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It is impossible to tell if the car of your dreams is all it promises to be
without having driven it over a long period.
Often, there are others who have done so and are prepared to offer their own,
honest, opinions.
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Quality is a right. Not a privilege
Dynamic, stylish, assured, New Astra reflects Vauxhall's determination to
make the highest standards of quality, safety and comfort available to the
widest possible audience. Intelligently designed down to the last detail,
this stunning new range of hatch and estate models combines superb ride,
handling and performance with outstanding fuel efficiency. New Astra is full
of thoughtful features. And wraps them up in a striking, fully galvanised
body.
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Well, ignoring the fact that, "Quality is a right. Not a privilege", is
atrocious grammar, and new is an adjective that's somewhat dated, one
year on, that's what Vauxhall say about the new, 1998, Astra.
From reading the brochure it would certainly appear that Vauxhall have indeed
taken a long hard look at the car they need to have designed to carry them into
the next millennium.Attention seems to have been paid to both what the customer wants and what the
car needs to offer when pitted against the competition. But does reality compare with the marketing hype ?
I am the proud owner of a New Astra, a company car, for better or for
worse. This is a 1600cc, 16 valve, five door hatch, CD model with adjustable
steering column, electric front windows, electric mirrors, air conditioning
plus sunroof ( an extra cost option ) and a single disc CD player ( a no cost
option ). I've been driving Vauxhall Cavaliers ( 1985/86 models ) for nearly ten years
and I still think it's one of the best cars on the roads today.
So how does the New Astra measure up ? Read on ...
| Styling and design |
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Overall the styling is good although I'm personally not convinced about
the large area of body panel where the rear quarter-light should be.
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The positioning of the exhaust sound baffle or catalytic converter,
whatever it is, is too visible, especially with its extremely poor finish
which seriously detracts from the vehicle's overall appearance from the rear.
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The headlights are well designed to fit in with the body styling but give
appalling illumination except on high-beam where it's superb; this seems
to be a common problem on all cars with these slit-style headlamps.
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Front fog lights are unfortunately only standard on the Sports model and are
not available, even as an extra cost option, on any other models. A very
misguided decision even though most drivers don't seem to know how to turn
them off when they are fitted on other vehicles.
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The combination of poor dip-beam illumination and the lack of front fog lights
makes the Astra a nightmare to drive up country lanes in fog when visibility
has dropped to twenty feet or so. Something you only discover when you start to
realise you are ankle-deep in fear. It's not that good on dark country roads
with a poorly defined road edge at the best of times. | |
The rear light clusters look particularly strange, being almost totally
see-through. The brake lights are, under the circumstances, almost
blinding at night and I'd hate to be the poor bugger stuck behind a New
Astra with an idiot who keeps his foot on the brake peddle at traffic
lights. | |
The rear light clusters contain twin fog lamps and twin reversing lamps. | |
I haven't checked how bright the fog lights are at night but, given the
light output levels from the brake lights alone, I would imagine that a New
Astra driver with them left on, when it's not foggy, would soon notice many
drivers flashing their full beams when being overtaken or travelling behind.
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The rear windscreen seems fairly large from outside and although it appears
quite small in the rear view mirror there is still a good deal of
visibility provided. The embedded centre braking light is well positioned
and almost completely unnoticable in the rear view mirror. | |
There is a rear wiper fitted that is well positioned and does not obscure
visibility when in its parked position. | |
There are two front wipers fitted which are, in my opinion, infinitely better
than the single wipers appearing elsewhere as manufacturers cut costs.
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The wing mirror housings are made from some form of plastic which ( in
silver anyway ) are loathe to come clean and it is extremely difficult
to remove the residue of splattered, dead things without an awful lot of
elbow grease. | |
The rear seats are designed for a 60/40 split with a separate fold-down
centre section which also encompasses a rear arm rest. | |
Unfortunately the design of the arm rest means that as soon as a fat
b-----d climbs in the car and flattens it under their fat a--e;
it never sits comfortably again. | |
The interior, although mainly plastic and cloth, is generally acceptable and
comparable to what is offered by competitors in the same price range.
