company and all my cash went on keeping it looking good.. Many hours spent polishing and cleaning it. Oh boy did I have many fun times on the back seat of that car. For 2 awesome years I absolutely thrashed that car but it never once broke down. As long as I owned it it remained utterly reliable dispite putting many thousands of miles on it. I still have fond memories of that car and it was one of the best cars I ever owned. Thank you for taking me back in time to a happy period of my life

My dad had one the same colour, he was a Field Service engineer so it was typically filled with broken 386 pcs. He drove it like a madman and it often lapped Donnington park as he lived locally and had friends there , at 20k it needed all new brakes, dampers and a clutch, his boss was not happy ! We took it to the IOM TT in 1992 and had it flat out over the mountain think it was 120mph indicated fond memories of that generation. We owned a 2.5 V6 MK3 in 1995 must have been one of the last Cavaliers , wife put 80,000 miles on it in less than 2 years good car better than the Freelander that replaced it

I’ve followed this channel for a few years, but this video has prompted my first comment. I had the 115 bhp version in exactly the same livery. It was a revelation after the frankly hateful Sierra I’d owned before and was the car that turned me into a petrolhead. It’s still a very handsome car. Thanks for the memories!

The rear ashtrays brought back memories of holidays with my parents. Those ashtrays would have been stuffed with sticky sweet wrappers by the time we arrived at our destination. It's great to see one of these in action again. Top content.

30 years ago, my then 17yo girlfriend just passed her test and got insured on her parents one of them! I remember she rode well! The car was ok too.

I had an SRi 130 hatchback, in that colour, in 1992. It was one of the first 130 models on a ‘D’ plate, so was around 5 years old when I got it. I was 20 years old at the time, so I thought I was Billy Big Potatoes whenever I drove it. Back then I was a technician at a Vauxhall garage, so I was surrounded by this era and earlier, Vauxhalls (and Opels). My particular favourites at the time were the Monza, the Nova GSi and a Carlton GSi 24v, the latter of which I never did have, but still hanker for now. Anyway, the SRi 130 still stands as one of my favourite cars I’ve had. It was fast enough, the engine was incredibly torquey and would pull hard in any gear. The exhaust note, as standard, was pretty good too! In short, I loved it and the only car that I could find to replace it, was one of my childhood heroes, a 2.8 Injection Capri, which obviously was a very different car!

Brings back happy teenage memories. My neighbour was a serial Cavalier buyer. New one every year on August 1st. I earned a fortune washing his car every week. He had some great Csvaliers. Commander, Antibes, SRi an SRi 130 and his last J Platform Cavalier, a CDi. I know every inch of the bodywork of these, and recall cleaning those alloys on the 130 with a tooth brush. I can smell the Turtle Wax from here! My neighbour went on with the next gen Cavaliers ending up with a 4x4 GSI. I’d left home by then. He retired and got a Carlton Diplomat before a string of Omega Elites.

Hey JayEmm … I rarely comment on KZfaq but you’ve just given me the most massive trip down memory lane, which as a guy turning 50 next week was well appreciated! My first car on turning 17 in 1989 was a 1981 Honda Civic S which I miss to this day. Six months later my second car was a 1982 Vauxhall Cavalier SRi. The 115bhp original. In fact I think I did some research that showed mine was one of the first in the U.K. Anyhow 7 and a bit years after new I still felt like the mutts nuts in it. White over black 4 door saloon with checkered Recaro seats so that even in 1989 it looked and felt modern. I just checked on DVLA and it’s long since demised it seems. Not surprised as the day I came to sell it in 1991 it insisted on only using 3 cylinders for the test drive despite only 60000 miles. Ahhhh good times.

I had 3 Cavaliers in 5 years as company cars and clocked up 200,000 miles in them. Not one breakdown, drove them everywhere at 90+ mph and loved them. Great cars for anyone doing lots of miles. Very comfortable for 500 mile journeys. Mine were all hatchbacks for the extra boot space and the rear wiper

I actually owned a few Mk2 cavaliers in the 90s - I took the engine from a tired (rusty) 130, the brakes from a newer mk3 cavalier and most of the luxury parts from the CDi you mention (electric windows, etc)... it was a labour of love for sure but it was an epic car... sadly it succumbed to rust... I loved that car though, the performance and handling often surprised people in more modern cars... this video made my day! oh the memories!

