The Holden Astra has been the mainstay of the Australian automaker's small car fleet for more than a decade, with some 200,000 cars sold here since 1996. Clearly, the Astra is doing something very right. Styling is a major selling feature of Astra, that and the fact that it comes from Europe.
Handling is everything you would expect from a European car and those who like to drive will love the way the Holden Astra holds the road with a minimum of fuss.
It answers commands to the steering wheel promptly and efficiently.
The Astra SRi is the hotshot of the range and is a delight to punt along hard.
There's good interior room for five average adults, though you will have to move the front seats forward a few notches. It won't particularly be comfortable for five occupants though, unless at least two in the back are children.
In 2006, Holden became the first of the local car makers to introduce a turbo-diesel car, the Astra CDTi. Two different diesels are used - both have 1.9-litre capacities, but a twin-cam is used with a sporting six-speed manual gearbox, whereas automatics have a simpler single-cam design to keep the price down.
The single-cam works sweetly with the six speed automatic but has significantly less power.
Astra turbo-diesels have minimal turbo lag, and actually go better than the 1.8 litre petrol engine.
