This is primarily used by the kids but I thought it would be worth a review as one of the most popular cars in Britain.
Its quite a small engine considering the size of the car but I've found that it still manages to deliver some truly brilliant performance. You get a tiny hum from the engine when you put your foot down which is nice and the power is always on tap, it never labours as such. The car rides very well and very comfortably, the handling is good for what it is as well. As a performer, it is generally not bad at all. It can also cruise along quite peacefully as well giving you the best of both worlds.
What I think is the best part of the car, is the interior and the quality that comes with it. Dare I say it, it feels as if it could have come straight from a BMW, it really is that good and everything works well with precision and it feels very solid. There is also a lot of space, it is actually quite a big car and this shows up on the inside.
One issue that I have is the electric handbrake. I have always been suspicious of these and I'm still not entirely comfortable with them. I must confess, it seems to work quite well in practice, it automatically releases when you bring your foot off of the clutch, but because it is so light to apply, you don't get the reassurance you get with a good old fashioned handbrake.
The mpg is usually just shy of 50 so is very good which keeps running costs down although insuring the kids on it was a little expensive because it was almost new.
Hi, I own a Vauxhall Astra from 2009. I've owned it for 6 months after I decided to trade in my Focus. I think after a few months ownership, I actually regret it.
It's not that the Astra is a bad car, it's just not on the level of the Focus for excitement. Sure, the Astra is cheaper to run, but it doesn't handle anywhere near as well as the Focus.
That, I think, is down to the Focus' independant rear suspension that helps in keeping the Focus planted through the bends. The Vauxhall just seems to understeer when you give it the berries.
Inside, it's a bit boring, to be honest. It's well made, but not at all exciting. The Focus, for me, had a much better interior and felt more solidily built.
It's a good car but I think that I'll be swapping in 6 months time - maybe for a another Ford.
The VXR Vauxhall Astra isn't an ordinary one, and I know the basic boring ones get a lot of bad press for being shoddy. The VXR is just like an Astra but with actual decent kit, fitted out with a turbo engine and fancy bodywork, looks good and feels good.
I haven't had a single thing go wrong with it really in about three years. I've done a few adjustments to it myself, lowered the suspension a bit and changed the exhaust about, that sort of thing. The suspension I wouldn't bother doing again btw, long complicated job and it has made a different but not worth the effort in the first place.
The power is immense, really huge. Down side of course is that it drinks fuel pretty quickly, but not all that bad. I think I'm getting maybe 20-30 miles a gallon if my guesses are anything to go by, and I've seen worse on some pretty normal cars.
I said about the suspension. I'm happy with the bumps but if I take my mum or my nan anywhere they really don't like it, keep telling me to slow down and avoid the potholes. Might be a young person's car then.
Insurance is a bit of a pain on this one, almost breaking the bank with that. Group 33 I think? Might be higher. Not good.
Basically if it's a choice between this bad boy and a golf, then go with the Vauxhall Astra VXR any day of the week. ANY DAY. More performance, more power, more fun, just all round better. Press the sport button and it totally transforms, RAAAAHHH!!!
I got my estate Vauxhall Astra 1.7 CDTi for moving antiques and collectables around with work, as a kind of small van with good fuel economy. It's been useful for that, the space in the boot is great, and even greater with the seats down, although I am getting a little tired of bending down so often to get into it. I may consider something taller like a Berlingo next time, especially as I've had quite a few repairs need doing on the Vauxhall Astra. I'll be looking into reviews about reliability next time as well.
The first thing to go wrong was the suspension struts if I recall. I remember the name because it was with Vauxhall for a couple of weeks whilst they took their time ordering the part and I had to chase it. The clutch died a couple of years after I got it (and we got it second hand). I think this was at about 40,000 miles or so, which does seem low for something like a clutch to die.
Generally some other bits of the car are just disappointing too. The original stereo was a bit rubbish, never managed to find or hold a station for long, despite claiming to have that thing which retunes it to the local transmitters. We stripped out the Vauxhall Astra stereo and put in a new Sony one, which was an amazing transformation.
It's also quite tricky to see out the back. It must be quite hard to make an estate car that's hard to see out the back of, but Vauxhall have managed it with the Astra -- don't know about other Vauxhalls. I've learned to use the mirrors wisely but I have knocked a few things nonetheless.
Still, the repairs haven't been overwhelming, and the fuel economy remains pretty good. I've got mixed feelings about it overall, may sell up soon anyway though as it's looking a little dated and in this business one needs to keep up appearances!
I would have sold up a long time ago if I thought I could get anything for a car with such a poor history. I might try to sell it anyway, it's just getting out of hand now. I got my Vauxhall Astra SXi second hand at a year old, as an ex company car I think. It had pretty low mileage so I can hardly blame that for all the problems it's had. It just seems like a really shoddy car.
All sorts of things just spontaneously mess around in my Vauxhall Astra. The radio has a mind of its own, just turns off whenever it wants. The speedometer and other dials also stop working whenever they like! This is pretty serious stuff.
I've had trouble with it refusing to even start up at certain times, not apparently linked to any particular weather, just whenever it feels like a day off. The clutch and gearstick are extremely juddery and temperamental, and the clutch pedal is also stupidly placed.
Mechanical faults aside, the Astra SXi is really not a nice car to drive. I can't really remember what I liked about it, I think the relatively low price and it felt a bit sporty when I test drove it (the injection engine actually does deliver a fair amount of oomph when you want it, and when it's actually working). But the seats are too low down and the windows too high up, bad combination meaning no visibility. The pillars are far too big and the central mirror in a silly place so you've got way too many blind spots, even in front of you.