9:32 I believe the Cavalier Estate was built using imported body panels from the Holden Camira Station Wagon - a notable feature was the way the central section of the rear bumper was attached to the tailgate - rather like a Citroën GS.

Wow! As soon as this popped up, I knew I just had to watch. The Cavalier 130 was always my sought after, but hey at 18 and on YTS 'pay' I somehow managed to save up and get my first wheels - a C-reg ex-company car 1.6GL of my 'employer'. Lovely car, with a twin-tone horn (oh, the street cred that involved lol) which some months later, I rolled/totalled on the way home from night school. Only insured for TPF&T I sold what was left for £200; Remarkably, still on YTS 'wages', managed to save up and purchased again from my 'employer' a 1988 E reg 1.8GL. Lovely dark blue, sunroof as you described, cloth/velour trim and the cassette holders (IIRC, the little display flipped to red if there was a tape in it). Oh, them were the days of the weekend shammy leather wash and wax with MER polish and the obligatory 'tyre wall black' to finish off my pride and joy. Now I have a handful of 80's and 90's hot hatches, a stash of mags and original brochures but no time to tinker or enjoy them. Might hook you up for a spin sometime...👍

I was always impressed how lively the 115bhp and 130 felt and a really nice sounding engine when pushed, loved driving mine in the late 90's

You hit the nail on the head! I got one as a company car in 1990 when I moved to the Isle of Man to start my new job. Mine was white and although I didn't have a choice in what car I could have I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Latterly it suffered from a lumpy idle eventually diagnosed as having a cracked distributor cap. Apart from that it was reliable, spacious and had just enough power to make it a 'warm' hatch. Nice video. Thanks for the memories

Im a Saab man at heart, with several 9000's and some near 400bhp. However recently brought a Vauxhall Astra SRi XP 1.8 iVVT 2008. Bit of a mouthful. The old faithfull Astra H that plod loved so much. It has 138bhp, as i recently put it on a Dyno. And you know what, its an absolute hoot to drive. Its quick-ish, certainly not slow. And handles great. The engine just revs and revs. Im doing big miles in it, about 800 a week. And yet its averaging 41mpg, even with booting it several times a day. So after years of driving rocket ships that can out accelerate an Audi R8 to 100. There is a lot to be said for a little revvy Vauxhall. Ive loved driving it the last few months, its been fun !.

As a young bloke SRii's were everywhere. Copped sight of a 130 at the lights once and thought 'WOW, 130bhp! I only had a 1.6 saloon. My wife's mates partner had a SRi hatch, life's not fair!

I had a couple of SRis in the 90s, great workhorses with decent-for the time-performance. A friend was a mechanic for a local Vauxhall dealership, and he told me that in all the years he was there he never had to do a bottom end rebuild on any Cavalier Family 1 or Family 2 engine (that was the designation inside Vauxhall for the 1.3 & 1.6/1.8)

These were great. A Cavalier Commander 1.6 in Silver was my family's first brand new car and started my affection for the marque. Growing up at the time, you were either a Ford lover or a Vauxhall lover. Our family definitely fell into the latter. You could also get a Cavalier Convertible at the time James. Very rare to see one though. Great vid! 👍🦊

I had an old and abused 1.8 SRI, in red with a VERY RARE grill with driving lights! That was pilfered from the car overnight whilst parked on the street! Very distinctive and made the car look even more sporty! I THRASHED that car, as I was often late for work, and travelled EVERYWHERE with the throttle buried in the carpet! 125mph and a sub 8 second 0 to 60 time was intoxicating, and this was my first 5 speed, front wheel drive and fuel injected car! The Recaro seats were worn but very supportive and I LOVED the torque and high speed stability through corners! (I tested it VERY often!) My brother had a final edition Cavalier 2ltr SRI, AND a Vectra SRI, which I got to borrow or drive him "home from the pub", and neither were as dynamically fun, or comfortable to me! I would go as far as to say, the Mk2 Cavalier SRI was THE BEST Cavalier/Vectra class car Vauxhall ever built! (the Vectra SRI Estate coming a close second, due to it's versatility and mile cruching ability!) It saddens me to see these cars were so "scrapable" (as was mine eventually!) and so few left on the road. They were, truly, a magnificent car! 20+years later, and I STILL miss mine!

