New Vauxhaul Astra takes to UK roads

By Matt Brogan | December 14th, 2009

The first of Vauxhaul’s new Astra models have been delivered to eager UK customers this weekend following the vehicle’s official retail launch.

UK dealers say they expect a “surge of interest” in the new five-door hatch following an already unprecedented early demand that followed the vehicle’s September unveiling.

The new Astra range includes five petrol and three diesel engines through all five model grades (S, Exclusiv, SRi, SE and Elite), and has a starting price of just £15,675 (AUD$27,950).

All models now come with ESP, six airbags, air conditioning, electric windows, CD tuner (with MP3 format and auxiliary plug-in) and electric/heated door mirrors.

Options include AFL (Adaptive Forward Lighting) and FlexRide, which brings a choice of three suspension settings drivers can manually control or leave for the car to select automatically.

The Astra’s engine efficiency has improved by as much as 13 per cent on the outgoing range, meaning that drivers will not only benefit from cleaner emissions, but also a reduction fuel costs. Petrol engines range from 1.4- to a 1.6-litre turbocharged unit, while diesels span 1.7- to 2.0-litres capacity.

Jake02

I’m very disappointed with Holden for not even considering this car. They think the Cruze is the bee’s knees (and as a CDX, it does look quite already, especially in white) but that’s far from the truth. If the Cruze is the new Viva, then surely they could import the Astra as a premium alternative (just like before, and the Astra outsold the Viva 3 to 1)??? And the Corsa as a Fiesta alternative (as well as the Barina being a lower-priced Getz competitor)!!!

But if they bring it here, hopefully it won’t be as exxy as the UK model!
Stevo the Devo

Holden could have brought in a decent car to their range instead of cheap and nasty daewoos.

jinsei

What do you mean my ‘cheap’?

The Holden Cruze (the cheap and nasty daewoo you re talking about) has been ranked 1st in EURO ANCAP crash testing NOT only among all small cars but among all models from all makes tested. Is that what you mean my ‘cheap and nasty’?

The Cruze is quite a looker and a serious contender in its class… the superior safety is just one thing that puts it to a great advantage over other small cars.

The fact that it is produced by Daewoo does not make it detract from quality and reliability in anyways. I think you just need to let go your badge snobbery.

Evolution

jinsei

Your car is Korean rubbish, just accept you were conned by the slick Holden salesman. Captiva is Korean for joke. Epica is Korean for ridiculous. Barina is Korean for useless and Cruze is Korean for fraud.

Myke

Korean fraud?
The Cruze was developed by a global design and engineering team. If is significantly different from the Viva or Barina in everyway. Perhaps you should test drive one and reserve your judgement.

Think I’ve been conned by the Holden salesman? I drive an Astra and I’d be happy to own a Cruze.

Evolution

Myke – Do I think you’ve been conned by the Holden salesman, YES! Did (s)he tell you the Astra needs a new timing belt every 60,000kms? And a lot of mechanics advise changing it at 50,000 as they have been known to break BEFORE 60,000 destroying the engine…
t

the camira wasnt a bad drive when new compared to others too.

look how they faired in the long run. cruze will have NO resale, its a pretend holden.

yes it looks good, and its safe too. Lets see how it lasts. Holdens 100% aussie VE is starting to see major issues with timing gear failures, makes me wonder how the koreans will go?

i hope im wrong.

holden needs to pay for putting our daughters in 2 star cars in recent years.

jinsei

Every one starts from scratch.. when Holden first started off their co-operation with Daewoo the outcome maybe wasn’t necessarily satisfactory.

But now Holden are reaping their fruits from this alliance. The Captiava and Cruze are the examples… Especially the Cruze is really capable of beating all Jap competitors.

While on the subject of the Barina or Epica.. they are all fomer Daewoo models (i.e they all existed before Daewoo was taken over by GM in early 2000s) so technically speaking they are not GM vehicles.

Daewoo will continue to co-design and roll out new models (all co-designed with GM affiliates) so the quality and reliability will only go UPWARDS, just like the Cruze did. Forget about the former Daewoo cars…
Golfschwein

Criticising someone’s choice is not stylish, Evolution. Our respective choices are the best we can do for ourselves at the time, yours included. Take me on by all means. Golfschwein is not even me, it’s just a word.

Evolution

Golfschwein – Your posts, as usual, have more to do with inflating your conceited sense of self worth, than contributing anything to motoring related discussions.

I can see nothing to “take on”…
jojo

Evolution…Your a bit harsh to Golfschwein who’s posts are well balanced and objective.