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The interior door furnishings are made from a fairly smooth plastic that
doesn't hide scratches very well; the door opening levers being forward of
the main door handles / arm rests means that they become excessively scratched
by wrist watches and rapidly becomes extremely tatty looking which knocks a
few thousand off its value in a matter of days. | |
The fascia is pretty bland although there are few reflections off the front
windscreen ( Fiat Brava and Bravo drivers take note ).
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The passenger side of the fascia is extremely poor aesthetically where the
passenger's airbag would be fitted. For a vehicle without a passenger
airbag; a flat shelf of some sort would have been a godsend. | |
The centre console is finished in a fake walnut trim which at first glance
looks atrocious; but you get used to it. It is also reasonable when the
option of black plastic is compared to what is provided. | |
The centre console incorporates a small storage slot where an optional CD or
cassette rack may be installed. Without this slot there would be nowhere
easily convenient to place glass cases or sun-glasses. | |
This storage slot is fitted with a rubber mat that, in mine at least, just
doesn't fit properly. It is too wide, won't secure to its mounting point
and rucks up looking unsightly. A bit of double-sided carpet tape may
solve the problem in a DIY fashion. | |
The cigarette lighter and ashtray are situated at the base of the console and
is pleasantly convenient to use no matter what position the gear stick is in.
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Access to the vehicle is by a key the size of a cigarette packet ( I exaggerate
but only just ) with two buttons; open and close. A double push on the close
button activates the deadlocks. A single button key which automatically
activated the deadlocks would be preferable. | |
The petrol cap ( on the driver's side ) is unlocked whenever the car is and
there is no fiddly, in-car lever to pull to open it. | |
The petrol cap does, however, have a really annoying locking spigot on it that
makes it bloody uncomfortable whilst filling up with petrol. This could have
been much better designed. Ensuring that the petrol cap is closed is also a
pain as this spigot sometimes does not properly engage when the car is locked
after closing the cap. | |
Although the boot space seems quite large in practice it is absolutely massive
for a small hatchback. There is plenty of room to carry a full frame tent,
sleeping bags, duvets, pillows and garden chairs and still put the rear parcel
shelf down. |
| Comfort and safety |
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There is a reasonable amount of room inside although the rear is a little
cramped with three adults. | |
The obligatory rear seat belts are fitted and the centre rear seatbelt is of
a three point construction; a massive improvement over the lap belt
designed to separate your legs from torso in a severe impact.
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The front head rests are properly adjustable and can be moved to
a position that doesn't have the base of one's skull aligned with the top of
the head rest ( which is pointless in terms of safety ) and although they
initially feel quite wobbly are quite sturdy. | |
There are three rear head-rests which do not particularly obscure the rear
windscreen view; the centre head-rest is of a clever design that pulls down
when not required further enhancing the view. | |
Visibility to the front, sides and over the shoulder are equally good.
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The heating and air condition controls are easily accessible and easily
adjustable. | |
The air conditioning ( really just mega-cooling ) works brilliantly and if
you wish to play sim-fridge whilst driving around in the middle of
summer; it's ideal. | |
The heating is excellent and complements the cooling system by making
sim-sahara available at the turn of a dial. Unfortunately the venting
system doesn't allow fresh air to also be drawn in at the same time
so it's impossible to create a warm and fresh environment without opening a
window or the sunroof. | |
The heating and cooling systems are just that; it would have been much better
to provide a proper air-conditioning system which could maintain a paricular
temperature setting. Whilst it's possible to obtain extremes of heating and
cooling, it can be almost impossible to set a comfortable, normal temperature
without considerable, continual tweaking of the controls. | |
The fast de-mist option ( using the cooling system ) is absolutely wonderful
and does indeed work. | |
The fitted sunroof is manually controlled only. It is also the major cause
of wind noise in-car which is not reduced even when the blind is closed.
