Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) My New Astra

Astra Elite Nav 1.6 136PS diesel auto

Standard kit incl full leather, heated front & rear seats and s/wheel, OnStar, dual climate, sat Nav, DAB, BT, rear USB, auto lights, etc

Options on this vehicle: 18" wheels, parking pack (parking sensors, auto parking and rear camera), tinted rear windows, and spare wheel.

136PS doesnt sound like a lot of power, but the new Astra has been engineered to be very light. It's also the same power as a Merc C200d... It's actually quicker to 60mph than the Insignia I had before.

Coming from an Insignia it will be interesting to see how I get on with it, particularly size-wise. The boot is much smaller, but hopefully it will be OK!

First impressions:

- fuel economy is fantastic
- road noise on the 18" wheels is a little high
- automatic heated seats made me smile this morning when I discovered them
- car feels very agile and nimble on the road
- now I've got the seat where I like it, it's pretty comfortable

My wife's first words were "That looks very expensive!". To be fair the fit and finish on these is fantastic. Definitely up there with premium cars.

I have a 300 mile trip tomorrow to get a better idea. I need to decide whether to have the same again next time.

One question and it has puzzled me for a few years.

I note you say the car has darker rear windows

I'm aware that the front glass and front side windows cannot be that dark due to the driver not being able to see out the car properly.

Loads of cars have darker back and rear door windows which to me always look pretty messy but what is the great advantage to having the darkened glass do people realy not want others to see them in the car.

Confused!

I hope those seats are better than the Insignia.They played havoc with my lower back pain on our recent trip to Devon.

that's a good looking car

how does it compare price wise to a Golf?

The Golf is quite a bit more money I believe.

Not quite what you asked, but here'sa group test against the Ford Focus and the Skoda Octavia. It's cheaper than both of them.

I guess it adds a degree of privacy (especially if you want to occasionally carry items on the back seats), but I think most of the appeal is in the looks department.

I can only speak for us, the windows are tinted as far as we can because Jess suffers from photophobia. Any reduction in the glare is a positive. I'm sure that's not the main reason people get tints, however.

I really like the look of the new Astra. I've had plenty of them over the years and have always found them to be comfortable workhorses. The new one looks to have gone up a notch.

Vauxhall have done a great and sadly under-rated job of design in recent years. I look at their old stuff and quake but the modern cars like this are really good. Some are definitely colour sensitive but that works really well. Congrats.