No indication of overheating

<p>Dear Opel<br /><br />Please forgive me if the the tone of this message is bad but I am writing this in a very distraught state of mind.<br /><br />My wife has a much-loved 2006/7 Opel Zafira 1.6 Essentia with about 250 000 on the clock. It has been well looked-after. Towards the end of March she was driving me to the airport when the car started making a strange tapping noise. We checked the engine light - nothing. I asked her if it was losing power and she said no. A few seconds later, the engine light came on and we immediately pulled over. This was on an extremely dangerous section of the N2 and I had to leave my wife and daughter there while my mother-in-law came to take me to the airport. The Zafira was towed to a reputable mechanic and has been there since then while he sends the engine off to various engineers, struggles to find a decent used engine, puts engine in and sends it back, tries a used head, etc. The damage: overheating. What I'd like to know from you is how on earth you can sell a car without a temperature gauge?! And then when the engine light comes on, why so AFTER the damage is done?! There was no prior warning, no smoking, no obvious cause such as loss of water or oil. The mechanic said the damage seemed long-term. Everything good about this car has been undone by this one baffling, fatal flaw: no temperature gauage!<br /><br />This has hurt us really badly - being without her car, with no end in sight, and you can guess what it's going to cost even if it can't be fixed.</p>