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The radio offers superb reception and, generally, doesn't go off on a wild
channel hunt when reception becomes less than perfect. | |
Configuring the radio for use is a bit of a nightmare requiring an incredibly
complex sequence of buttons to be pushed and having the manual to hand is a
necessity. Attempting to switch between RDS and non-RDS reception is confusing and getting
back to the pre-programmed stations can, operationally, be extremely difficult
whilst on the road. Pressing the AS, Auto-Search, button can appear to wipe-out
pre-programmed settings which are difficult to return to. | |
The maximum volume level is a little low especially when driven at speed and
listening to CD's although the automatic speed controlled volume adjustment is
very useful but difficult to set optimally. | |
The front / rear speaker balance control also needs to be set properly or an
annoying resonance occurs which can't be easily pin-pointed. Suffice to
say that, with the balance set wrongly, listening to CD's can be a fairly tiring
experience. It also takes a fairly long time and a lot of experimentation to
discover what is causing the problem of aural fatigue.
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The rear speakers are mounted in the door handles in front of the rear
passengers which, although allowing for a much larger parcel shelf and load
area when it's removed, delivers pretty atrocious sound quality for rear
passengers. | |
The passenger glove compartment is of a two tier design with a reasonably
large capacity and is easily accessible by the driver; the opening handle
being close to the driver's side. |
| Driver's Controls |
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The front seats feel extremely stiff and unforgiving at first but, like those
of the Nissan Almera, are extremely comfortable after a little use and are
almost perfect for long distance driving. | |
Even so, lumbar adjustment is unfortunately only available on the Sport model.
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The drivers seat is height adjustable using a lever that is pumped up and down
to raise and lower the seat; this works very well and is a great improvement
over the spindle-with-handle sticking out from under the seat.
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The steering column is fully adjustable for tilt and reach although the
adjustment lock is a little difficult to use and changing the reach involves
more force than one would expect. | |
The indicator stalk is on the left of the steering wheel and is a pull for
flash and push for full beam unit; much more preferable to the
pull for flash and pull more to toggle full beam units.
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The horn is operated by two buttons at the nine and three o'clock positions on
the steering column; the old, massive, centre of column operated horn, from
the days of mid-1980's Cavaliers, is still missing due to the inclusion of
the driver's airbag which is a shame because Nissan have still managed to
retain one. | |
The horn is almost impossible to operate when the steering wheel is not in
the straight ahead position; like when some b-----d pulls out in front of you
when you're steering round a roundabout which is when you need it most.
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The clutch, brake and accelerator pedals are excellently positioned and,
whether intended or not, a small wedge of body intrusion, to the rear of the
clutch, makes a perfect left foot support whilst cruising. The centre
console is fairly tight to the driver's left leg although this is not a
problem once one gets used to it. | |
The handbrake is easily accessible and operates smoothly. | |
The door mirrors are excellently designed with good visibility. The wide angle
portion of the driver's mirror is superbly designed and the remainder is
virtually flat introducing little distance misperception. | |
The electronic mirror and window controls are well situated for ease of use
and are unlikely to be touched accidentally. | |
The electric window motor controls are perfectly balanced allowing full and
partial opening without having to repeatedly push the up or down buttons
to set the opening as required. | |
Remote audio controls are mounted on the base of the inner ring of the steering
column; these are worse than useless if the steering column is not set for
straight ahead and pointless given the ease by which the audio equipment can
be reached. A separate steering column stalk would be much more preferable.
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A multi-function display is used to show the time, outside temperature and
audio functions; this is conveniently situated and clear although the displays
themselves could be presented better. The display sometimes fails to function correctly, showing only the time and
not the radio settings, however, these rare occurances can be overcome by
turning the radio, or car, off and then on again. | |
The lack of an inside temperature display is to be much lamented.
