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4
Handling
Performance
Usability
Feelgood factor
Readers' rating
3
By Ben Barry
First Drives
29 March 2011 11:30
This is the Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer, the big-booted version of the Griffin's family hatch. It's the second Astra model (joining the five-door hatch) while there's also a three-door GTC on the way later in 2011. Read on for CAR's first drive review of the new Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer.
It’s not often that Vauxhall gets to do much more product development than unstick an Opel or Holden badge and tack on a griffin, so the UK team are understandably proud of the Astra Sports Tourer – the estate was designed by Brit Mark Adams, translated entirely from virtual to reality at the firm’s engineering HQ in Millbrook, near Bedford, and will be built at Ellesmere Port.
The long front doors, tapering glasshouse and rakish C-pillar lend a coupe sleekness, and it’s all without any impact on practicality. Adams explains that the curvy glass combines with little steps in the metalwork above it to trick your eye into thinking the roof is lower than it is. The wraparound rear window is a trompe l’oeil too – your mind takes the end of the C-pillar to be the end of the car, whereas the stowage space actually ends a couple of inches further back. The result is a car that looks as sleek as an Audi A4 estate, but carries more than both it and the boxy-but-good old Astra.
It works well in practice. The rear sill is low, and the sides of the boot are neatly tailored to create a broad space without intrusion from the rear wheel arches. The split-folding rear seats fling forward like Punch clobbering Judy, and you trigger them with either a press of a button at the back of the loadbay, or a click of a latch on the upper outside edges of the rear seats. No fiddly fumbling. There are handy cubby holes either side of the boot, plus the floor looks purposely designed to smuggle contraband through customs – lift up the carpet and there’s another two inches of space going begging. There are even two grab handles to pull the tailgate back down – left-handers rejoice.
We drive the 1.7 CDTI first. The seats are comfy, the north-east/north-west forward visibility poor (blame those antennae-like A-pillars), the infotainment system not as intuitive as rivals. The steering feels very light, but it’s accurate and progressively weighted, and nicely isolated from distortion and kickback. There’s an abudance of traction and grip, plus the ride is generally good and the body well controlled, but on this car’s 18s it nibbles too much at little crags and ripples – 17s proved significantly better. Sadly, though, this engine is off the pace. It could be quieter, it could be smoother and, most of all, it could be pokier – it just never gets into that juicy turbodiesel sweet spot.
No, the Sports Tourer gels much better as the 1.4-litre SRI. The four-cylinder turbo is still a bit flat down low, but it’s smoother and quieter than the diesel, and it’s more enjoyable to work through the rev range too. Like the 1.7 CTDI, this SRI wears 18-inch rims, but its ride better smothers those secondary imperfections, despite the sportier suffix. Going for the enthusiast driver's specification doesn't unduly punish your passengers.
The SRI is a good all-round car, one that’d go the distance with the Golf and take it down to a judges’ decision, but with the Focus Estate on the horizon we'd wait try the Ford before you buy.
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Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer 1.4T (2011) CAR review
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DJames says
RE: Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer 1.4T (2011) CAR review
I drove a 2.0 turbodiesel Sports Tourer on holiday and liked it. It was powerful and handled well, comfy and quiet too, and it looked good which the last Astra certainly didn't do. It would compare well with the obvious Golf and Focus rivals if only Vauxhall hadn't priced it so high that it's up against the Mondeo and Passat instead.
13 August 2011 19:33
gchaddock says
I purchased a new Vauxhall Astra Sports tourer on 29/04/11, what a mistake, don’t get me wrong its a fantastic car in all aspects except for the ELECTRONIC PARKING BRAKE. One feature of this electronic parking brake is its drive away system as this is meant to disengage the brake automatically. Some days this does what it says on the tin and works, other days you have to rock the car backwards and forwards with engine to get the brake to disengage, not much fun when you are parked against someone else’s car. This is not the brake sticking on, as on the dash parking brake light just will not go off. I don’t expect the clutch will last long doing this. If that’s not enough the electronic parking brake decides some days to release its self while the engine is on and in neutral. It has released at traffic lights while parked and in neutral. The first time I blamed myself, I thought it must have been me not pulling the switch correctly. I was so wrong, I started to check the lights on the dash this said I was parked before removing my foot from the brake, and then it happened again. The car was in neutral my feet were nowhere near the peddles and it just released. I started to investigate what was happening. This parking brake has good days and bad days, on a bad day you can just touch the accelerator while the engine is running and gears in neutral and the brake will disengage. On a good day this does not happen you can rev the engine with no problems. I have returned my car to the dealer on a several occasions and they have checked the car and told me it is a characteristic of the car. This saying of being a characteristic car I have told so many times from Vauxhall. The dealer suggest that I release the brake manually when it won’t release. This is great fun trying to balance the clutch and accelerator and pressing the foot brake at the same time to allow the electronic parking brake to be released by the button. This would be fine if everywhere was flat or you have three feet so you could just release the brake and the pull off. But it does defeat the idea of a drive away system. On another occasion when the brake releasing its self, the dealer checked the car for faults, no faults stored were in the ECU, but the car would release the brake at random. They contacted Vauxhall with these concerns to be told it’s, guess what, a characteristic of the car. Why do they build in a safety so that you cannot release the parking brake without put your foot on the brake first, but if you touch the accelerator the brake releases some times when in neutral. Do Vauxhall not realise that the ECU will not tell them there is a fault if it has not been programmed with the fault to find. I have reported this fault to VOSA and hope they have more joy at sorting this out, before someone gets hurt. If anyone else is been fobbed off by Vauxhall with the excuse that it’s a characteristic of the car I would recommend contacting VOSA. VSB@vosa.gov.uk or Telephone 01179543300 I now leave the car parked in gear and have to balance the clutch if in stationary traffic on any incline as the electronic parking brake cannot be trusted to do what it is supposed to do.
30 June 2011 13:25
livc44411 says
Right,lets get this one out the way first: ''The result is a car that looks as sleek as an Audi A4 estate'' Hey?? Since when has the A4 ever looked sleek lol????? An Alfa 159 estate is sweet and sleek,damn even a Mondeo estate looks a million times better than the A4 lol!
30 March 2011 10:20
Archibold says
Looks to have only one reversing light and dark glass, if it is anything like the Golf estate I drive it will be hell to reverse at night, I really miss my 2000 Passat estate with its glassy and upright rear which was easy to park without such thing as buzzers and reversing cameras, what are cars for to look stylish in or to drive? Reasonable review but have got to the point where I am past caring if people think I look stylish when riding around in an estate car, I want to get from A to B with the least possible hassle, that includes reversing the bloody thing into a space when I get there, and looking left and right when at junctions (have had a Zafira and will not have another car with those useless front quaterlights).
29 March 2011 17:16
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