Test drive Opel Astra sedan since 2007 sedan

Astra in the country of sedanov

Probably, it was necessary in the end, demand gives birth to a proposal. And the sedans love us especially like a sip of cold beer on a hot day. I have already decided that the beautiful Astra hatchback, which appeared in a new body four years ago, has forever changed the representation of Russians about the decent C-class car. Because he diverges, not as an example to many competitors, sales are perfectly doubled with each reporting period. Now, with the advent of the Sedan version, we must suppose they will triple.
Yes, we are familiar!
Not having time to appear at the dealers, Astra in the back of the sedan immediately found customers, so I managed to see this car in the crowd, but did not have time to make out. Then it seemed to me that with the appendage from behind, it turned out to be as uncompained as some well -known cars born of hatchbacks and later transformed into sedans. Western Europe, by the way, is still completely complete without a large glove compartment behind. This type of body on relatively small cars mainly for us, for third countries. However, when I saw Opel Astra Sedan in the parking of GM, I realized with joy that I was mistaken. In front of me stood a rather well -tailored solid car. Let the hatchback still like it more, but this one is at all good.
 
Designers from Ryusselsheim, creating a new sedan, borrowed a long -standing chassis on which a station wagon (2703 mm wheelbase) is built. Therefore, the trunk does not look an imposed, random element. Plus, the chassis made it possible to make the salon spacious, and the luggage compartment itself is quite spacious, although not without flaws.
Stylish head light, floating on the wings, the chrome bar, everything in the front line is well familiar with the hatchback. But it is especially pleasant that the silhouette of the car as a whole did not lose the inherent model of swiftness, it seems that it pressed to the ground, like a sprinter in anticipation of the Start team! Here, of course, it all depends on what is under the hood.
And under the hood, the Ecotec gasoline engine. Astra Sedan has three of them to choose from or 1.4 liters with a capacity of 90 hp, or 1.6 l 115 hp, or 1.8 l with a capacity of 140 hp. There are also three transmissions: 5-speed mechanics, a 4-band machine or robotic EasyTronic. It seems to be everything else in stock: front and lateral airbags, ESP and ABS, ISOFIX mounts for installing children's seats and a central lock, electric windows, air conditioning, heated external mirrors with electric drives, heating the front seats.
 
I got almost a top version of 1.8 with the automatic transmission for the test. Running ahead slightly, I will say that for the city and the country's highways, the power was enough with a margin. Well, if it seemed that there was not enough I just activated the Sport mode.
Steering wheel, seat, trunk
The salon switched to Sedan from the hatchback almost unchanged. The undoubted plus of the soft plastic of the front panel, smoothly leaving for the joint with a windshield. Minus and I'm picky! In offensive gaps of this plastic with inserts for metal. Another plus comfortable leather bagel. But why was to deprive her of the adjustment by departure, and not just in height? Probably, out of economy, which never allowed me to get a job in a driver’s place as I love. I could not find a compromise in the position of the steering wheel and position of the seat.
That's why, everything seems to be invented, even a place for a block of adjustments of the chair on the left side of the seats. So there is no! We need to come up with something new one lever on the right under the seat, the other type of jack on the left side. Adjusting the back of the back is in place, and I can’t find a lumbar backdoing, it turns out on the right! With my left hand, I already reached her and look for and twist, and somehow the right one is somehow wrong. And the shape of the back itself is not optimal: in order for the back of the head to find contact with the headrest, the back must be put almost vertically. And this despite the fact that the seat holds you well on corners. When choosing an adjustment, do not forget to check how much space remains above your head: a significant part of it eats the hatch's casing.
 
What else can you complain about? The liquid crystal screen of the display on the console is overloaded with information, and the space under it by adjusting functions. Here you have a volume vernier, and the switching buttons from the tuner to the CD, and the joystick A la I-Drive CD Magns swallows six discs, but each has to load into the receiving device after a joystick manipulations.
 
Of course, all this can be figure out to be a habit. And if she is not? By selling so many machines in Russia, you could think about making a multi-systemic system all the more so since the Slavs, Poles are collected by the car.
With space inside, everything is normal. The salon is spacious, which is not for every representative of the golf class is characteristic. But if you decide to take some trifle on the road is unlikely to find a place. The two -story glove compartment only at first glance seems spacious, but in fact its volume is not enough. And, except for the eye, he is the only closing container. There are still pockets in the doorway shallow, and in the tunnel a nest under a bottle of 0.5.
Little.
 
But the back is spacious, clean and not rich. The yard is still the 21st century. Why such an inattention to the rear passengers? You could place a block of adjustment with a microclimate by a meferred on the end of the tunnel casing, it would not hurt. The back back is folded in a ratio of 40:60, there is an armrest, it is a lid of a hatch for long -meters.
And finally, the highlight of the trunk! It opens with a button on the front console, which is inconvenient if you are going to a car with a bunch of purchases. You can’t open it from the key fob, the key too. So, you need to unload purchases, climb into the salon well if you help more than one. But the button is pressed and the M-shaped profile of a small size rises, opening a narrow loading gap. Bolshelorite things will not fit here, I warn you right away. And the suitcases checked in three doses. First, lower it into the gap, turning it across the car, then put it, unfold and push it. By the way: the arches of the rear wheels eat up a lot of space inside.
So the trunk is rather just a large pocket, albeit 490 liters with a volume of 490 liters.
You can give the heat!
Now you can talk about the running qualities of the car. Suspension suspension is an undoubted plus. If large individual pits and potholes Astra notes what is called a body, then a small comb a cobblestone bridge or a tram slab does not notice the tracks at all. The condition of the carriageway is determined only by the fractional clatter of the tires and that's it. The low borders of Opel, too, can be said, ignores, easily jumping on them.
Energy under the hood is enough for an active driving around the city, although the gear shifts at first are very noticeable gas, an arrow is about 4500, a push, a transition to a higher level. Well, if you want, as they say, you can simply press an inconspicuous Sport button on the console and the speed set will happen much more interesting!
The machine selector is quite convenient, although in the Parking position and adjacent to the console almost closely. Put it in position D under ordinary conditions or on a deuce, if in traffic and forget about it.
The brakes are clear and grabbing, they are almost in abundance.
 
The headlight control unit stands in Auto mode, you can also forget where it is.
We rode with Astra all day around the city, while my mother! I did not pay attention to the triple computer. And on it is a persistent wish to fill in gasoline. Why is that? In the morning he poured half a tank that the average consumption in the selected mode is 15.6 liters per hundred kilometers. I wanted to say an immodest appetite, so I myself did not deny myself anything ...
 
What, many comments? Well, so what? If the car did not like it at all, you don’t look for how to improve it just go further. And Astra Sedan, no doubt, is the optimal price/quality ratio. There is no snobbery of Golf from the people, there is no simplification of Korean machines. Perhaps that is why the buyer votes for Opel Astra Sedan with his ruble. At prices from 497 to 622 thousand, it is not difficult to do this.

Dmitry Semenov
Photo by the author and Opel
 
 

A source: Magazine Automobile Izvestia [May 2008]