Loved that bit about tyre width....me and my mate Steven Jackson was absolutely obsessed about cars with tyres wider than 175. My dad had a Peugeot 309 GR Profile that had 185s !!! We couldn't believe how wide they were

Thanks JayEmm, really enjoy the variety in your videos. I was brought up with these cars and I also currently own an immaculate one. I will share the video with the mk2 Cavalier community. The SRi 130 was a genuinely desirable car at the time as BMW’s Merc’s and Audi’s weren’t as accessible to your average rep as they are now. The nostalgia these humble cars stir up is unreal.

As a young engineering sales rep I had two of these as brand new company cars - a Red 1988 GL model as I wanted comfort and then it was followed by a Mk3 1991 light blue 2.0 GL auto as I had a knee issue. These were great cars to drive and my personal car was a Astra. Yes in those days I was a Vauxhall fan. 😄 Happy memories and thanks for the video Jay.

Been a Vauxhall man for the last 31 years. Had a 115 E955BMX aged 18 paid a fortune for insurance. 25 minutes to change clutch. Still employed at the VAUXHALL plant for the last 33 years. Great video bringing back memories. Thanks James

This car could have changed the direction of my biggest passion forever. My parents very nearly bought an F reg demonstrator from Thurlow Nunn, Stowmarket. At the last minute changed their mind and bought a brand new G reg Ford Orion, the rest as they say is history. I could have been Sri Jamie 😂

Thanks for the memory jogger! I had one of these back in the day. It was quick for it's time but not very reliable. It took months to work out how to switch the interior lights on. You had to pull out the rotary light switch which wasnt labelled. On this generation of cav and Astra you could change the clutch without separating the engine from the gearbox which was handy as I had to do it twice!

I was lent an SRi for a week as a company pool car in 1989. It was quite good to drive for it's time. Thanks for the excellent range of of vehicles you showcase.

It’s nice to know that the most sweet and humble of cars can give pleasure. Great review.

So cool! I always wanted a SRI 130 hatch in white. This one looks incredible, as you mention its such a rare sight on UK roads today. Thank you Jay for showing us this lovely car and a huge thank you to the owner for letting Jay show this great car off.

I remember my dad having one of these while his car was in for service. My mum drove it and reported it as being ‘too fast’ 🙈🙈🙈

Loved th8s. I used to have an Sri booted version and loved it. It was solidly built and I remember doing 125 in it and there was still some left in it. My 3 passengers were silent haha. 🖒

A friend's parents had a 1983 SRi 1.8, followed by a brand new 1988 E reg SRi130. What a machine that was in 1988! Can even remember the registration: E780OJV (it was bought new in Grimsby). Don't forget, this was the time when even a BMW M3 only had 200bhp, and the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth was making headlines for getting 204bhp from just 2 litres. 100bhp/litre wasn't commonplace back then, but also most cars weighed a lot less than equivalent models now.

In 1990 I was a young fresh faced sales rep: 4 days on the road, 1 day in the office. I was very proud of my white 3rd Gen 2.0 L Cavalier. So proud, I put red stripes on it and SRi hubcaps and pretended it was a better model (these things REALLY mattered on Fridays in the company car park). My fleet manager didn't like me for the mods. He didn't like me even more when I was showing off to my soon-to-be (and long divorced now) wife and wrapped it into a lamp post at the entry to Jn8 on the M25. An AA van appeared 'as if by magic' and dragged me back onto the road and told me to scarper if I could (just!) before the police turned up. Different times! As a punishment I was given a Gold Mk2 Cavalier with some form of bank manager beige interior. I despised the car and took to parking it round the back of the building until my Mk3 came back many weeks later. As a car I'm sure the brown/gold thing was fine, though it was noisier and slower. It just looked like someone's dad's car and was an indiscriminate colour. Throughout. Not the best memory. But I was young and a car was a thing to brag about in those days. The bank manager brown thing did not pull any birds, I can tell you.

Love these period vauxhalls up to the mid 90s. My mam had a lime green mk1 cavalier when I was young. Loved playing with the tape storage racks lol Once a great manufacturer now just one of the rest of the lower tier.

In Australia we called these Camiras. The estates were called wagons and were designed in Australia. They’re notable for the rear bumper which was part of the tailgate. Perhaps the reason estates are so rare is that they had to be imported from Australia.

Fun video. Thanks for showcasing these older cars. I don't think I've ever seen one of these. Keep up the good work.

