Anyone got one of the new Vauxhall Astras?

[Matt UK]

I need a new car for commuter duties.

Never liked Vauxhalls following the wife's awful company car that left us stranded more than once and also tried to kill me.

But always willing to have a look at things again if there is a reason to.

Vauxhall got their act together with this car?

[boredofmyoldname]

Spent a few days in a 1.4 Turbo Sri. Was reasonably impressed by it, wasn't that quick but is geared so looooong that 100 is 3000rpm in top gear and you can get it to an indicated 100 in third if you wanted to.

Had plenty of toys, returned 40mpg ish over lots of motorway driving and felt like a much bigger car than any previous astra. Plenty of grip so it is a nice safe car to cover ground quickly in but don't expect miracles in the steering feel department.

[HellDiver]

Well, the Mk6 is worse than the Mk5 for electrical gremlins, has even worse handling, and the same miserable engines.

GM still have the "let the customer do the testing" attitude, and it shows on the Astra. Most of the dealers are inept and uninterested, too.

[J500ANT]

HellDiver said:

Well, the Mk6 is worse than the Mk5 for electrical gremlins, has even worse handling, and the same miserable engines.

GM still have the "let the customer do the testing" attitude, and it shows on the Astra. Most of the dealers are inept and uninterested, too.

Had one for a couple of months. Elite 2.0 cdti auto. Had problems with the climate control from day 1 that no-one knew how to resolve. Then had problems with the brake light switch, hence you'll see lots of Astra's with flickering brake lights - not the "i've thrown the anchors out and the lights flash to warn others" but a random flicker that on the auto I felt through the gear lever. Oh, and a misfire at about 2000rpm, very jerky progress.

I was very lucky that my car was through Motability, I wrote to them and they allowed me to hand it back and order something different. I don't know where it is now, the reg number is gone from the DVLA road tax thing.

The "customer testing" bit is 100% spot on, but i'm not sure about the handling, I thought it was really rather good, but the 2.0 diesel engine is like a bag of spanners.