Hello,
We are thinking of getting a bigger car because we have a baby on the way. We need something big enough to fit a pushchair in the boot with and all the other bits and pieces a baby needs. My GF is looking at a Vauxhall Astra. Are they reliable or will it be a dis-astra?
A very friendly car salesman let us drive almost every Astra he had. I am used to driving diesels but even so, the 1.3 diesel seemed sluggish and we did not like it. My GF drove the 1.4 and 1.6 petrol and says she couldn't tell the difference. We didn't bother with the 1.8; should we have done? AIUI, the 1.4 is £125 tax, the 1.6 is £150, and the 1.8 is £175. On paper the mpg figures for 1.4 and 1.6 are not wildly different but I don't know about in real life! I did wonder whether a 1.4L was too small for the car but it seemed to cope quite well. I drove a 1.9 diesel automatic which was lovely but it was an older car with more scratches, so cosmetically not as nice.
Lifting the lids, the 1.4 engine bay seemed to have a lot of space and looked as though DIY filter changes should be straightforward but all the others seemed to fill the space and had the oil filters hidden. How easy are they to work on?
I looked on Amazon for a Haynes book and there seem to be so many: there seems to be a separate manual for petrol models and another for diesels. Why is this? In the past I have bought one manual that has chapters for each; are the petrol and diesels so wildly different?
There also seems to be a different manual for each age of Astra. Has the car changed that much between versions?
Thanks, Stephen.