What a great video of one of my all-time favourites... My first car was an Opel Ascona SR in red/gray with the 1.6 L caburetor engine. Also a hatchback. I now own a convertible. There were two companies converting the hatchbacks to convertibles. One was "Hammond & Thiede" and the second one was "Keinath". The first company made 2873 comvertibles, the second one made only like 436. But they also made a convertible version of the Monza, which you also reviewed on the channel. They only made 12 of those and the are fairly expensive these days with more them 50.000 € for a moderate one...

This takes me back, more retro Vauxhall’s please 🙂

You can have a like before I’ve even watched this one. Great that you have so much breadth and depth to your channel Jayemm. Keep ‘em coming!

Had a D reg saloon in dark red smoked rear lights full bodykit etc lovely car did 80k miles as my private car, ss exhaust air filter etc, switched to 98 octain on the switch under the bonnet instead of 95 octain, topped out off the clock on the pin of the Speedo and much quicker than the replacement 150 16v in many tests, saw track use in Brands hatch and Le Man. Naught boy traveled 245 miles in 2hrs and 40 mins what a car sad to see it go. Dunlop SP Sport tires 195 sorted the handling along with sports pads to slow it and spax shocks kept the handling great as well. Btw 2nd gear took you to 65mpg which changes on newer version 3 with only 55mph so 0 to 60 about 7seconds on my car. My dad liked it so he bought a lighter blue hatchback one year younger and also drove it hard. Keep up the good work.👍

My then-girlfriend's dad had a white Y-reg SRi hatch from new as a company car which he then bought from them at the end of the lease. Great memories of bombing around with my g/f driving, such a cool car for us 17/18 year olds to be in! Unassisted steering coupled with the fat 195-section tyres was challenging at parking speeds, but I do remember the car being pretty quick and the Recaros up front were lovely!

I had an 87 1.6L "cooking" version that I brought from my Dad when at a couple of years old. Good memories of the car it was reliable, fairly comfortable and quite a good motorway car. Mine was the carbed version which was tetchy on acceleraton. I did nearly 100k before I sold it which was good going at the time. The SRI was the sporty version and things like a manual sun roof, alloy wheels and even a rev counter were desirable extras that you didn't get in the lower trim levels! Had to make do with a speedo and fuel and temp gauges. It was quite some time late - 90's early 00's before cars in this class got A/C if I recall - if you were hot you opened the window😄

A rep where I worked had one that I drove often . Seeing as my car at the time was a Viva , it was a dream car for this 22 year old .

Thanks for that! I remember my Dad taking me around car showrooms, I was 4/5 at the time. He was about my age now (mid 30's). He wanted something 'sporty' and practical. I vividly remember sitting in the back of a Caviler MK3 Sri saloon. It had beige cloth seats, was red, and I'm sure had wheel trims. He ended up with a slightly older 1989 525i, silver, black leather, BBS style alloys, what a machine, but weirdly he always pointed out Caviler SRI's.

I had the SRi from the gen after this model and did 140K in it in 4 years, pounding up and down the UK motorways. Engine was decent and the car was overall very solid. It was fun to drive (when I was in my youth) although things got a bit sketchy on fast corners (like when joining the M25 from the M3...)

My dad had one of those for years. One day it broke down on a dual carriageway flyover and so he left it on the hard shoulder and walked to the nearest payphone to call a tow truck, when he came back there were police everywhere and it turned out an articulated lorry had lost control and pancaked the Cavalier against the wall and they weren't sure if anyone was still in the wreckage.

Oh the memories you have prompted James! So many! My dad was (and still is) a Vauxhall man along with most of his family (a cousin was a foreman on the Cavalier production line in Luton). He owned 2 SRi’s (115) during the 80’s, one in metallic pale green, the other in white with matching white checked wool Recaro seats. He always wanted a 130, that was his aspirational car until the Calibre special edition with the same engine arrived. In early 90’s I inherited my mum’s 1.6 L hatch in white. It was spacious and reasonably economical, but struggled to get up motorway hills when I had my mates in it. Under steer was king, but the boot was big enough for me to stick the obligatory amp and large speakers that many a teenage boy fits to his motor. The car served me well for about 3 years until I traded it in for a 205 1.4XS. Great video as always 👍🏾

At 130bhp, it was almost the top-dog in the day in the Rep-mobile car ladder. I think the only thing that topped it in the N/A 4cyl ranks would have been the 1988 Peugeot 405 1.9 Mi16. Which had 160bhp. But that engine was way ahead technology wise. Twin plenum, 16v, and fully sequential Bosch Motronic injection. Hence the "Mi".

