Vauxhall Astra Estate (2004 - 2010) 1.3 CDTi 16V Life (90ps) 5d Owner Review

Had been put of the Vauxhall marque by a pervious dreadful mark one Corsa, however the company had moved on significantly with this model. Start with positives, both exterior and interior look good, I prefer the look of the estate to the hatch (must be getting old). Fit and finish are good, not quite with Ford or Volkswagen yet but not far off. Quite a large load bay, with eye hooks to secure items, seats fold down flat with a minimum of fuss. Rear loading hatch is very wide and low, essential if you're struggling with flat packs from Ikea. The handling is another brilliant aspect of the car, very direct steering, keeps a perfect line around a corner without too much compliant or input through the steering wheel, the suspension also keeping the body roll to a minimum. The car also feels very stable, probably due to the longer wheelbase of this model. Being a Vauxhall servicing isn't a problem with the local independent garage or too expensive ether. The major negative for some is the badge (only to those that care about such things) and in the 'Life' trim you don't get too many features. The only other issue that I've had with the car was the passenger wing mirror parted company with its fixture, but a few minutes of cleaning and 'Gorilla' glue later it has been fixed. The engine (Fiat 1.3 CDTI diesel unit) whilst fine and very frugal, doesn't set your hair on fire and can take quite a bit of prodding and gear work to get up to speed, but as soon as you reach just over 2000 revs the turbo kicks in. The 1.7 CDTi I've driven in the past for work has a lot more bottom end torque and longer gearing.