On my way home from the shops the powersteering went, lost power and all the warning lights came on. I managed to creep into a yard where I turned the car off and back on and everything seemed back to normal so I continued with my business covering about another ten miles at slow speeds with two stops. The car is a 96 vectra v6 if it makes any difference.

So, place your bets?

If it's anything like my 9-5 with the central ignition key/switch behind the gear lever it's possible for the remote locking sender to knock the switch off when you change gear.
That's happened to me a couple of times and scared the whotsits off me - it's such a stupid, simple thing to happen and potentially dangerous as it can lock the steering.
Just check the remote's well out of the way each time you start up.
HTH.
Cheers, Pewe10

Elec gremlin - unless it does it more than a few times in a few days ignore it!

Hello,
Some Opel cars with electric steering may have problems when the alternator gets old.
So easy to check.

Gerardo

Thanks for the replies, my said it sounds like the engine had turned off from what I said, I can't remember if the engine was actually running, I was in drive but it didn't accelerates at all. It has other slight electrical issues (the rear screen heat button operates a lightbulb on the mirror control) Wait and see seems to be the best plan, that and adding home start to my aa cover.

Powersteering going off on Astras/Vectras is often a sign of faulty alternator but doesn't usually kill the engine as well... initially.