In the future, as technology takes us further away from driver involvement, even mundane cars like this will seem thrilling to drive.

My first car, bought and "shared" with my dad in 1996, was a 1983 Cavalier 1.6 in fetching gold and falling apart. I remember that the rear screen was a bit leaky and loose, but get it up to (ahem) 85 mph and the vibrations from it disappeared! 😄 Great video, brought back tons of memories (that clock!), thanks!

Bought one in 1989 as my first car, it was white and I loved it. I remember that 3rd gear seemed to go on forever. For the time period it was pretty rapid. I bought it with 57,000 miles on the clock and it was my first introduction to unscrupulous car dealers as this one added my deposit onto the price rather than deduct it! Thanks for the nostalgic trip down memory lane and the freedom that owning your first car brings

When you put a cassette (tape) in the cassette storage trays, it would show a red indicator in that little round bit on the left. just so you knew which ones were or weren't empty. Good times.

They were a reasonably quick car back in the day with a decent rev happy engine but were definitely a rep car designed for the motorways rather than back road blasts. 130bhp and a 0-60 of approx 8s was pretty good back in the 80s

I had a Nova with with this engine, gearbox, front seats, digital dash and most importantly the front brakes. What a toy.

Have a MK2 1.6L hatch in the family … owned since 1987. Currently underway with a full white metal nut and bolt restoration. Taken a number of years to locate genuine GM body panels but car now in paint and refit underway. Great memories.

Neighbour had one of these. I always remember that his (and most others) seemed to sit on their rear wheels a bit, they were low down at the back. My dad had a Renault Fuego Turbo though which I found much more exciting because it had a big "TURBO" decal down the bottom of the doors lol. Great times :)

I'd love to see a review of the car every man and his dog had, late 80's early 90's. The nova Sr. That would be nostalgia ❤️

Awesome video, properly reminisced about the number of these I worked on while working in a Vauxhall-approved Bodyshop in the early 90's.

Excellent video on what was one the favourite company hacks in their day! Thanks for taking me back to the 1980's James - they were fun times!

James thank you for this brilliant video, i had a couple of Cavalier's & Carlton's back in the 80's/90's & absolutely loved them quick in the day & never let me down, this era of Vauxhall '83 -94'for me was there best time ! After '94 Vauxhall last there way with the exception of the Omega , Love these 70'/80's old cars please do more Cortina's, Granada's, Senator's etc...

Lovely job done here. Well done to all those concerned. There was a red Cavalier SRI cabriolet at a local car show this year. To all those who are custodians of these every day classics - keep it up 🙂👍

I had a Mk2 1.6GL 4-speed for a year back in the day, before the opportunity to upgrade to a 1.8 CDi came along. Both were saloons, and both did what they said on the tin, for the times. The CDi was posh! As I recall, the instruments were different to the SRi - you had more of them, but aside from having electric windows, everything was as pretty much as you see here. It was a lot of fun for this then young man, and economical to run from servicing to insurance. You have brought back so many wonderful memories in this piece, as you did for yourself. Thank you so much!

James you're making me feel old now! I must have worked on hundreds of these back in the late 80's, early 90's. Easiest clutch replacement of any car i can remember..

My dad had 3 Cav Sri's (1 of them a white saloon 130) as company cars when I was a kid. I honestly thought they were the dogs bollocks back then. It was also my first experience of car crime - 1 got broken into outside our house and the stereo nicked. Still though, lots of fond memories Thanks for helping me relive a little bit of my childhood

Brilliant 👍 Great that you continue to test a diverse range of cars! My mate had one these when I was in my teens. Very fast back in the day!

A belting video that. There's nostalgia with it and also variety too where else would you see a review of a cavalier. It also makes you realize how much cars have changed over the years.

That perforated headlining and the fan blower knob tickled my inner 8 year old. My mum had a mk2 saloon in flame red. Absolutely loved that car. They also did a convertible and later in life the cavalier calibre. Always lusted after one of them.

