Vauxhall Astra 1.6 SE

Friday 06 November 2009

Report by Graham Whyte

In launching the all-new Astra, Vauxhall is keen to emphasise its family resemblance to the Insignia. Without quite saying "Ooh, isn't he like his father", the company is nonetheless quick to point out the shared DNA.

'Astra makes ingenious use of many of the design features found in the Insignia', enthuses the press briefing, adding: 'but in a fresh and innovative way', for which read 'but it's smaller'.

I wouldn't disagree with the premise that the new Astra has many of the (fine) qualities of the Insignia. In fact, after just 10 minutes at the wheel of the test car, I dubbed it the Insignia Lite. For sure, the new car has come a long way from the Astras seen in re-runs of Prime Suspect: the jam-sandwiches with no hub caps upholding law and order with the help of an ageing 1.7 Isuzu diesel engine.

Indeed, so advanced is the new Astra in terms of appearance, trim and technology, that it hardly seems an Astra. Indeed Vauxhall goes so far as to claim that its new C-segment offering has '....all the style and quality of a premium product, such as an Audi A3, but at a far more affordable price point.'

For sure, the lead-in model is stickered at a modest £15,675, but the range-topper is a much more Audi-like £23,695. The test car, with a few trimmings, tipped the scales at £21,290, which would give you change out of a 1.6 Turbo SRi Insignia. But even without the extras, the 1.6 Astra SE, as tested, would still set you back £18,850.

And for that money, you get a fairly basic engine. Developing 115 PS and a peak torque of 155 Nm, the 1.6-litre GM engine will reach 60 mph in a fairly modest 10.9 seconds. And as Vauxhall is one of the few remaining companies to quote 0-60 times, rather than 0-62 (100 kph), several hundred milliseconds need to be added to 10.9 seconds if you properly want to compare the Vauxhall with its rivals.

But where the Vauxhall does appear to compare favourably is in its fuel consumption. According to the 'official' EU tests, the 1.6 Astra achieves a combined figure of 44.8 mpg, which is better than a 1.6 Focus, and much better than a 1.6 Golf. However - and this is a sizeable 'however' - according to the on-board computer, the average fuel consumption of the test car since new was 32.8 mpg. The car had less than 1,000 miles on the clock when it was delivered to me, so it's not as if it could have been mercilessly thrashed for weeks on end. Therefore 32.8 mpg seems to me like a real-world average, which just goes to show how unrealistic are the so-called 'official' figures.

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