for the past few years the vauxhall astro has been a worthy but forgettable choice amongst the ranks
of family hatchbacks out there it was pretty practical and had a range of efficient engines
but its dowdy looks were unlikely to tempt you away from volkswagen golf but starting
with a little mocker suv we're in the midst of a complete reboot of vauxhall's range with this the
astra the latest model to benefit but unlike the crossland and grandland suvs this like the mocha
is a whole new model with technologies never seen before on this family hatchback with the
looks being such a big change let's start by looking at five things i love about the design
here at the front you've got voxel's visor nose treatment which means these wing shaped led
headlights with the option of pixel technology to allow the headlights to sound main beam for longer
this black grille and a ridge running down the bottom of the nose to act as a
kind of sight what you may also not see in pictures is the v shape to the nose
which makes the car look pretty dynamic and a bit less bluff fronted than the mocker suv
the second feature i love are these boxed arches very reminiscent of the 80s nova
for the first time you can get a contrast roof to make your car that little bit more individual
the reverse rake c-pillar is a nice touch and these little divots are reminiscent of the mark 1
astra's side vents like the front lights the rear leds get a wing graphic and this stylized
astro script is a nice touch too like the exterior the interior is completely different
to this car's predecessor like the mocker small suv there's this twin 10 inch digital display so
you've got this one here for your infotainment and this one that deals with your speed
revs fuel levels and all that sort of stuff there and while we're on the subject of quality
we've got lots of squishy plastics and in this ultimate version a nice bit of alcantara here
and even some leather on the chairs navigating this infotainment system is made a bit easier by
this row of buttons here so you've got a home button here driving functions and temperature
controls however you do unlike so many cars these days have actual physical buttons there
for your temperature controls and also the other air conditioning bits and pieces we have
ventilated seats and heated seats if the car is so equipped and there is tons of storage so if you've
got your key you can open this little cubby here which is felt lined to stop stuff rattling about
we can slide that back and your mobile phone gets a wireless charging pad if so equipped
you've then got a nice big storage bit here which actually if you've got a reusable coffee cup
that can even fit inside or if you actually want to drink your coffee
you can open this up here put your coffee in there and even if you've got a big water bottle
you can slot that in there or if you drunk it all it fits nicely in the big wide door pockets there
you've also got a nice big cubby in the middle there which those will slot in and
even another cubby here for your change as well so really very useful and when you factor in a
couple of usb ports there as well somewhere to charge all your devices and fit all your stuff
moving to the rear as you can see i have tons of space but then i am five foot three and a half
and yes the half matters when you're that tall thankfully i was able to find a six foot three
inch adult who as you can see has a fair bit of space even with a seat not all the way forwards as
you can see there's also quite a short tunnel here so although the center seat is slightly raised
three in the back won't be too uncomfortable and if there's only two of you a nice fold down
armrest with a couple of cup holders and somewhere for some pens it's also a little net here although
you probably couldn't fit a particularly big atlas in there and i know the rear pockets are quite a
bit smaller you can still fit one of these water bottles back there with not too much squeezing
in terms of quality well it's quite hard up here but then that's fairly typical for the class
however on this ultimate model on your nose a bit more lovely alcantara and importantly a padded bit
for your elbow so you're not too uncomfortable on a longer journey it is though quite dark back here
so you've got a black headlining and quite small windows with on this model quite a heavy tint
and thick c pillars back here as well roxul hasn't released full details of the engines on offer but
we do know petrol and diesels with between 110 and 130 horsepower will be the conventional choices
these come as standard with a six-speed manual gearbox with an eight-speed automatic optional
on the punchier power plants more interesting are the pair of plug-in hybrids initially you'll only
be able to get a 180 horsepower version with a more potent 225 horsepower version in the pipeline
expect around 35 miles of electric only running to give competitive company car tax rates
and the ability to save a small fortune in fuel if you plug in regularly the final option that's
been confirmed is the all electric astra e but we are a couple of years away from that
now in terms of boot space this model is a plug-in hybrid so it is a little bit smaller
than it would be for a petrol powered version but as you can see that is still a nice big load area
so we certainly like what we see today regarding the new astra it's much smarter looking on the
outside is packed full of technology and if the drive is any good could be a real contender in
the family hatchback class now we will have to wait till a little bit later in the year
to find out what it's like on the road and the car won't be in dealerships until january
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do go to parkers.co.uk for more detail on this and many many other new cars
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