I was 19 in 1988 and worked at the local Vauxhall dealers (Rylands, Dudley Vauxhall Centre (but Vauxhall UK said they could use the name "Vauxhall" in their name) so became Dudley cars ltd after that. Being a young whipper snapper in the service dept, i had access to every Vauxhall being sold in the 80s, everything from a Chuvette and 1.0ltr Nova to Manta GTE, 3.0 Monza's and everything in between, and every single one got the thrashing of its life 😂 If it was a sporty Vauxhall, they had 15 inch wheels 😂My favorite of all of them was the Astra Belmont Estate SXi which was the service managers car. He also had a black SRi 130 at one point. On the SXi and the camels ear, because they were fuel injected, there was an Octane rating plug in the engine bay. I used to turn the plug from unleaded to leaded. All it did was advance or retard the ignition timing thus giving it a few more horses if in the leaded position. I can remember the service manager saying to me one day "i give Robbo a car for the day and when i go home in it that day, it goes like stink" i never told him a bloody good thrashing and the plug turned a round was what did it 🤣🤣 Happy days in a way they where back then. The biggest let down in the whole range was when the Nova 1.6 GTE came out. Never driven anything so slow in my life.

Great video! Thank you. I joined a company sometime in the mid eighties as a "Key Accounts Manager" and was offered the choice of the 115 version or a CDi version or a Carlton 1.8L As you mentioned, naturally as a "thrusting" young executive I chose the SRi 115 in white, haha 🤣. The other options were just so boring!. I went on to cover many thousands of miles in that car, without any issues as I recall, and I absolutely loved it. So many thanks for bringing back some great memories for me. Keep up the good work.....

Had a white Cavalier SR saloon with light brown recaro interior. 1.6ltrs and four speed gear box. Went to the breakers yard and got a five speed gearbox fitted in it and it drove a lot like I stole it (imagine massive revs for little speed). Came a cross crashed SRI and managed to snag the black recaro interior and sprayed dash - happy days. Eventually got a silver moss (light metallic green) SRI hatchback a lovely handling car looked the business. Had a silver CDI with luxury velour interior and also a few GL's on one of them upgraded the grill and, I think, rear lights to give it the facelifted look. Yes I loved me a Vauxhall Cavalier back in da day and so wished for a convertible Calibre model. 👍🏾

I woke up to find this video this morning, made my day, thought I’d leave my first time comment. I was 19 in 1990, owner of my first car, a 1988 nova SR (in yellow). They were crazy insurance days, but my man maths figured I could exchange my nova for a cavalier sr130 if I changed my insurance to 3rd party only. The deal was done and I had exactly this spec of car, blue, hatch. I had 5 cavaliers over the following 11 yrs, 3 x 130s, 1 x mk3 sri (130 engine) and 1 x mk3 cdx v6. My mates and I were all Vauxhall nuts, a mix of cavs and astras. I was tempted by an apparent great condition 1988 sri130 for sale for a while a couple of years ago, but couldn’t convince my better half it was £8k well spent. I do have a 1988 nova SR (in white) in my garage though❤️ Thanks for another great video J👍

This put me in a timewarp straight back to the mid 90s when I had one of these. It was white....matched the socks nicely! I loved it...it felt really quick back then although I do remember that the steering didn't feel sporty at all....really heavy and so many turns required!

My great uncle had a metallic gold CDi hatch. Had all the extras and he had the car for a long time. Then he ended up with a Toyota Avensis... he preferred the Cavalier, oddly. I have fond memories of it as it was the very first car I sat in when my family decided to move back to Scotland after living in Canada for 15 years. I have seen a few mk2 Cavaliers about lately. It seems the ones that have survived have a fairly decent fan base. Even seen a MK2 Cavalier Calibre recently... or at least it looked like one with the body kit. But really... Opel Manta B2 is where its at! MK2 Vauxhall Astra GTE with the 20XE engine is also a nice one (neighbour had one for years when I was a teenager). A lot of these older Vauxhalls are starting to command a bit of money. The days of a 20XE or 20LET Nova for cheap no longer exist...

I had one of these back in 2000 to commute from Plymouth to Liverpool, a 300 mile journey that I did on Sunday eve and then back on Friday. I did 26000 miles in that car and the only thing which went wrong was a noisy wheel bearing. It was a damn decent car, especially since I only paid £600 for it !! Dynamically, it was ok, but I was very spoilt as I also had a Cavalier 4x4 Turbo, which I did not want to rack the miles in. It did love to understeer if pushed to hard, but the car served me damn well.