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All other indicators are part of the instrument cluster behind the steering
column; this is very readable and well laid out. | |
Luckily only the Sports model has, so-called high-visibility, white faced
dials; it would be nice if not having these on the Sport were an option.
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The brightness setting for the instrument panel is controlled by a small
knob but it would be nice if the instruments ( not necessarily the main
beam ) illuminated when entering tunnels and so on. | |
The speedometer, rev counter and other dials are well proportioned and the
speedometer has 30mph clearly marked. | |
The fuel gauge is calibrated in litres although, from delivery, it has been
completely inaccurate; reading empty with 10 litres of fuel still in the tank.
This was assessed as a fault in the sender unit, rectified at its 10,000 mile
service, however the inaccuracy still persists; Vauxhall's fuel gauges were
extremely accurate on the previous model. | |
The digital odometer is occasionally distracting as it changes and is turned
off when the ignition key is removed making it necessary to push the
Odometer Reset Button to determine the mileage. | |
The service due indicator, apparently set to indicate a service within the next
week or 100 miles, is a good idea but gives too little warning before the event;
it is not uncommon for drivers to cover 100 miles a day and it can take a garage
more than a week to organise a courtesy car. | |
The walnut effect, gearstick knob is actually very good despite first visual
appearances. |
| Performance |
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The engine is relatively quiet throughout the rev range and there is little by
way of transmission noise. | |
There is however an awful lot of tyre and wind noise. | |
There is also, in this vehicle at least, a really annoying little buzzing sound
that resonates around the whole interior when de-accelerating without braking or
coasting with one's foot off the accelerator at around the 3,000 rpm mark.
What the source of this buzzing is has yet to be determined.
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With the revs over 2,500 rpm there is good to excellent acceleration
through all the gears although pushing the speed over 100 mph is quite
an effort without dropping to fourth or even third gear, having a downhill run
and a tailwind or pushing the revs up to the limit before changing up. | |
My initial comments, during the first year of driving, were, "Although it is
possible to touch 110 mph ( not on UK roads though ) I find it
difficult to imagine that the 1600cc engine models will reach the, owner's
manual quoted, top speed of 117 mph without an awful lot of coaxing or a
rear-ending by an Inter City 125". Having got fed up with relatively poor performance I eventually started to
drive the car with the revs almost at their limit ( see below ) and it has
actually been possible to take the car beyond the specified 117 mph
limit ( again, not on UK roads though ) without going over the red line,
however, fuel consumption drops drastically under these circumstances and
it takes an awful lot of effort work to get there. | |
The most difficult thing for me has been adapting from a good, old fashioned
1800cc Vauxhall Cavalier, which I never took over 4,000 rpm ( with a red
line at 7,000 rpm ) to the New Astra which, even with the same red line,
offers the same pull and acceleration up around the 4,000 to 5,000 rpm
mark. This however cannot really be considered a fault as such.
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Fuel consumption seems to be reasonable delivering around 34 miles per
gallon over a forty mile journey to work using a mixed variety of roads. This
is quite close to the 38 mpg combined figure claimed
and the air conditioning must be adding something to the fuel consumption.
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The five speed gear box and the clutch are absolute beauties and the
accelerator is almost perfectly balanced. | |
The Lotus designed chassis, superbly balanced suspension and the
ultra-responsive steering [ I've agreed with Vauxhall's marketing team's
words there ] does offer superb road holding generally although the suspension
does seem to be a little clunky at times and road holding feels a little
vague when hitting a bump whilst cornering and braking.
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The power-assisted steering is perfectly balanced delivering excellent
feedback and control. | |
The performance offered whilst moving is unfortunately not balanced by the
performance when stopping. Although the brakes are reasonable; the stopping
distance is a fair bit more than other vehicles in its class and the
brakes, simply put, do not inspire confidence even though they are, no doubt,
technically quite adequate for their purpose. |
| Servicing |
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The engine looks like it would be impossible to service unless you had a lot
of specialist tools ( and that's just to get into it ), but, when you pay this
much money for a car you don't expect to have to touch the engine.
