Takes a weird type of person to stand up, hand-on-heart and say there Vauxhall is built to BMW standards, with Audi performance and Jap reliability.
All of which, no Vauxhall owner can say.. without smirking.
I can say my Leon is all of the above. It's silent at 70. No cabin squeeking, no tapping or vibrating. Last car I experienced that kind of silent running in? BMW 330Ci. That says a lot for build quality. The fact it can hold its own against a Sapphire Cosworth as well.. well that's just a damn big bonus.
Vauxhall just don't come to mind when people list 10 fast cars.. and I'm not talking about supercars here. I'm talking Focus RS, Civic Type-R, NSX, Supra, Impreza, LCR.. etc etc. The list goes on.
Time will tell whether or not the VXR will make its mark on the pop-culture of the auto-world. I don't think it will, never in a way like the XR or RS or STi and VW's GTi range did. Think how many legendary firms have tuned Fords over the years... Tickford, Cosworth and Ford's own SVE.
Vauxhall have who? Lotus... and when Lotus go to down on a car they really go to town on it. New engine, new running gear, new sus and springs, new everything. And then you whack a Vauxhall
badge on the front, lowering the tone sufficiently.
Why did "daddy" buy a VXR, might I ask? With regards to the 1.1 Corsa.. they're as much fun to drive as a... well.. Corsa :S Sorry but it's be-all and end-all of souless, lifeless, gutless driving.
The earlier comment about the shape Vauxhall has opted for, the "door-wedge" look.. well yes, it'll be so out-dated and so "2007" in a few years time it'll add a whole new level ugliness. Calibra, as mentioned, is a fine example.
Where as, for example, Ford define a shape, they define a genre, almost in which other companies follow suit shortly after.. mainly because it holds water. The new Focus look and design is superb. It isn't "too much" in any one way, therefore it won't stink of the era in which it was designed a few years from now.
Vauxhalls remind me of 3-spoke alloys.