I had two Cav SRi's, first was an 82 hatchback in a browny red but upgraded to an 88 130 saloon in white with white alloys (very 80s!). I remember it having lots of torque meaning in gear it was really lively. So watching this was a proper blast from the past!

What makes this channel so great is a car like this gets the same attention as some DB supercar gets💯

My first car was a 1984 A reg Cavalier SRi Hatchback in Silver, I loved the checkered part-leather Recaro seats and loved driving it hard as a first car. I drove it that hard and blew the gearbox on a return trip from Scarborough. I was able to get a replacement gearbox from a CDi and replaced it one lunchtime, (I was a mechanic for Vauxhall at the time) I put over 70,000 miles on her during my ownership. Great memories of a first car! Thanks for the video, and the trip down memory lane. I'm off to look for some pics of the old girl!😀

Great choice! Thanks for great content - and for those of a certain age that revered the SRI. Same as you, at driving age they were on their way out.

Had three Cav's in my time with many varied memories : Cav Mk1 - S reg 1978 1.6L My first car, a six year old 1.6L in white. I left the dipstick part out on a 350 mile journey which covered everything under the bonnet in oil, and was fortunate enough to be right by a garage when the oil light eventually came on! Cav Mk2 - X reg 1981 1.6 burnt orange colour: Preferred this to the Mk1 as it felt more stable especially when cornering in the wet. My lasting memory is having a glove box that kept randomly opening up, but cured with a blob of blue tac. Also the colour of it meant that you could never tell the difference to the paintwork between freshly washed and 3 months of plastered winter salt and mud, but excellent colour for hiding the rusty wheel arches and bonnet chips! Mk2 Cav - 1985 B reg 1.8CDi Beige Favourite Cav that I owned. Loved having PAS. It would achieve mid 40's mpg on a run. Sold it in 2001 with 210000 miles on it! Comfortable motorway cruiser of it's day.

Thankyou Jay for this video, it brought back many memories of Friday nights with my mates in the mid 1980's. We'd play snooker, then thrash up the Finchley Road to Emmanuel's for a burger. The cars in said thrash were the Vauxhall Cavalier SRi, Mark 1 MR2, Mark 1 Escort RS Turbo, and occasional 4 speed Capri 2.8 Injection. Those were the days.

I bought one of these new in 1988 in white. Loved it and did many miles without any trouble. Thanks for the memories!

Now these are the kind of cars I like to see reviewed. This area of cars hold my fascination the most and I remember foundly Growing up. I didn't know anyone who owned a ferrari or porsche etc. But my dad aswell as my friends dad's had all kinds of cars, one friends dad had a new granada scorpio cosworth, one had an older Bmw 735i, another had old xj6, one had a Seirra xr4x4i the list goes on. My dad had a old peugoet 505 estate but eventually got a vauxhal carlton 2.0 gls. Was hoping he would go for the GSi but just wasn't interested. Oh well great memories.

Superb Mechanicals simple tough easy to maintain, It was all downhill from here !

My last of many Vauxhall / Opel cars was an Estate 1.6 LS. At the time I was mountain biking and in a band, so it was a load carrier. The low loading floor and cavernous interior would swallow plenty of sound equipment and instruments. Sleeping comfortably in the back sometimes, it was popular with girlfriends.

Thank you so much for this throwback, being a few years older than you I spent a bit of time around these in my later teen years. I changed out I don't know how many Philips 752's, they had this tendency to eat tapes if you didn't run a head cleaner through every few hours. The strange thing was, normally I would sell the people on the Philips 846 if their budget wouldn't stretch much past 200 pounds. The 846 did not have the tape eating issue. The car itself, I loved them in this colour. In '88 I had a 2.8i, same blue with red and white pin stripping. As much as I loved that car (and still do, i'm having one restored now) the 130 Cavalier looked to my young mind far more advanced. There was something about the 3 box shape I liked. I ended up selling the 2.8i to get a Rover SD1 3.5 Vitesse, another car I loved, but quickly (I think it was Jan '89) sold that on to get an RS 500 Cosworth, a car I still have.........F**k me that was a quick 32 years.

