Vauxhall's new Astra Sports Tourer will offer cheaper company car tax bills than the model it replaces thanks to it being cheaper than the outgoing Astra Estate.
When the Astra Sports Tourer goes on sale here later this year, it will be priced from £16,575 - more than £500 less than the current entry level model.
This is despite the Sports Tourer model coming with extra equipment including air conditioning, curtain airbags, ESP stability control, electric handbrake and an aux-in socket as standard, as well as offering more power from its 1.4-litre petrol engine.
However, company car drivers will see much bigger savings when the Ecoflex low emission models arrive in January 2011.
Powered by a 1.3-litre CDTi diesel offering 95bhp, the new Ecoflex models will have CO2 emissions of 109g/km, putting them in the lowest 13% company car tax band - the same as the outgoing Astra Estate 1.7 CDTi Ecoflex.
However, the Sports Tourer Ecoflex will cost £18,270 - £1,805 less than the current Astra Estate low emission model. This will save a base rate taxpayer around £45 a year in company car tax bills.
The Astra Sports Tourer will be offered in the same four trim levels as the Astra hatchback - ES, Exclusiv, SE and SRi - and will be offered with FlexFold, a device which allows the rear seat backs to be lowered at the press of a button.
