Vauxhall Astra CDTI Range Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Vauxhall Astra CDTi range
Prices: £18,015-£23,695 – on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 6-12 [est]
Emissions: 124-154g/km
Performance: [2.0 CDTi] max speed 134mph / 0-60mph 8.5s
Fuel Consumption: [2.0 CDTi] 44.1mpg (urban), 68.9mpg (extra urban), 57.6mpg (combined)
Safety: Six airbags, seatbelt pre-tensioners, ABS brakes, ESP.
Dimensions: length/width/heightmm 4419/1814/1510

ASTRA ON SONG

Our Rating: 7.7 / 10

Can Vauxhall’s latest Astra steal a march on its rivals in CDTi diesel guise? Steve Walker reports

The Vauxhall Astra is a fine example of the modern family hatch and its running costs are at their most affordable in the CDTi diesel models. The car rides and handles with genuine composure and the engines churn out a smooth flow of power once they’re on song. A vibrant and solidly built cabin adds to the Astra experience and there’s enough space to tick most of the practicality boxes.

Some cars have more to live up to than others and the Vauxhall Astra is one that’s saddled with particularly high expectations. The sixth generation model in Vauxhall’s Astra line has been designed to push on from where the fifth left off. That means competing at the very top of the family hatchback class, preferably administering a sound thrashing to the mighty Ford Focus in the process. If the full scale of this ambition is to be realised and the Astra is to sweep all before it in the hatchback arena, it will need to be very good indeed and so will its diesel engines.

Diesel is very much where it’s at for cars like the Astra at the moment. The low cost, long distance potential of oil-burning cars makes them a perfect fit with the mile-munching fleet and business users that account for the lion’s chunk of sales in this market. It’s not a bad shout for private buyers either. The Astra has nothing particularly groundbreaking in its engine-bay to excite diesel aficionados because its oil-burning engines have been seen before in the previous generation Astra. All are solid units, however, and the Astra’s designers are banking on other aspects of the car’s make-up to move the game forward.

Diesel Astras come with advanced common-rail fuel injection engines featuring variable geometry turbocharging, exhaust gas recirculation and all that jazz. The 1.7-litre engine comes in 109 and 123bhp forms, while the big hitting 2.0-litre unit has 158bhp to play with. There’s plenty of torque on tap in all cases, the 109bhp unit producing 260Nm at 1,800rpm and the 2.0-litre chipping in with an excellent 350Nm from 1,750rpm.

None of the engines are particularly smooth-sounding but the volume is well muted in the Astra. The 1.7-litre units do take a second to respond if you catch them at low revs before the turbo has stirred itself. Once up and running they produce a smooth flow of power. Straight line performance is strong: the 2.0-litre engine can reach 60mph in 8.5s while the 1.7 109bhp takes a reasonable 11.8s to do the same.

Vauxhall is putting its faith in a bit of engineering ingenuity to gain an advantage on the road. In the past, the Astra has used a basic but space efficient torsen beam rear suspension while family hatch rivals have used a smarter multi-link system and walked off with the ride and handling gongs. With this Astra, Vauxhall has developed the patented Compound-Crank rear axle with a Watt’s linkage that, it claims, can match the dynamic attributes of multi-link while retaining the compactness of the crude torsen beam. Does it work?

Put the Astra through its paces on the road and it’s hard not to come away impressed. The ride and body control are assured and tight respectively as the car flows over the surface feeling well planted through bends. The steering is something of a let down by comparison and could be more precise but a slick gearshift and well-judged pedal weights go in the plus column. Generally, the Astra is a highly polished drive.

With five doors, the Astra isn’t what you would call dramatic to look at but it’s easy to appreciate its sharp, sculptural lines and they tend to grown on you as you take in the bodywork’s nuances. Crisp, gently curving lines run across the flat surfaces and those familiar with the MkV Astra will notice the roofline dropping away at the rear along with the more muscular shoulders. The rear light clusters are a particularly neat touch with their chevron motifs.

Vauxhall wanted the Astra to feel special from the driver’s seat and by family hatchback standards, it does. Switchgear lifted from the larger Insignia is very