Also only the early model Astra 99-05 needed their timing belts replaced every 60,000. The design has been changed years ago to overcome this obvious costly design weakness.

whatever

BAHAHA Evolution – This comment is GOLD! Love it. My thoughts exaclty.
check out: motorsm.com/complaints/holden/default.asp

The Real Car Fanatic

Actually Jinsei, it ranked first in Adult crash safety and beat the Opel Astra by 1% in that area. For Child safety the Astra matched it but both were beaten by the BMW X1 marginally 2%, finally for pedestrian safety, the Cruze didn’t fare so well, 34% compared to Astra’s 46%, but yet again the BMW X1 out classed everything here with 63% so as an overall package the BMW X1 leads the Opel Astra with the Cruze coming in a close third. Still a good result though, but as you can see the Astra does have the edge on it slightly.

Anyway back to the topic in hand, Holden have made a mistake with some but not all of their smaller cars. Yes the Barina is a dodgy at best, the Epica is definitely no Astra, but the Cruze is quite a good car ( I wouldn’t buy one, but not because of badge snobbery, just by choice.)

Korea makes some good cars and some not so good cars, hmmm, sound like another Asian country we know, say 30 to 40 years ago?

JEKYL & HYDE

did someone mention pedrestrian safety?please!!!.look it up in the W.G.A.F. section(who gives a ….)

The Real Car Fanatic

You should give a ….. about pedestrian safety. Unless you think you are one of these hard as nails people who can run someone down in an accident and think it won’t have a psychological effect on you if they died as opposed to sustaining recoverable injuries.

Here’s hoping you do, then you’ll understand why pedestrain safety in cars is an important issue CLOWNBOY!
JEKYL & HYDE

can’t say in 30 years of driving that i’ve ever been even close to running someone over.but for you,i just might put on a nice steel bullbar…clown
The Real Car Fanatic

You keep telling yourself that boyo, if it makes you feel better that is!
Philthy

Wow that was a clever comment.

Have you ever used a pedestrian crossing?

Deco

He said ANCAP, NOT NCAP.

I suggest you read.

Sam

We currently have a Commodore and an Astra in our garage and could not be happier with them, both great to drive and troublefree, but if GMH continues down the path with Korean rubbish they will be the last Holdens in our family.

Evolution

Sadly, the next “all new” Commodore will be a Daewoo also. People should vote with their feet against this fraud and avoid Holden like the plague. There are plenty of quality alternatives out there.

poohbear

I’d rather avoid your oral diahorrea like the plague. There are plenty of quality alternatives out there.
Sean

The next Commodore will be a Daewoo?

Ummm….which crystal ball are you gazing into? I think you need some Windex and a good bit of elbow grease.

GM has increased its stake in Daewoo recently, but just like Australis, GM_DAT will become a centre of design for certain platforms. Australia will remain the large RWD platform centre for a while yet, while GM-DAT is doing the low-cost versions of the Gamma (next Barina) and Delta (Cruze) platforms…not to forget the Spark.

We need to be better educated about the New GM – it is developing as an integrated set of centres of design and engineering, generally clustering some brands together based on the “sophistication” and cost of the platforms.

The Cruze sedan is not a flimsy, poorly built el-cheapo model. It is a competitive and well designed car, just like a range of other non-GM-DAT Korean vehicles. The Holden built hatch will be better equipped and may even have the Opel Astra Watts Link rear end, like the NA Chevy built version of the Cruze.

Lets stop the misunderstanding and the blantant racism on this site.

Evolution

Sean, how long have you worked for GM?

Golfschwein

And your information came from……???

jinsei

Here goes another NASTY BADGE SNOB!! Whenever a new car comes into holden range, why so many people like you can’t stop blaming the INNOCENT Daewoo?

Daewoo isn’t the only guy that designed the Captiva and the Cruze. They co-developed with other GM affiliates. Actually, those other GM brands participated much more in research and development than Daewoo!! So why is it only Daewoo that always gets blamed?

I think Holden has been doing very well recently. The Viva was rather a failure but they keep on improving their line-up.

The Captiva has been selling well and so has the Cruze. Commodore was already an awesome family car but became even better value since the Direct Injection V6 came out.

Holden’s co-operation with Daewoo has been helping the Aussie-giant maintain sales in Australia while Holden vehicles in South Korea(retailed by Daewoo) aren’t helping Daewoo at all… the Statesman is only selling under 500 compared to the Hyundai Genesis selling steadily over 2000 every month for example.

So there are millions out there happy with their Holdens, you might need to get out and see what’s going on right now. Let go your badge prejudice.

