Faults:

During a long trip (1300 km), the turbo vacuum valve made the light on the dashboard light up and the car go into safe mode. Happened twice during the trip. From then the light is lit, but the engine is working fine; no loss of power, no other problems at all. The light on the dashboard disappears after driving some 20 km (the engine warms up).

Other cars are a bit lighter (some 10-40 kg), and this impacts acceleration and fuel efficiency.

General Comments:

What I like is:

- Very fuel efficient: I get 4.4 l/100 km if I drive normal.

- If you keep it under 90 km/h, you will get 4.0 l/100 km

- Reaches 160 km/h very quickly.

- No creaks.

- Seats are very good.

- In the back there's plenty of space.

- The dashboard has many useful, very well sized buttons.

- Plenty of space at the driver's seat.

Faults:

One thing: the handbrake seems a little bit out of shape. I noticed that on a very inclined hill when facing down.

General Comments:

The car handles beautifully with or without any load on board. Its perfect both for city drive and out of city highways. It never tires me when driving it on longer periods of time and it's simply a pleasure to drive it. I have to mention also that being a little sporty, on very rough roads, it tends to forward the road vibrations to the driver but not so much. The consumption is great. On the last 5000 km, it has a 7.4 l/ 100km consumption. If I take for a spin and bring my family with me (so I don't go faster than 100 km/h) the realtime consumption shows me a nice 5.6 l / 100 km which is GREAT. The radio comes with six speakers and it has a good reception. The interior is definitively much nicer than the one of the VW Golf 5. I will never sell it.

Faults:

No failures so far (the car is quite new).

There is just one little thing: a bit annoying rattles and vibrations while starting gently (when releasing the clutch). Becomes unnoticeable if accelerates harder. Dealer claims it's a normal behavior, I wouldn't say so. Not fixed anyway.

General Comments:

This car (called ASTRA CLASSIC II) is technically a basic version of a previous European ASTRA-G model. GM continues to manufacture and offer it in some markets, Eastern/Central Europe mainly.

The interior is roomy although little on a cheap side.

Suspension/steering is well tuned and provides a good comfort/road feedback proportions.

Small engine does its job, has enough oomph for a city commuting. Surprisingly, due to a short gear ratio at the 5th gear, the car accelerates relatively well even at the higher speeds (becomes noisy though).

Fuel economy is very good, it can easily achieve 56 mpg in the relaxed country lane cruising, 38+ in a city traffic.

There are some minor drawbacks though:

The 90 bhp TwinPort is a noisy, lazy revving engine (not particularly good for the the city stop&go conditions).

To keep the basic price down, there is an extra charge for almost everything: power windows, seat height adjustment, trip computer, A/C,...

Faults:

(NOTE: THIS REVIEW RELATES MOSTLY TO THE POWER HARD-TOP VERSIONS AVAILABLE IN EUROPE).

Several creaks and groans in body structure when encountering colder climates.

Aside from that, this car was a really fun little pocket-rocket!

General Comments:

I had two for 2.5 weeks while in Germany last October, and I have nothing but fantastic things to say!

My 2 rentals (both with powered hard top convertibles) were both 07 Astras, but the first had a 1.6 with 5 speed and heated seats. Low end torque wasn't anything fun, but with the factory 16's offered, I was able to hold a consistent speed of 170-180kph on the Autobahn, (but with Ferrari's and Alfas in your rear view mirror once you venture into the passing lane, left me wishing that I had opted for a larger displacement car, or at least a car with a turbo-charger to accelerate faster to those blinding speeds of the Autobahn).

My second rental was a 1.8 litre motor (same as what's offered here in N.A., save the powered hard-top convertible). Sure it had much more noticeable torque, but it sure sucked back the fuel a lot faster when pushed up thru 150-190kph speeds.

Body ridgity on my rentals left a lot to be desired. Since it was a hard top convertible, there were several creaks and groans that became apparent once we travelled into the higher, and colder climates of the Swiss Alps.

Low speed handling on both cars reminded me of my 88 325is BMW, yet, the electronic-assisted steering made the whole experience of negotiating small euro streets much more enjoyable than anticipated!

In Europe, there's several powertrains offered for the Astra nameplate. Gas models range in size from 1.4 thru turbo charged 2.0 (considering the speeds I was able to obtain with the 1.8, made me shiver considering what a larger motor with a turbo could accomplish!). Then there's a couple of diesel motors with or without turbos offered, for a total of about 6-7 motors. Then there's also the choice of auto or 5 speed (6 if you have the turbo model). Unfortunately all we get is the 1.8 naturally aspirated gas motor with either a 4 speed auto or 5 speed stick.

After driving this car in Germany and Switzerland, I really wished that the Saturn version would be the same. So last month I took a trip to my local Saturn dealer to test drive the N.A. version. The only disappointments came when I noticed no rear fog lights, and no height adjustments for the headlights, different optics for the headlights, and no other versions offered than the 3 and 5 door. In Europe, buyers have both hatches to choose from, but also a sedan, wagon, coupe, and hard-top convertible coupes. So basically, whatever target price you hope to keep, there's an Astra model right for you!

Aside from the above differences, the car's just as enjoyable as the Euro counterpart. When I came back from Germany last fall/winter, I raved to a close friend of mine about how great this little car was, and how much I'd love to own a new Saturn, touting how much better it is than ANY other N.A. car offered. Everything from it's handling, to it's superior build quality and reliable powertrain, and not to mention its fantastic price advantage over the Japanese and other Euro offerings, make this car UNBEATABLE!!!

The only drawbacks I noticed on the 2 door version (both in HT and convertible forms) was the rear view when making lane changes, it's nothing short of terrible! I mean they could have saved $ by not having rear 1/4 panel windows!

My other gripe comes from the arrangement of the radio and climate controls. There's a fantastic LED screen in the centre of the dash, but the configuration of the buttons and dials makes a simple task of changing the temp or radio acoustics a chore, causing you to have to take your eyes off the road for several seconds. After getting used to the steering wheel mounted controls for the radio helps a bit, until you have to change the climate controls. Not good in my books!

Do yourself a favour, if you're reading this review, and find small hatches fun and interesting to drive, you GOTTA get yourself into the drivers seat and test drive one.