My late father sold Vauxhalls in the 80’s. I had the good fortune to work as a car cleaner at the weekends. I always loved the Vauxhall range back then and until 15 years or so ago still had a great collection of Vauxhall catalogues from the period. Anyway I digress! I always enjoyed preparing freshly minted Cavalier Sri’s and Astra GTE’s the most. My Dad always had Cavalier as a demo cars and we would go over all around Cornwall and Devon at what felt like crazy speeds down narrow roads to avoid the crowded A roads. The demo cars he drove weren’t often SRi’s, they always sold quickly. In fact I remember the garage owner was pleased a punch to get a SRi demonstrator for himself, only to find that after going for lunch it had been sold, he wasn’t happy, he had only registered it an hour before going for lunch and driven it once! Safe to say I’ve had a few Vauxhalls over the years and I’m sure they would feel dated if I drove on again. But they where great back in the day. Thanks for the video and bringing back found memories. Jay, could you find a Opel Monza GTE manual and make a video on that car. It was the holy grail back then and the garage never sold one, ever!

So many memories, thanks for the vid. My dad had a couple of cavaliers when i was growing up: an '87 cav 1.6L, then after a promotion to manager he had a '90 cav 2.0 GL!!! I also remember a dog shit brown carlton he had for a bit! My mum also had an old shape '91 Astra 1.4 Expression. Seeing the switch gear, tape storage and sunroof were all things i remember!

Ahhhh. Brings back memories indeed. Although I never had one of these, my first car was side swiped and written off by one.

Whenever we needed a hire car in the 80's my Dad always ended up with a Cav 1.6. One time my Dad drove my cousins 500 miles down South from Glasgow. 10 miles into the journey my cousin vomited and my aunt tried to stop it with her hand, causing a 'sprinkler' effect that covered the whole interior in vomit. 490 miles with all windows fully open ensued. Great times.

Man did this vid take me back in time! Awsome vid had 2 of these in red in the 90's and my uncle had the basic model in a saloon, just awsome 👍🏼

My first proper car. Moved from a tatty chavette to one of these in 1991. I just remember it seemed to just pull and pull. The most nostalgia riddled videos I've watched in a long time, thank you!

I had a 1986 'C' reg GLi saloon, apparently had the 1800 engine from the SRi, just with GL trim, i had a full Janspeed exhaust system, Splitfire spark plugs, K&N air filter and fast road cam, had to be careful pulling out of junctions, as it was quite fond of spinning the tyres.

Brings me back to my youth! My best mate had one (yes he was a rep but purchased it himself in a light met green) I had a Manta GTE, both of us 18 years old at the time. We would load both cars up with mates, drive down to London from the midlands at 7pm on a Fri night, race around the city with anything we could find ( Lancia Beta's being the usual takers!) then drive home around 6am....every single weekend for a few years!! What memories! :)

My Dad had a black SRi hatchback back in the day. That followed on from a rather bland light metallic green GL, a truly great upgrade. At the time I thought the SRi was a machine, with many memories of my Dad redlining it at every opportunity 😃 We also had a kid at school who was convinced the SR model was named purely as they all had a sunroof!

Do love this shaped Cavalier and the 130 spec is definitely a fave of mine. I'd possibly disagree with the few thousand pounds though, I'd of said this example must be near 10k as it's proper good knick with period correct features. I stand corrected obviously!!! 😊😊

Had one new back in the day. Loved it!

The days when a rev counter, clock, radio, cassette, sunroof & 130 decals meant a great deal! - Remember seeing a few white ones of these about. Thanks J!🙏

Truly brilliant review and took me back to my dads SRi (115) which I got to drive as an ‘R’ plate teen given it was his company car!! I truly loved it, the girls loved it and the checked Recaro seats were to die for!!! 👍

I was 18 in 1988 and bought an “A” reg (1984) SRI. I loved it. It was in white with black and orange (if I remember correctly) fine check Recaro seats. I liked it as it wasn’t the usual XR3i that everyone else seemed to own - although I think my Dad was disappointed as he worked for Ford 😂. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

It did have heated mirrors via a green light switch in the centre console... 😎 absolutely loved my sri.... brilliant motor

I did 175,000 miles in my SRi (115) Only actual total failure on road was due to a broken valve spring. Always like the car but it got so tatty I sold it for peanuts to someone who wanted the engine, which still ran fine with good oil pressure. Rust was a problem in the cills but easy to repair. What was more of a problem and which probably killed most of them was rust in the rear spring top mountings. Geing of mechanical mind and being able to weld meant I fixed it, but I bet quite a few found the cost of dismantling the rear suspension and welding it up to be the killer.