Vauxhall Astra electical fault

Glove box lights normally have a switch somewhere.

All Vauxhalls do that. The radio will only stay on for an hour though.

the radio can have its preference changed so that it stays on or goes off, look in the manual. the glove box has a switch

Since it's GM, It probably has the same crappy glovebox light as my Saab. The "switch" is a worthless piece of bent Coke-can held in place by spigots on the plastic lens. It makes a bad contact and gets hot, the plastic spigots then melt and jam everything up - either so it never turns on or so it never turns off. GM then expect you to pay them extra money to buy another piece of s*it exactly the same as the one that probably nearly set fire to the car the first time round.

With a Stanley knife, you can make it as good as new i.e crap.

I've just read the bit about it being meant not to work with the ignition off, so the above answer doesn't apply but I'm not going to let that spoil a good rant.

The radio is probably meant to work as you describe. It should turn itself off every time you turn the ignition off, or it should time out after a while if you never turn the ignition on.

Cheers,

Colin.

Thus spake Colin Stamp unto the assembled multitudes:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That seems to be a very expensive way of buying a radio... :-)

It might be, but it's a really cheap way of running a car...

Cheers,

Colin.