Why we’re running it: New-era hatch arrives in 1.2 guise before design boss oversees a swap to the PHEV
Month 1 - Specs
Life with a Vauxhall Astra: Month 1
Welcoming the Astra to the fleet - 11 January 2022
Not sure why this is, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Vauxhall. Perhaps this is connected with the fact that reaching my London roost involves frequent trips across Vauxhall Bridge, close to where the venerable marque had its beginnings in 1903.
Whatever, I’ve always liked the workaday image of the cars, which have stayed successful and competent all these years without help from premium pricing (which maintains the health of some marques whose cars are no better). In recent years, I’ve approved of its ‘world’s only German-British marque’ mantra, which has seemed appropriate to the modern range.
Things have changed, of course. Having been long associated with General Motors, Vauxhall and its German associate, Opel, have been acquired by Stellantis, a move that has required their long-time staple product, the Astra, to adopt this mammoth group’s EMP2 platform, most prominently shared with the Peugeot 308 but by Citroën and DS models as well. That means the powertrains and running gear are all new, too.
This makes running a new-generation Astra especially interesting and the most interesting of all is the 1.6-litre PHEV model. We were keen to try such a car, but production schedules meant the mid-spec (and likely very popular) GS Line model was the first available, powered by Stellantis’s 129bhp 1.2-litre turbo three-pot. We resolved that I’d run one of these for a while, timing my move into the 1.6 PHEV model with the availability of Vauxhall’s long-serving design director, Mark Adams, whose key job has been to ensure this new car continues to have the soul of a Vauxhall- Opel, while progressing in all the directions an all-new car should take. We decided to meet at Caffeine & Machine, the buzzing hub for car enthusiasts just off the Fosse Way at Ettington, south of Coventry, and had both cars along for the ride.
Adams is one of those industry leaders who’s both approachable and an expert explainer. He made it crystal clear that Vauxhall’s positioning would need to be carefully restated because there were now more family marques in the Stellantis group, and the plan was to position Vauxhall at the same place in the spectrum as Peugeot (at the quality end of mainstream) while ensuring that there was no visual conflict and that buyers would see those two marques as entirely distinct.
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Reading this I fear another misselling scandal. You infer your drive profile is unsuited to a PHEV as you are getting 'only 59.9mpg'. Your electric miles (2miles/kWhr) are costing 17p/mile at the current price cap, a 1.2 petrol at 55mpg is costing less than 12p, so every electric mile you drive is costing you money for the fuel alone without the extra purchase cost.
This is another one of those cars where the climate controls are split between the physical and the touchscreen. You can alter the temperature and the fan using the keys, but if you want to change the distribution you've got to go into the touchscreen. Why make it so complicated?
To be accurate, the article said the range indicator showed 18-20 miles, while tester managed 25 (in deep midwinter). And while on the subject of accuracy, Autocar appeared to have used the (0-60) acceleration time for the 1.2 petrol model; hybrid figure is 7.7 seconds.
Yea I get the 25 figure, but it did say that was with careful driving, what about normal driving. If we go for somewhere in the middle then you'll looking at 22 miles and that's when the battery is new, will that drop to 18 when the battery is 4 years, hardly worth pluging in when it cost's over 4 pound to charge and do 20 miles.
Is 412kg extra correct, certainly explains the electric inefficiency.