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The oil filler is clearly visible and very easy to get at if the oil needs to
be topped up. | |
Unfortunately the same can't be said of the front screen-wash tank. This has
a pathetically small filler tube, too close to the wing and requires a funnel
to get the screen-wash in without pouring it all over the car and one's feet.
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It would also appear that Vauxhall's after-care service does not run to coming
round and cleaning the car which means it looks like I'm going to have to do it
myself.
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Conclusion
Vauxhall do seem to have looked long and hard at the vehicle they need to
produce to keep them in the running against their competitors.
This is a medium sized car with high-end features and competes well against,
amongst others, the Peugeot 306, Nissan Almera, Toyota Corolla and the Ford
Escort and even Vauxhall's own Vectra and Tigra offerings.
Vauxhall's claims do not all appear to be marketing hype and, whilst there are
a number of things which I am not personally happy with, all round it is a very
good car indeed. What puts the car ahead of the competition is the superb driving experience
that it offers. The chassis, suspension and power steering all combine to
deliver excellent handling and a smooth drive under most circumstances.
The acceleration is good to excellent for most uses and performance has
not been sacrificed for fuel economy and the New Astra is equally at home on
the urban road as it is on the motorway. The car seems to like running at
fairly high revs, which is a little disconcerting when one is used to much lower
revving vehicles, and does increase the noise levels. The most objective
complaints that I can offer is that braking performance feels far less than
ideal and headlight illumination could certainly be a lot better.
Apart from the personal complaints which I have; the New Astra is a pleasure to
drive almost anywhere with the CD playing and the air conditioning on. Now if
only they provided ABS, cruise control and front foglights as a no cost
option ... And compared to the old Vauxhall Cavalier ?
Well, it's hard to compare the two. The New Astra doesn't deliver vibration
through the steering column at high speeds, it's got a CD player and air
conditioning and the road holding, power steering and chassis make it a much
better car. In terms of performance; a 150,000 mile, ten year old, never serviced, Cavalier
is, I'm afraid to say, a near match for an, off the production line, New Astra.
Fuel consumption on the New Astra is better, but not by a lot, and unleaded
petrol is cheaper, but, overall it's a close call. Especially when a New Astra can cost 14,000 GBP and an old
Cavalier can be picked up for less than a grand. The other 13,000 GBP would
surely keep it on the road for five years even after spending money on having
a CD player and air conditioning fitted.
If it wasn't for the fact that I'm covering 20,000 miles per year in commuting
alone, with the repair cost implications on a car ten years old to do that, and
the removal of four star petrol at the end of 1999; I know which car I'd choose. And the alernatives ?
The advantage of having to travel from Hertfordshire to South Wales regularly, a
few years ago, as part of my job, meant I got to try out a variety of cars.
Most were mediocre, using my frames of reference, but a few stood out; the
Peugeot 306 and the Nissan Almera, the Peugeot 406 and the Nissan Primera even
more so. Nissan have now revamped their Primera for 1999 ( V-reg ) with an astounding
array of gizmos and features whilst retaining all the things which made
Vauxhall's such great cars. Although I got the priviledge of peeking under the 'secret dust-sheet' before its
launch I haven't had a test drive yet but, unless they've sacrificed performance
to ensure low fuel consumption and low emmissions, I think I know what I want
next; a Primera.
And the problems ?
It's well known that you are more likely to get faults on a brand new
car than on a three year old one; after that time all the stupid little things,
and the big, major cock-ups, will have come to light and been fixed, hopefully.
So how has the New Astra performed so far ?
- Well, there's the annoying buzzing that exists around 3,000 rpm which
is getting really, really annoying. This was looked at during its first
10,000 mile service and put down to a loose heater assembly; unfortunately
the problem remains to be cured although the buzzing has become less
apparent recently.
