Try And Get A Lock Fitted Before Yours Is Stolen

I was alerted to the theft issue of Zafira spare wheels by the Watchdog programme on television in March 2005, and was directed by my wife (the boss) to go and make sure that ours was still there.

Sure enough it was. We went to Devon for a week later that month and were going away in May. Checking the tyre pressures I re-visited the spare wheel, only to find it gone. So during a period of six weeks it had been taken.

Following the admiralble advice on this web site I firstly reported the theft to the police then phoned the garage to make sure they had both a spare wheel and correct tyre and they fortunately could get both in 48 hours, so I made arrangements to have it replaced and a security lock fitted two days later.

I then phoned Vauxhall's head office and was greeted by a very sympathetic young woman who agreed it was a problem for that model and no they couldn't re-imburse me for the cost of the spare wheel but they would arrange for the garage to fit the security lock (parts and labour) free of charge, and she gave me the Case number for this to be given to the garage for them to charge back to Vauxhall.

Having now had the job done it appears that General Motors i.e. Vauxhall had already identiified this as a possible problem during manufacture because the lock is fitted through a hole in the chassis in the floor of the offside rear seat covered by carpet and underlay and sealed with a rubber grommet which is directly in line with the centre hole of the spare wheel as held in the cage normally. Also the security lock has a Vauxhall (Opel) part number of 93183387.

It wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility that Zafira owners who haven't had their spare wheel taken yet could phone Vauxhall and get this part fitted free of charge. I would be interested to find this out and hopefully this web site might make that suggestion especially if you live in a theft prone area. At least it would save worry over a hundred pounds of your money, never mind the constant checking.
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The Zafira is a good all round family car

Based on the Vauxhall Astra chassis, there are quite a few similarities between the two cars, such as the general driving ride and the quality of the car as a whole.

There have been a few problems that general users have seen with the cars, such as:

• The engine cutting out when idle.
• The In car radio not functioning correctly.
• A squeaking noise from the brakes after only 10,000 miles or so use.
• Spare wheel thefts.
• A necessity to keep refilling the oil on diesel models (1 litre every thousand miles or so).
• Small storage space.
• Strange engine noises which can not be located or fixed.

Saying this, however. The car is very practical and does have some very good points. The innovative ?Flex 7? seating system makes it very easy to switch the car from 5 to 7 seats without too much hassle.

Other nice features include easy access to the car thanks to the wide opening doors, ideal for families with small children, and an anti-stall device. Designed to stop the car from stalling a low revs.

The car is generally very good and although a minority of owners have had some problems, it represents extremley good value for money and provides a great means of getting the whole family from one place to another.