Vauxhall Astra Twintop Range Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Vauxhall Astra TwinTop range
Prices: £19,690-£24,295 - on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 7-16
Emissions: 159-228g/km
Performance: [1.8] Max Speed 130mph / 0-60mph 10.7s
Fuel Consumption: [1.8] (urban) 28.2mpg / (extra urban) 47.9mpg / (combined) 38.2mpg
Safety: Twin front & side airbags / ABS
Dimensions: Length/width/heightmm 4488/2055/1415mm [est]

TIN TOP TWINTOP

Our Rating: 7.7 / 10

Vauxhall’s Astra TwinTop offers a smart successor to the very successful Bertone-designed Astra Convertible. Andy Enright runs the rule over the design.

I’m not sure whether you’ve seen the film ‘March of the Penguins’ but there’s a scene where a whole bunch of penguins stand on the edge of the pack ice waiting for the first one to jump in. There could be leopard seals or killer whales in there but it’s inevitable that one of the penguins has to be the first to go. Once one plops in, the rest surge in behind. I’m reminded of this scene whenever a press release trumpeting the launch of another ‘coupe convertible’ lands on my desk. Vauxhall were not amongst the first penguins to dive into the drink with their Astra TwinTop, but maybe that’s a good thing.

The history of these cars is actually a lot longer than many realise, most dating it to the launch of the Mercedes SLK in 1996. Whilst the Mercedes was the first folding tin top of the modern era, cars like the Peugeot 401 and 601 Eclipse had the trick sorted back in the Thirties, although it took the Ford Skyliner of the Fifties to really see volume sales. The popularity of such technically complex roof systems died out by the end of the Seventies, as the oil crisis bit and cars became smaller and more efficient. It wasn’t until 1996 that Mercedes revived the genre with the SLK, a car which offered packaging so clever that a bandwagon was instantly formed.

Soon after the SLK was launched came the bigger SL and the Lexus SC430 but it wasn’t until as recently as 2000 that the technology was democratised for less moneyed buyers. The Peugeot 206CC has sold more units than any other folding hard top car and it was this model which really generated an explosion in popularity. Now we have larger family hatchback-based models like the Ford Focus CC, the Renault Megane CC and the Volkswagen Eos all offering affordable price tags and metal roofs that concertina into the boot the moment the sun emerges from behind the old nimbostratus. To this list we can add the Astra TwinTop.

It’s got some great genetics to back it up. The old Astra Convertible may have relied on a relatively low tech fabric roof, but a combination of sleek Bertone styling, a range of surprisingly punchy engines and some very attractive pricing ensured that it was a big seller. It may not have been the sharpest drive but it was blatantly populist and curiously endearing. The Astra TwinTop has moved the game on by offering a folding roof that’s composed of three main sections instead of the usual two piece affair. This means that you don’t need to fold two huge pieces of metal into the car’s rear end, avoiding the strangely mis-shapen looks of some coupe-cabriolets. At the press of a dash-mounted button, the two overhead sections of the roof stack on top of the glass rear window and hinge backwards into the boot, offering the usual benefits of added security and safety of a hard topped car with the wind in the hair feel of a convertible.

What’s more, the Astra TwinTop isn’t merely an Astra hatch that’s had an angle grinder taken to it. The body was designed from the ground up as a convertible and Vauxhall reckon the two cars share at most 30 per cent of body parts. With excellent chassis rigidity when the roof is in place, driving dynamics should approach those of the lauded Astra hatch. Designed at GM Design Europe in Germany, the Astra TwinTop goes into battle against the likes of the Volkswagen Eos and Renault Megane CC although at almost 4500mm in length, it’s usefully bigger than both of these rivals.

The styling is also better resolved thanks in no small part to that clever folding roof arrangement. The rear end carries over the petal-shaped lights of the Tigra and luggage space is better than you might expect, even with the roof stowed. Utility is enhanced by 'Easy Load', a feature raising the horizontally stacked parts of a folded roof at the push of a button, making cargo easily accessible. Great when you’ve got an armful of shopping in other words.

Three pet