- The fuel gauge is definitely inaccurate; although reading full when it
was full, when showing empty ( well below the red line with the nice,
light-up, low-fuel indicator lit up ) there was some 10 litres left in the
tank. This was meant to have been fixed at the 10,000 mile service, a
faulty sender unit being to blame, however, it still doesn't work well.
- After 2,615 miles the first repair was adjusting the brake light control
switch under the brake pedal to prevent the rear lights from always coming
on whenever the ignition was on. A fairly simple job and covered under
warranty but it still took thirty minutes and is a fault none the less.
- After 4,000 miles the engine oil level was well below what it should have
been and required a top-up. Whilst oil top-ups and changes are a regular
fact of life; this did seem to be a fairly short period in which to lose
quite so much oil. The oil loss over the following 6,000 miles was much more
reasonable and perhaps the original loss could be put down to it being a
new engine.
- After 7,900 miles the electric fan suddenly became awfully noisy. It
sounded like the little counter-balancing weight on the rotary fan had
come lose and was banging against the housing; the same sort of fault which
occurs on Cavaliers after 100,000 miles. Luckily this fault was
fairly short lived and seems to have corrected itself.
- After 12,200 miles the full-beam flash switch or relay developed a tendancy
to freeze on when momentarily flashed; this is a real pain when flashing a
vehicle to indicate that you are giving way to them ( yes, we all know it
doesn't mean that in the Highway Code ) and you end up looking, to them, like
the Bastard Car Driver from Hell with your full-beam locked on. The
embarassment and confusion is bad enough but it is totally distracting, not
to say dangerous, having to check that the full-beam has gone off every time
it is used.
Having booked the car in for its 20,000 mile service, to avoid all the
aggravation of having to wait for, and sort out, hire cars, I was more than
disappointed to find that they couldn't fix the fault there and then ( the
Luton Vauxhall plant is only a few miles up the road ) and another trip to
the garage is now required - Around the 18,000 mile mark the brakes have developed the, rather
disturbing, tendancy to intermittantly pull to one side or the other. Whilst
this has only usually occured at high speed when braking hard; that's the
one time you really don't want to experience such an effect. I suspect that
the brake discs have worn unevenly or the calipers are binding, possibly due
to the enforced use of cadence braking necessary a lot of the time
which is required to overcome the failings of the cars stopping distance.
The fault appeared fixed after the 20,000 mile service, when it was
confirmed that the brakes were binding, however, 2,500 miles later, the
problem seems to be resurfacing. - The front centre console, housing the radio etc, has also started to rattle
when the car is idling, labouring slightly ( before a change down in gears
is made ) or when driving over very uneven road surfaces. This has
undoubtedly worked loose whilst driving over the many speed bumps encountered
on the way to work but it's worrying that in a well built car such a
problem has arisen.
When fixed at the 20,000 mile service; it would have been nice if the dealer
had taken the effort to ensure that the Radio Code was known before handing
the car back with a radio not working. Whilst, as they said, I could go back
and they'd get the code from vauxhall, I don't see why they couldn't have
just done that anyway. - The plastic trim along the bodywork, at the base of the windows, has a
tendancy to work itself loose when the windows are raised and make the
car look a complete mess if they are not pushed down regularly.
- After a bit of off-roading in a muddy field, where I was camping
for a folk music festival, the lower left door speaker almost gave up the
ghost. It sounds like it has either worked loose or the cone has ripped.
I suspect the former as there have been previous instances of strange
noises over the radio ( put down then to poor signal ); the same speed
bumps which have worked the centre console loose are undoubtedly to blame.
- After 22,000 miles, rattles have also started to appear from the glove box
shelf and the sun roof internal slide cover; undoubtedly also due to the
effects of speed bumps. Whilst the car isn't exactly starting to fall to
pieces, it's annoying to have a one year car which sounds like it's over
a decade old.
But, apart from those problems, the car seems, touch wood, to be
remaining fault free.
Why not check out Vauxhall's site and
see what they have to say about the New Astra ?
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