Evolution

Daewoo is innocent? I know of 2 young girls killed in a relatively low impact crash in their Daewoo Barina. They trusted the Holden badge on the car and paid the ultimate price for corporate greed. GM put profit before safety.

jinsei, is that a Korean accent I detect?

jinsei

Then what about Great wall or Proton? Are they all just trying to kill motorists and passengers? They only have got 2 stars ANCAP rating but still allowed to sell in Australia. Then is the Australian goverment also full of corporate greed to have allowed these dodgy cars to be sold??

I also accept that the Barina is a SUB-standard model and should get out of market ASAP. It originally was Daewoo Kalos, designed and built by entirely Daewoo before GM’s takeover, this explains why the car is sub-standard. Also, the Barina was not a safe vehicle at all but affordable… At least it was cheaper than anyother compact cars in the market.

And the thing is that Daewoo has been continously improving their vehicles since GM’s takeover by GM. The Captiva, Cruze and the incoming Spark have all received decent safety rating from either EURONCAP or ANCAP

Jinsei is a japanese word meaning ‘life’… I didn’t expect you to be able to ditinguish Korean from Japanese though. And what the hell does that to do with the current subject?

Golfschwein

Touche!
JEKYL & HYDE

barina has now a 4 star rating,pretty much the same as everybody else.yes,the early cars were only two stars,but holden has addressed the problem.sorry about the girls evo,but you can’t hold holden responsible.its like trying to sue a gun manufacturer for armed robbery.lastly,buy a car with esp,that will exclude barina(as well as 60k timing belt changes) and move on…
t39

jinsei: it is only recently that Korean cars became up to scratch. for example, the Genesys or the new Kia Sorrento – these are great cars. But, “evolution” refers to sub-standard machines of a few year ago, and you’d have to agree, these were shockers compared to euro astras.
Evolution

Absolutely right jinsei! Anything with 2 stars, whether a passenger or a commercial vehicle, is completely unacceptable on the Australian market in 2009. The Australian Standards that allow vehicles like Great Wall, and the 2 star Barina to come to market need URGENT review, and stories echoing these sentiments have been in the media recently.

The companies that import these vehicles with sub-standard safety ratings obviously do so for profit. But is there not a moral question where safety, and indeed life and death, is concerned?

Knowingly bringing a sub-standard product to market, sounds like the grounds for a legal case..
t

great wall and proton arent HIDING behind an aussie iconic badge. at least we know that they are tinfoil imported sh1t.

i wonder how many people in these holdenwoos actually think that they are aussie built?

most of them?

as for korean cars, they are MUCH BETTER today. i know damn well id buy a hyundai i30 before i brought a cruze, even though i think the cruze looks better and is bigger, id just feel that it might still feel new after 100 thousand kays.

jojo

Thats tragic to hear about those deaths…..I belive Holden now has upgraded the Barina range with standard front airbags which give it a 4 star crash test.

t

so

watch the crash test video of the latest barina on youtube, who gives a rats about airbags, in this car they keep you alive so you can die STUCK in this roof crumpling tinfoil mess.

watch the vid, go on! THEN watch the same vids for others, corolla, honda jazz etc.

#%^&@ the barina

toxic_horse

your a retard. you can’t blame holden for bad driving.

JK

It’s funny still Aussies believe Korean products are rubbish. In terms of technology, South Korera is more advanced than Australia. Please realise the world is changing fast and Australia is lagging behind.

JEKYL & HYDE

“from just $27950 aud”

there’s the reason we won’t see them.a cruze cdx(top line)with leather,alloys,rear sensors etc,with mudflaps mats and tint can be had for the same money,with change.

same motor,gearbox,front suspension,vehicle platform,even the interior is similar.and the hatch will be locally made next year.and to the doubting thomas’s out there,grab a wheels mag and check the stats,their selling big time…

Mark G

Yeah too bad the top of the line Cruze still has no auto climate control nor sunroof.

Shak

Mate hardly any normal non luxo cars have sunroofs as standard.

The Real Car Fanatic

In Marks world they do Shak!

Shak

Ive said this time and time again. Last time Holden had a euro line up, all you supposed supporters didnt buy any. They’ve been put off; they think no one will buy them because they are priced against VW’s and other euros and not the cars the Cruze competes with. Read any British review and it says the Astra is priced in line with the Golf. The insignia is in line with the Passat. Holden is doing a fine job as indicated by their sales so why would they stop now. Just because a couple of europhile complain Holden is not going to change their entire line up. Off course we all want the euro’s but is anyone willing to pay the price?

lazybones

Well Shak, I did buy 2 Holden euros. Astra + Vectra a while back, great cars. But never did they push the advertising machine for those cars like they do with the cruze. I’m just waiting to find a cruze Ad on the inside of the toliet paper I use next time i take a dump.

