Astra 1.8 16V Sport V(2000) (Vauxhall Astra SXi 1.8i 16v 5-door Hatchback)

Member Name: IanPaterson

Product:	Vauxhall Astra SXi 1.8i 16v 5-door Hatchback
Date:	18/08/00 (1499 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quite stylish, nippy car

Disadvantages: Boy racers dream

I had one of these as a company car recently for about two months. From the outside, it looks quite nice alloy wheels metallic paint job, side skirts and front and rear spoilers. From the inside, it is a different story. Interior finish on fabric seats was poor. Loose threads, edges of carpets not stuck down properly. The vinyl door and dashboard trims look exactly like the old Astra. Characterless and horrible. You can't even adjust the steering wheel height. The dashboard is dull and boy racer like. White dials in a black bezel that illuminate orange. YUCK!

Driving the Astra one would hope would bring out the good points and let you forget that you are driving such a cardboard box. The steering is quite sharp and decisive, the brakes are quite light so braking hard into a corner is a little exciting. Suspension is to springy as well. Uprated springs for the sport version have not been complimented by uprated shocks! Accerleration is very good! Snappy and plenty of torque. Until you want to accelerate past lorries that is on single carriageway roads. The top end just fades away at about 4.5K revs leaving you struggling on the wrong side of the road looking at oncoming traffic. This car is so high geared, it just does not cruise on long distance driving making motorway driving laborious and hard work. The accelerator is so sensitive there is no slack on the pedal at all so you are constantly speeding up and slowing down. This seriously effects fuel economy as well.

Overall, for a town based boy racer who wants to be first from the lights, ideal. For a family car used to and from work and normal use, forget it!

Summary: