USED Vauxhall Astra Estate (04 - 12)

My car

I purchased a 2008 / 57 registration 1.8 Club automatic with 11k miles on the clock for my wife's business early in 2010 to complement an 08 plate Vectra Estate. So far, we have been extremely pleased with this GM product.

Whilst the combination of the 140 PS 1.8VVT engine and a traditional 4 speed auto box may seem slightly dated, the car performs extremely well with a good quality gearchange, willing engine [when revved], a very capable chassis and a decent load capacity [though nothing like as easy as the Vectra Estate to use]

The car is averaging circa 37 mpg on a mixture of easy A roads, town commuting and long distance motorway work. Zero problems to report so far at 23k miles ... and the 20k service [with fully synthetic oil] was cheap.

Not the most exciting car visually - but OK in metallic silver and, at under £7k to purchase at 18 month's old, is proving to be a fantastic value workhorse for the business!

My car

We bought the 2008 150 bhp diesel astra estate. My previous two cars were focus 2005 - Ghia & 2007 Titanium - 1.8 tdci and 2.0 tdci.The astra is the quickest to drive than both of the above. Astra is alot more fun and handles like its 'on rails'.Steering is much better than the focus. Due to owning two large dogs the boot is ample and been a caravanner too it does not struggle towing. The focus towed well but the astra does alot better and does not struggle in 1st & 2nd with the caravan as both of the focus did. Alot of people complain re; the noise of the diesel but I like it - sounds like a real diesel and not like a petrol you have to rev at the lights when setting off to make sure it hasn't stalled.After all I own a diesel - so I want it to sound like one too.Both Fords were noisey.This estate is far better for space in the boot and rear footwells than all the estates we test drove including V50's, Passat, Focus estate and Saab 9-3. Neither one was as fun to drive either. We are very pleased with our Astra.

My car

I had this car for just over the year. I am generally happy about the car except a couple of bits:-

I have the auto version of this car and although it is rated at 140 Bhp it never feels like that much. In fact unless you constantly drive it in Sport mode it is quite a slow car. And I suspect nowhere near the 10.9 seconds 0-60 the book suggests you can achieve.

The book very advises that you can achieve an average consumption of some 36mpg. This is somewhat ambitious. I am averaging around 28mpg and in town this drops even lower. Coupled to fuel now at 107.9 pence per litre this is not a very economical car.

Its an auto so it eats tyres, I’ve done 17k miles and about to get a new set of tyres. Mainly caused by it increscent need to wheel spin every time you push the loud peddle ever so slightly harder than a fly.

It's not all doom and gloom. I'm one of those people that on a perfectly descent day in the summer, will be causing a huge tail back on a 'A' road cause I’ve got my caravan in tow. Now this is where the 140bhp is suddenly realised. It tows brilliantly. Because its an auto box you get all the torque early on, just when you need it, and it take all the effort out of towing because the car changes its own gears and on time too. Sport mode is a must then except for motorways and the car seems to realise its pulling more weight. Even the economy isn’t that bad on tow achieving mid 20's mpg, helped by the 60mph rule on motorways.

My car

Further to my review of the 27/2/07 and reading subsequent reviews, I have now done 40,000 miles from new and have not changed my opinion of the car. Perhaps the 1.6 is too small for 'Easytronic' as the performance is flat unless using the 'sport' button when it does improve but the engine loudly screams through the gears. Design wise it has a lot of shortcomings for such a modern car from such a large company. I can only think that some other reviewers must have had some pretty poor cars to rate this one so highly. My experience only reinforces my opinion of just how good my three company Rover 45's were over a nine-year period. This much-maligned make was totally under-rated and were better than the Astra in almost every department, comfort, performance, handling and detail design. OK, perhaps some of this was down to the Honda heritage which makes me think maybe I should be looking at Honda for my next car, definately not Vauxhall.