2005 Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch SRi review from UK and Ireland

The windscreen wipers failed and required dealer attention. CD player skips sometimes.

The power and performance of this car is absolutely stunning, 170bhp and loads of torque. Even faster with the sport button on. Much more controllable than the wild VXR.

Gets a lot of admiring looks, rides very well on standard 17's. However, the low-profile tyres mean the wheels kerb far too easily.

The standard of service at the local Vauxhall dealer was not up to much, had to take car in as window wipers weren't working, took two days to trace the fault to a blown fuse, and the car came back pretty dirty.

The quality of materials used to build this car is in my opinion excellent and everything feels fairly sturdy.

Unfortunately, the downfall to this vehicle is its fuel economy. I never got above 23mpg mixed driving and in town it went as low as 14mpg. This was without particularly vigorous driving, if you drove the car hard it could near enough drop down into single figures. I have sold the car lost a lot of money and my faith in Vauxhall cars.