The cruze is an Ok car, but its Fugly and a bit too yankie looking for me.

OzProud

Not sure about the styling of the new Opel Astra – starting to look like every other little hatch. Much prefer the new Cruze styling which is more similar externally to the Insignia.

Jake02

People didn’t buy a the previous Opel products (Vectra, previous Corsa/Barina and even the current Combo, which is still on sale) because they weren’t very good. The Vectra was waaay overpriced for what it was and the Barina was great until it was almost gone, where they made it cheaper but removed equipment. But the Astra was a car that always sold well. Compared to the Viva it outsold it 3 to 1, despite being $3k more, proving that people will pay more for sophistication and quality.

The clear difference now is that current Opel products are/are close to class leaders, and if they were to be priced by Holden correctly, they could sell very well. Keep the Cruze as is, but make it cheaper (say, $19k for a CD). Import the 1.4T Astra CD (with 6 airbags and ESP, air-con, steel wheels etc) for, say, $22k and i reckon that the extra $ for an Astra would be worth it. Then have a 1.4T CDX, 2.0D CDX and 2.0T SRi further up topping out at around $35k. Holden’s reputation would be returned.

Joofas

But their profits would likely decrease, adding to all the problems GM global has been encountering of late. The cost of importation eats too heavily into profit margins, hamstringing the company.

I dont drive a holden, but despite the first batch of Daewoo sourced vehicles, I say good on them. I would definately consider a cruze if i were in the market for a small car. How could you not… …logically (without brand bias)?

It intrigues me to know what sort of vehicle you drive Evolution? You rant and rave on here, sledging holden for their range but what’s in your garage. I trust it’s a flawless piece of machinery, because nothing else seems to do it for you.

Either way, there are many who want to put the boot in whenever somebody / some company does well for themselves (tall poppy syndrome?) Smells like envy…

It’s interesting to note though, that the one company both Toyota and Nissan are on record as saying they fear most as a competitor for the future is Hyundai, and low and behold, they’re Korean… There’s obviously some talent there if the No.1 Manufacturer in the world is concerned.

I know its not Daewoo, buts it all relative, we consider cars by location of origin – European, German, American, Australian, Japanese, etc so it goes to say that if one improves, both will…

toxic_horse

I would say he drives a Mitsubishi
We all know how sucessfull they were with the 380, no wonder he bags holden all the time.

Jake02

I’m sorry!? Holden is a company that isn’t as good as all you people think they are. They are greedy (hence giving us Korean crap…) and all they think about is profit. Sure, they’re Australian (despite only one model being assembled here) but what does that mean any more? Probably 90% of formerly Australian-owned companies are now owned by O/S companies (thanks Mr Rudd…) making them irrelevant. Woo yeah go Holden..and Daewoo…and Buick…and Chevy…and GMC…and Caddy…same company, same cars, same engines.

Oh and by the way, I drive a Skoda. Was that what you were expecting? I wouldn’t have bought a 380 as they were based on a dated design even before they went on sale.

jojo

Would have to agree with jake02 about Holdens strategy…or lack of given their preference for re-badged korean cars. having said that the Captiva is selling like hot cakes and the Cruze is in the top 10. The Vectra was overpriced and never had a chance in the medium size car market

Jake02

Thanks, but you notice how I didn’t mention the Captiva? Thats because it a) didn’t replace anything from anywhere (the Adventra was still on sale for a year after the Captiva arrived) , b) its a good car and c) is selling quite well. And my point was thats all they care about – sales!

Igomi Watabi

what company doesn’t care about sales and profits and little else? I mean, really, if you’re going to bag a company for a commercial attitude, then youi have to bag them all.

t

coz the euros might have been safe, but ask an racq / racv etc call out guy what cars give them the most call outs.

astras!

chick at work was rather discouraged when the racq man who came to get it going gasped when he saw an astra ( 04 model) , and then said “best be selling it, if you dont want to see me on a regular basis”

my sister in law brought a vectra, 30 mins after i told her to run a mile… since then, its been rewired due to a melting fusebox fire ($2000), it snapped a timing belt at 48 thousand kays destroying the engine ( they wouldnt tell me what that cost )…. they still wont admit i was right…

sucked in to them i say!

lazybones

Hey CA, whos “VAUXHAUL” anyway???

Is the coffee machine broken again boys?
Jon

Vauxhall (Not Vauxhaul) Astra looks a lot of better then Holden Cruze. Two Reasons are price and safe. My car is Holden Capitva which is imported from Korea cos it has diesel engine while Ford Territory doesn’t. I guess Cruze has diesel engine too, doesn’t it?
jinsei

Evloution, agree with your points. Cars with inferior safety ratings should not be welcome as you said. I was just saying that GM Daewoo is not what it used to be as it now designs and markets its products in co-ordination under GM management.

