This is the new 2011 Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer, the estate version of the new Astra hatch. We won’t see the car officially until June 2010, but our spies have papped it near GM Europe’s German development base.
You can clearly see a slicker style in these spy shots: the roof is more raked, the tailgate less perpendicular than today’s Astra estate.
In fact, it’s very much the Astra’s turn to take on the style of the Insignia Sports Tourer, which eschewed the blockiness of the old Vectra estate for a much more ‘lifestyle estate’ design. Boxiness is so last decade.
When can I buy the new Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer?
Not until spring 2011. The Astra wagon will be shown in June 2010, with a Paris motor show debut in autumn 2010.
The only plant building the outgoing Astra estate was Ellesmere Port in the UK and the north-west factory is expected to be the sole producer of the new one too.
It’s a new Vauxhall. Can we expect lashings of practical touches?
Sadly not. While Vauxhall is fast building a reputation for novel packaging solutions with its MPVs such as the Zafira and Meriva, not to mention pop-out bicycle carriers, the Astra estate will stick with an old-school conventional boot.
There is, however, a bigger rear passenger compartment, claim insiders. We’ll know for sure when we drive the new 2011 Astra estate in summer 2010.