What are Astras like?

ants83

ants83

ants83

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Joined
29 Jun 2004
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Alright guys. Got a 6k budget. Found an Astra both 09 plates .
Astra 1.4 13k on clock £6400
Astra 1.6 25k on clock £5999

I only do 300 miles a month currently have a banger t reg Clio which is about dead.
I want a new, smart looking car. I never go on motorway trips and have a 2 year old and what it to be reliable and cheap to run as money is right.
I don't want a 6 year old car with 50k+ miles at the same price.
Without speccing me a super car what do you guys think?
 
ants83 said:
I like them but the 08's at 6k ish seem to have 50k+ millage.
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A focus with 50k miles is going to be a better car than an Astra with half the mileage. The mileage is just a number on the dash, if its in good condition then it's not too relevant - the focus is technically a much better car
 
They seem very unpopular on forums but I don't think they're that bad really. I had a 1.4 one and it was admittedly slow and handled poorly. But if you're not interested in how it drives, the interior was decent, it was well specced for the money and never went wrong. I've sold it a while back, but when I got it around a year and a half ago, it was £2800 with FSH and around 45k miles, and I think you'd struggle to get a focus of the same age/mileage for that money.
 
WMAS have a couple of of Astra 1.9 CDTIs Ambulance RRVs left from the old Staffordshire Ambulance Service days. I had the pleasure (Or displeasure) of loaning one a few months ago and also owned a Focus a few years back. Out of the two i'd have the Focus every time.

The Astra was very quick (The Diesel engine was pretty good but crap mpg)

Obviously not really a basis for comparison engine wise but everything else will be the same..
 
I driven both, had a few of each as hire cars..Focus does everything better..I found the astra extremely uncomfortable....

GJUK
 
I had one as a courtesy car for a week, the only redeemable feature was that it was comfortable on the motorway.

No feeling through wheel or pedals at all, indicators flash 3 times, awful interior design, not ergonomic at all. 1.6 engine wasn't too bad but the car as a whole was extremely boring, I would have fallen asleep driving it if it weren't for the uncomfortable seat.
 
phil675 said:
I had one as a courtesy car for a week, the only redeemable feature was that it was comfortable on the motorway.

No feeling through wheel or pedals at all, indicators flash 3 times, awful interior design, not ergonomic at all. 1.6 engine wasn't too bad but the car as a whole was extremely boring, I would have fallen asleep driving it if it weren't for the uncomfortable seat.
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Lane change indicators? I have these on my Ford and they are very useful.
 
Be aware that the Focus has seriously crappy rear passenger seat room and the road noise in the rear is horrific.

I'm still undecided as to whether I like the fuel filler idea on the new Focus's too.

My daughter had a 56 plate Astra diesel that I thought was pretty kewl. She got two BIG dogs in the boot and all the baby carp in the back
 
Rybo89 said:
^ they are utter **** on the Astra. Most annoying thing on my car.
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Pro tip of the evening: Push the stallk a touch further, le voila.

Also despite common belief the plastics in the cabin of the H are generally better than the focus, just the layout is **** and most of the infotainment is more **** than the focus. As mentioned they will be ok as a car, but not much else.
 
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Guessing the stalks are same between a normal Astra and a Astra vxr? At times I could stand on the stalk and it would only indicate once.

A few have noticed this annoying problem over on VXROnline. Pretty sure they will be the same between the cars.
 
aren't as bad as people make out on here but there you go...

I'd not spend 6k on a 09 plate, when I could save a few grand by getting an 07 which will exactly the same.
 
No issues with mine, got rid of my 2009 skoda octavia estate company car for a 3dr 2006 1.4 sxi and feels much better. (skoda was like a speed boat with a full boot).

The 1.4 is very slow but cheap on tax and insurance and its a timing chain. Replaced the cd30 with a cd30 mp3 that came with a on board computer display too (mpg, range etc) for £60. Its done 84k and looks like its had a new alternator and oil pressure switch but no knocks or bangs and feels solid enough. Getting the little one in and out the 3dr is fine too, you can tilt the seat forward and get in and stand in front of the car seat which is handy when its busy and need to close the door.

I was looking at the focus aswell but the 3dr astra looked better and the misses always wanted one.
 
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I had an astra H 3door CDTI 150 for a year when I was doing much higher milage a few years ago:

The engine was pretty good for a 4 cylinder black pump job, it was reliable and pretty economical, returning ~47mpg (30 mile each way commute + weekend town driving). The power delivery was not bad either.

Fortunately I only do 7k miles because there were a few things that i didn't like (no the stalks were never an issue for me):

The gearbox was showing early signs of bearing wear after just 70k miles (i got it at 50k and put 20k on it in ~14 months). This is apparently a common problem, where the gearbox inst specced to the torque of the diesel engines (and apparently the VXR as well). Its an expensive job and I was happy to part exchange for a new car once my mileage was cut down rather than fix it.

The interior plastics were on par with the mark 2 focus zetec I use at work, no better, no worse (I would say the interior quality of my 06 polo gti is much higher quality than either). However, the level of kit you get with a focus is much better than an astra, even a "Design" spec astra, supposedly the highest trim level, and you don't get air-con, MP3 CD player, cruise or an on board trip computer (this one annoyed me the most as the controls were all there and it had the correct display but it wasn't enabled!!!!)

The seats in the astra were pretty uncomfortable on a longer journey, they were just too firm and didn't provide quite the support I wanted, and whilst they part leathers I had were very adjustable, you couldn't adjust them quite to the position you would like.

Anyway whist I feel the 3 door astras do look better from the outside than the equivalent focus (5 door astra is hidious), I would certainly pick the focus each time having driven both.
 
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