We have a 2007 1.6i five door estate design, we bought it about twelve months ago. The car is very practical and spacious and with the rear seats down makes a great load carrier.The design model has half leather effect seats wich look good but do seem a little hard you seem to sit on them rather than in them.The car is good to drive and for a 1.6 engine it goes well, i do find the steering very light which is is great round town for parking etc but i find it lacks feeling at higher speed where it could do with being heavier. One dissapointment has been that we noticed that the gear box seemed to grind on occasions when putting the car into reverse more so after the ...  Read the complete review

I hired one of these cars in Sweden last year - Arctic Sweden. The temperatures there were minus 15 - minus 25 degrees celsius. The roads there are snow and ice, driving conditions - frequent snow storms and reindeer on the road. While using this model astra up there, it handled perfectly, and it had excellent fuel consumption for that sort of temperature. The car handled really well on the snow and ice (it was fitted with studded tyres required by law in Scandanavian countries in winter). it had excellent power and was very responsive. I have driven and Astra hatch and it was not as responsive as this one. Inside is well finished, but I find the seats ...  Read the complete review