Other problems I've had include the windscreen wipers failing, which is a tad bothersome in heavy rain. The indicators also sometimes choose not to work, which you won't know about but the other cars on the roundabout soon will as you swerve in front of them. Other problems with the locks and the tracking. It's spent more time with the dealer than I care to recall, and I wish I'd never taken it off them in the first place.
I wanted a convertible obviously since I was a kid, and the Vauxhall Astra twintop was an affordable way into that market. I've really enjoyed driving it, and any little niggles are outweighed by how much fun it is to drive along with the top down, especially at this time of year.
It's cool that the boot is still pretty big even with the top down. I had a look at some other used convertibles, and they didn't seem all that fussed about the idea of a boot, like it was a space to hold a sandwich. Astra twintop boot is big enough for most days, and gets the shopping in.
The only problem with it is that the way the roof folds in can sometimes let some water in round the pillars, which eventually pools in the boot. I've had the seals done but that hasn't fully fixed it, so it can be a bit of a pain. I keep it in the garage and we've got two cars anyway so I try not to take it out in the rain, but living in the UK that can be a tricky one to guess. Another neat little feature is the automatic headlights, especially good for tunnels and dusk time.
The two seats in the back of the twintop Vauxhall Astra are actually pretty puny. I've seen reviews saying they're ok, but I suppose ok compared to other convertibles where they're really just for babies and amputees. The ones in mine you could just about get in, but not comfortably for any length of time. Fine for medium journeys I suppose. Plus it's a lot of fun being in an open top, so that can help distract from discomfort.
Manoeuvring and parking is a bit tricky as it goes, especially with the roof up as the visibility is quite bad. Also the sport button doesn't really do all that much. It makes a difference but not the 'whole different car' thing you get on some cars with sport buttons. I hardly really bought it for that thought, just wanted a cheap open top and it's been a worthwhile buy for that.
Bought my Astra Life on 1st July last year from a dealer in Wigan (who shall remain nameless in case of legal issues). To cut a too long story short, it appeared ok on test drive on urban roads, but on the motorway it couldn't cope - timing chain stretched, apparently. Second fault, instantly apparent once the timing chain was done, was a severely worn turbo (and a blown back box, according to the dealer). Smoked and leaked oil throughout my ownership. Took me 10 long months to recover my money from the dealer (via moneyclaimonline small claims procedure).
This Vauxhall Astra Life purports to deliver more power (by 10BHP) and better economy than its predecessor (I also owned a 2000 model 1.7dti), but in practice it appears they've tried to do too much with too small an engine - my fleet owned example had been thrashed to death in 3 years, and has now spent 2 years off the road while everyone shies away from paying for repairs.
It's a Fiat engine apparently, and I'm reliably informed not a very good one.
For any middle-of-the-range car, it's hard to stand out. You're left with some kit, some performance and some fun - but little else. Sure, you get what you pay for, but the Astra SXi just doesn't seem to have enough.
115bhp just isn't enough, the kit available just isn't good enough and the interior quality just isn't enough. The running costs are respectable, as I usually hit 40mpg+, and the reliability is half decent, but the main thing that stands out is how boring it is.
I'll never buy an Astra again just because cars like the Honda Civic and Ford Focus are considerably more exciting and family-freindly.
It's not a bad car, it's just let down by a lot of bad decisions from Vauxhall.
Long story short I was in a big hurry to buy a car, and it was raining when I got it, so basically it was a bad decision. At first I thought I'd get used to it, but how wrong I was! This car is just awful from start to finish.
Try to get into the car without banging your head. Please. I challenge you. Unless you are a midget you will. The car looks to be of normal dimensions, but has such a ridiculous layout inside that you have to buckle over before you can sit inside the seats. Which brings me on to the seats... They are just abysmal. My hips are a bit dodgy in fairness, but I really can't imagine this does the world of good to anyone's hips. Somehow the seats concentrate all of your weight on to your hip joints, like you're balancing on a slightly padded washing line. ARGHH!
It gets worse from there. Once you're sat in the driving seat, you really can't see anything at all. The pillars between the doors and the windscreen are HUGE, and they really obstruct almost all sign of pedestrians, lampposts, cyclists, that sort of useful thing. Then when you pull up to some lights, you can't even see them because the windscreen ends long before your line of sight up to the lights. As if all that wasn't bad enough, the centre mirror is ENORMOUS and placed RIGHT in your way if you want to see anywhere but dead ahead. Which is what you or some pedestrians might end up unless you drive slowly enough to be constantly poking your head around all these daft obstacles to get a decent view of what you're doing.
Let's see, what else... well to be fair the car seems well built (too well built!), and it was generally fairly reliable to me - although I'd had older Astras before which really showed their age after about 8 years. It performs sort of averagely, as you'd expect for a fairly cheapish car. I marked down the handling because the steering wheel just never made sense to me positioned in relation to the seats. And the clutch! I almost forgot about that horrible clutch! Again it might have been down to the seats being in such a stupid place that you were pretty much lifting your entire leg up and down in the most uncomfortable way, but even without that I think the clutch would have been difficult.
I've said enough. Please avoid this car, and make Vauxhall think twice about releasing such a lemon in future.
I bought this car as a sensible option - it's a family car and it does something like 58mpg, which considering its size is pretty impressive. However when it turned out that I wasn't going to need such a big car (for various reasons) I found myself stuck with a motor which is big, safe, reliable, efficient, but very, very boring.
The main thing which makes this gentle giant such a dull and joyless drive is the lag experienced every time you change gear. This might not sound like a big deal but, for me, it really took the fun out of motorways. It pulls away like a tortoise. Slow and steady might win the race eventually but personally I like driving fast.
It has never given me any problems at all, actually, but personally I don't mind the occasional trip to the mechanic. Don't get me wrong, it's a perfect car for a family and it's environmentally friendly and all this. But it's too slow, featureless and dull for a young single guy who likes driving.