Review
Our Astra is by far the most economical car on the fleet, and with combined consumption of 64.3mpg it's not hard to see why. Combine this with the Astra's OTR price of £13,050, a CAP Monitor residual value prediction of £4,225/33 per cent and low insurance and maintenance costs and the dTi adds up to an auditor's dream.
Indeed, demand for the Astra ECO4 has been so strong that Vauxhall has tripled the initial 4,000-unit production run to keep up with it.
But that's only half the story - with CO2 emissions of just 119g/km, under the 2002 emissions-based company car tax regime it will also sit in the lowest band for a diesel at 18% of P11D value, where it will stay until the 2004-5 tax year. That means, for a 22 per cent taxpayer currently covering between 2,500 and 18,000 business miles a year, annual tax liability will fall from £710 now to just £511 in 2002/3 - a miserly performance by any standards.
In fact, such are the Astra's low emissions it is the cleanest vehicle in its class - and actually beats several cars from the class below. The ECO4 is currently the 12th cleanest car on British roads and its tax liability will remain the same for the first three years of the new tax regime.
The Astra also qualifies for the lowest VED band - Band A, or £110 per annum - under the new graduated scheme introduced in March.
But the downside of the Astra's fuel and tax-efficient frugality is less-than-sparkling performance. While the ECO4 shares the excellent ride and handling abilities of its stablemates, the engine struggles to deliver enough power to live up to these attributes, with a top speed of 109mph and 0-60mph time of 13.5 seconds. If performance is a priority, there are other cars in this class which come reasonably close in the economy stakes, while offering far superior performance.
The lack of power is at its worst in day-to-day running, when quite simply there isn't enough for smooth progress. Trickling along in slow-moving traffic, for example, requires plenty of gearchanging, while for overtaking, the engine has to be revved hard, all of which tends to negate the economy advantages of the ECO4 engine.
That said, if your driving tends to be motorway only, the economy returns are remarkable - we achieved over an astonishing 70mpg on a recent trip to Scotland.
Other gripes with our car include a defunct CD player, which had to be replaced under warranty. According to the dealer, Sycamore of Stamford, this is a fault that has occurred on other Astras, as our CD player was placed on 'back order' due to demand.
There's also a lack of space to rest the clutch foot in the driver's footwell, which can cause the left leg to ache on a long run. Some of the materials used in the cabin - in particular the plastic on the dash top — lack tactile quality, but there are no creaks, squeaks or rattles on our test car, pointing to durable build.
But in the final analysis, the Astra ECO4 is a straight trade-off between performance and economy. If control of fuel costs is top of the fleet manager's list of priorities, the ECO4 is a definite contender. But throw in environmental concerns and the driver's BIK tax bill and there's nothing in this class to touch it.
