Vauxhall Astra Estate first drive | a top contender

The Vauxhall Astra impressed us in hatchback form, earlier this year, with its sharper looks, enhanced driving dynamics and vastly improved interior.

Now, it’s offered as a sleek-looking estate, mixing the same positive attributes of the hatchback with extra practicality.

At the business end, the Astra Sports Tourer offers almost 600 litres of luggage capacity and has a boot floor that measures more than a square metre. The rear seats can be folded, opening up 1,634 litres of load space. The plug-in hybrid’s boot space is reduced in capacity to 516 litres, or 1,553 with the rear seats folded.

Compared with rivals, the Astra estate falls behind slightly when equipped with a petrol or diesel engine, but the plug-in hybrid is among the best-in-class for carrying capacity. Only the Peugeot 308 SW, Astra’s closest relation, has it beat.

The Astra is offered with two petrol, one diesel and a plug-in hybrid engine from launch. A fully electric version will launch next year. For now, the 1.2-litre 110PS or 130PS and the 130PS diesel are more likely to appeal to retail buyers, while the plug-in hybrid makes the most sense for company car drivers.

With 180PS, Hybrid-e is the fastest model currently offered, accelerating from 0-62mpg in 7.7 seconds. It’s also the most efficient, achieving a combined 256mpg, according to WLTP. More important, for fleets, is the 8% benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax bracket, which saves drivers almost £9,000
over four years, when compared with the petrol model.

There’s nothing new about the powertrain, it’s the same one that’s used across numerous Peugeot and Citroën models. It uses a single electric motor and an eight-speed automatic gearbox to drive the front wheel. There’s a bit of a lag when you call for full power, but otherwise the Hybrid-e is a perfectly acceptable powertrain.

We managed to average more than 80mpg while driving, having set off with a full battery. For trips up to around 35 miles, the car should be able to cover them with no petrol burn at all.

In keeping with Vauxhall’s streamlined model strategy, the Astra Sports Tourer comes in three trim levels: Design, GS Line and Ultimate. Base models come well-equipped, but cannot be paired with the Hybrid-e, so it’s the £33,845 GS Line that fleet customers will want. The good news here is that it still represents the best value for money when compared with rivals.

The Astra’s smarter looks, improved technology and high levels of comfort and refinement boost its appeal significantly and it’s now a top contender in the segment.

Specification shown for Vauxhall Astra Hybrid-e GS Line.