Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer Electric long-term test

The car Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer Electric Ultimate | Run by Claire Evans, consumer editor

Why it's here To see if Vauxhall’s family-sized estate is a good alternative to the similar Peugeot e-308 and German estate rivals. 

Needs to Enable me to rack up the miles in comfort, and be as practical and easy to live with as a petrol alternative

Mileage 6708 List price £40,695 Target Price £40,695 Price as tested £41,160 Official range 256 miles Test range 164 miles

18 February 2025 – Too much care and attention? 

I’ve just had my Astra Sports Tourer Electric serviced by my local Vuaxhall dealership and it’s left me with mixed emotions. While I can’t fault the friendliness and helpfulness of the dealership staff, who looked after me well both during the booking in process and the day of the service, I’m left wondering why I’ve had to pay just over £100 for the car to be checked after one year when many other EVs and petrol cars I’ve driven recently have a two-year service intervals. 

There are lots of reassuring things about having had the car serviced: 19 different areas were checked including the brakes, steering, suspension, tyres and the coolant in the fuel cell, which is something I wouldn’t feel confident checking myself. However, I wonder if many of these items would be ok for another 12 months, as they are on many other brands.

During the service a recall item was addressed and a software update done. While I’m pleased about the recall work, the software update could have been done by me at home, at no cost, if the Astra had over-the-air updates. And I’d have been given details of what was upgraded – something that’s added to the feel-good factor of owning other new cars, such as my previous Tesla Model 3, when I can appreciate and enjoy the enhanced features afterwards. 

I asked the service department to look into a couple of issues. The first was conflicting directions from the infotainment screen and dash at roundabouts when I use Google Maps for navigation on my iPhone, and the second was that the keyless entry system was only working sporadically. It was disappointing that neither of these were remedied, especially because the keyless entry has now stopped working completely, so this will need looking at again.

On a positive note, I’ve noticed that Vauxhall has reduced the list price of my car by £4000, which makes it look far more competitive against the £36,095 Peugeot e-308 SW GT – and that car doesn’t come with as much standard kit as my Vauxhall. One thing I appreciate for tricky parking situations is the panoramic camera, which gives you the option of getting a larger image of each side or the back or front of the car on the infotainment screen. This feature is a £1000 option on the Peugeot estate.

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