Unlike before, GM Daewoo is now serving in GM group as a centre for compact and small car research and designs and will afford the Australian motorists better quality cars than before.
Davey

The black thing behind the rear-view mirror… is it anything other than a light/rain sensor?
filippo

Does anyone else suspect that Holden will pull the plug on the local production of the Cruze hatch? I mean, they committed to it at a time when Ford Oz were also planning to build the Focus locally. Since then Ford have changed their mind and the Cruze sedan has been selling well, despite it’s origins, poor fuel economy and woeful petrol engine. Considering that the GMD Holden products are so competitively priced it would seem like madness to build the hatchback locally. Labour is cheap in Korea, so that ‘locally-produced’ premium would completely remove the value proposition from the hatch and price it in Astra territory. I’m sure Holden’s bean-counters are dead against this.
Andrew M

Everyone seems to be talking up the new astra on looks, but I must say IMO they have made a decent looking car look grandma-ish.

Cruze in upmarket trim looks better from front end, But ill still back the quality of the astra over the Cruze. You only got to look at the pics to see the interior of the Astra seems far better finished off
Richard

Has anyone actually done some investigation on just how much cheaper a Cruze is compared to the new Astra in the UK?

The Cruze starts at 12250UKP in Britain. Some 3000UKP cheaper than the cheapest Astra. Isn’t that something like 20-25% cheaper?

In fact you could buy the top of the range 2L diesel Cruze for the price of the povo Astra.

The Real Car Fanatic

That\’s because GM are aiming them at two differnet markets. The Vauxhall Astra is designed to steal sales from the likes of VW, Skoda, Seat, Audi, Renault, Toyota etc, The Cruze is priced to sell a decent quality car to Pikeys and Gypos.

Pricing them side by side would not be a wise decision.
MisterTwo

The UK Market and the Australian market are both totally different. Cars are generally more expensive new in the UK but used cars are a lot cheaper. An equivalent to the Mondeo XR5 Turbo in the UK costs around AUD$60,000.00, and it is $45,000.00 (+ onroads) here. Everyone goes on about being ripped off with car prices, in fact they are very cheap.

The Real Car Fanatic

Actually at todays exchange rate I could take 48,000 AUD to the UK and buy a new Mondeo 2.5 Turbo Titanium X, but usually it would be closer to 60,000. The pound is rubbish at the moment.

Goodfa

The main problem with the Cruze besides the petrol engine is being able to get one.
I know of people that ordered their Cruze in August and still have not received them.
So basically by the time they get the car it will considered a one year old car.
I hope Holden do the right thing for these loyal customers and offer a little sweetner for there patience.(Even something like extra warranty or a free service) Otherwise they will have a lot of annoyed customers and may lose repeat business.

Andrew M

If its anything like most imported vehicles I know of they are allowed to stamp them upon delivery.

anyone know why imported vehicles arent stampep when manufactured??

To me thats false

J

Evolution, did you once work for holden and got sacked? Or are you just a one eyed Ford fan?
And finally get a life!!!!!
http://www.ozmpsclub.com duglet

I think the new astra looks bland..

I have owned both a Vectra and Corsa..would i own another opel/vauxhall…NO

I personally wouldnt buy the Cruze…but I think the korean car is by far a well made product that will sell well in Australia.

Kia Koupe and Cerato are awesome cars for under $25K….maybe you guys need to open your eyes.

Also…the new Hyundai Genesis….now thats a car I would look at buying and I own a Mazda 3MPS.

I dont see why all the comments are bagging the Cruze…becoz your euro made astra has korean parts in it too…..GM now raid the global bin for parts for their cars.

Happy Motoring
duglet
Neo Utopia

I don’t see why GM didn’t get the best designers and engineers from Opel and Daewoo to combine the Astra and Cruze into just one global all round better car. By all means the car for the euro Market be made in Germany but for the pacific Market to be made in Korea. I know a car co-developed with eclectic collaborative minds behind it will be better than a car developed from just one country, especially from an emerging industrialised country. If it were to be made in Germany and sold to the Australian Market then the price would of course have to be 25 to 30% higher than if it was to be made in Korea, exchange rates can’t be discounted just to try and sell a few more.
toxic_horse

The corsa/barina was a joke, i can’t believe everyone keeps praising it.
Seriously they were a cheap ugly euro small car that never had a decent upgrade across its whole life. , i can’t see what was supposed to be so good about them.