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As a young child during the 90s I grew up around a lot of performance Vauxhalls. During the winter of 1988 my father bought himself a MK2 Cavalier SRi 130 and used the car daily till he sold it 1996. He had 3 SRis at one point which he then gave one to his brother and another to his nephew. Whilst growing up I was in these cars a lot. However as time went on my uncles and cousins decided to upgrade their cars to faster Vauxhalls such as Cavalier Calibre, Cavalier GSi 2000 and a Calibra 16v (C20 XE).
One evening whilst playing football in the park with a few of the college lads I noticed a Cavalier turbo 4x4 parked up in a drive. It's pretty rare to see a Cavalier turbo in my area.
After the football game I completely forgot to go over and check the car out. A few weeks later I remembered about the car so a friend and I went on foot to see if it was still there. Luckily for me it was still there as it was out of tax.
When I first moved in to my area I saw this car parked outside the local supermarket. Even then I was across the road and couldn't help but to keep looking back at the car. I remembered the car very clearly.
I knocked on the door asking for the owner. The lad that opened the door was kind enough to pass my number on to his father who was now living in Spain. The gentlemen called back and after sharing the story of the Cavalier history we have. He agreed that I could view it when he got back to England.
When he got back I had a good look at the car and I was impressed with it. The gentlemen had the car from new. He bought it in March 1993 for £22,000. With every receipt and paperwork to prove the history of the car I was well impressed and so was my father. The owner didn't let me drive the car due to it being SORN. However he guaranteed for it to be working perfectly fine or he'd buy it back. I was dreading if the car had any transfer box issues. However in 2001 Vauxhall replaced the transfer box for a brand new item.
This is how the car looked when I saw it. It looked to be in a pretty state but I knew the car was solid underneath and straight on top. It was just very dirty due to it being neglected and it needed some TLC. At the time I was attending college and on the weekends I had a good part time job; so I made a substantial offer and at the age of 17 I was the owner of my own car in fact my first car. A Glacier white Cavalier turbo 4x4.
These pictures were taken in 2008 at the previous owners house.
Once we purchased the car, my father took the car for a thorough test drive. He was well impressed with the car.
Now at the age of 17 with minimum experience under my belt for driving I knew there was no chance of me getting insured on the car. So instead I set out on how I wanted my car to be. I had the space in front of my house to park the car. So whilst the car was SORN I tackled any task which needed doing.
I replaced all the brake discs, brake pads, wishbones, track rod ends, CV gaiters, front windscreen, arb links, oil, oil filter, spark plugs, air filter, heater matrix, transfer box fluid, lowering springs, header tank, 4 new tires and refurbished alloys with brand new center caps. By this time the car was pretty much ready and I was old enough to get insured on the car. So at 19 I insured myself and put it through the MOT. It flew through the MOT. I taxed it and drove the car. I pretty much used the car daily.
In December 2010 I decided to get a few imperfections sorted on my car. I got the bootlid resprayed as where the car was stood the paintwork cracked and the aerial smoothed off in the rear quarter.
This is how it looked after the spray work.
After 17 years a relative of mine decided he wanted to buy another Cavalier Calibre. So in January 2011 we decided to make a trip to Wiltshire and pick up this beauty of a Calibre.
In June 2011 my insurance needed renewing and the quotes I was getting were not what I was expecting to pay. I thought initially the insurance would decrease. However I was quoted by some places which was more than what the Cavalier turbo was worth. So after a long hard think about what I was going to do with this car. After 3 years of ownership I decided to put the turbo up for sale. At the time it was the best decision for me, 1) I was pumping money in to this car left, right and center 2) I couldn't justify paying insurance which was more than the value of the car.
Pistonheads seemed the best answer. I put the car up for sale at a good price and the next day it was gone. I didn't expect it to sell that fast in all honesty.
At this point I didn't have a car. So one night a random phone call to said relative who owns the Calibre. I asked him what his initial plans are with his Calibre, he replied it's been sat in his garage at home next to his RS4 and not moved since he bought it and the fact he had just placed an order on his Lamborghini he didn't mind the extra space. So I asked him to MOT the car and Tax it and I left the next morning and set off to Huddersfield to collect the Calibre. I handed over some used 20 notes, put my Ray Ban shades on and playing my ATB Cassette, yes a cassette as the Calibre still has the original stereo and headed for the M1 South.
My Calibre parked next to a SRi 130 which is owned by another relative of mine.
That's how the Calibre stands today. My plans for the car is to give it to the bodyshop when the tax runs out to sort out a few imperfections. Then change all the fluids and decide what wheels I want for next year's show season.
That's it for now, I'll update this thread as I go along.
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some very nice vauxhalls there too 
Originally Posted by rc 
Would have been better to garage it then insure it couple of years later.
keep the thread updated
