It must be difficult being an executive at Vauxhall or Ford when no matter how good a car you make people still want something German. This crossed my mind quite a few times during my week with the Astra Sports Tourer and I really struggled to work out how they combat this.
Looking back at the 70s and 80s Vauxhall had large and committed following that wasnât just centred around the GTE cars, now VXRs, where people had real desire for the new models and it was a privilege to have one sitting in the drive.
With the Astra Sports Tourer in Sri NAV trim now sitting in my drive I still had a bit of apprehension as to whether I would actually want to go out and use it. Can the more recent styling, technology and build quality really create desire or will Vauxhall have managed to make it a fun car to drive?
Parked up in Deep Sky Blue with tinted rear windows, 17-inch 5 twinspoke alloy wheels and optional LED headlights it actually looks pretty good. Itâs not enough to get you excited but itâs is a small family estate car, not a piece of Italian exotica.
Jump inside and thereâs a good layout with decent, but not great, quality surfaces, a happy looking steering wheel and a nice 5 speed manual gearbox. Between the climate controls and the gear lever there a strange detachable handle like thing with one button and no writing on it. Up until writing this review I still had no idea what it was and only a Google search for some of the less obvious options on the car revealed that itâs a âFragrance Diffuserâ.  It’s not the kind of diffâ that weâre usually looking for on a car and it does seem like a bit of a silly addition.
Get the car our on the road and it actually has a decent turn of pace. I didnât realise at the time that it only has a 1.0l three-cylinder turbo charged engine and had just assumed that SRI would be a 1.6 and hadnât really thought too much about it during the first couple of journeys. 105PS and 170Nm of torque in a reasonable sized car doesnât seem like a lot and when youâre driving around town it never feels that fast, itâs only when you get onto a NSL road that you notice the poke.
Max torque is between 1800-4250rpm but the car does benefit from being pushed higher up the revs. Itâs not a particularly satisfying engine note but it is effective and gives you cross country pace and overtaking ability that you might not expect.
Handling wise itâs as expected from a family car thatâs not designed for being hooned on the limit. Thereâs plenty of roll in the corners when youâre pushing on but the brakes are strong and can more than handle the speed and weight of the car. Itâs amazing how little time it actually takes to get used to the type of car you are driving and adapt your style to suit.
After driving quite a few small SUVs recently the Astra was a refreshing fun experience, even if it doesnât come close to being a hot hatch.
At a base price for this car of ÂŁ20,858 the Astra Sports Tourer is less than a ÂŁ1k cheaper than a BMW 1 Series. Iâve not done a full spec comparison but you can bet that Vauxhall give you more toys for your money and yet people still seem to  have more desire for the BMW.
My advice to Vauxhall would be to go and make another VX220, make more use of cars like the VXR8 (i.e. give us one!) Â and go racing again. Itâs very easy for the accountants to take over and say all these things lose money but it builds desire for the badge and lets you compete on merit rather than price.
CAR: Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer SRi NAV 1.0i 105PS Turbo S/S ecoFLEX
PRICE: ÂŁ20,585 (ÂŁ23,770 as tested)
ENGINE:Â 999cc 3-cylinder
POWER: 105PS
TORQUE: 170 Nm
PERFORMANCE: Top speed 121 mph 0-62mph 11 secs
ECONOMY: 62.8 mpg combined
CO2 EMISSIONS: 103 g/km
TT Rating:
