Test drive Opel Astra sedan since 2007 sedan

Astra -correction

The oldest Latins all familiar stars in the sky called the unexpected word Astra. While the best minds of our time are fighting over this amazing paradox, we can be happy for the engineers of the company Opel: they added to the company's collection a quite pretty star new Opel Astra.
The current, or rather, the departing Astra stood on the company's conveyor for about five years. The change of generations of the model is clearly ritted. With the onset of 2010, Opel marketers intend to resign the old man, temporarily settling him in the nursing home at the assembly facilities of the Kaliningrad Autoor. And the latest model of Astra 2010 model year was represented by the public at the September Motor Show in Frankfurt. There she showed up on the catwalk with an electrical concept of the company. Generally speaking, Opel got a good job: literally half an hour from Frankfurt-on-Main, there is a branded plant in Rüsselsheim and an equally company testing training ground in Dudenhofen. Therefore, no one was particularly surprised when it became known that the company organized the new journalistic Opel Astra test in these places. Moreover, near Visbaden with his national park Rhine Taunus, where you can grab on winding paths and serpentines among the hills
Even with a cursory look at the novelty, you notice her relationship with the older brother of the European car of the year Opel Insignia. Similar stylistics is manifested in almost everything: a similar solution to the bulges of the sides, the recognizable fall of the upper contour of the side glazing, but in terms of the outer optics, especially the front block-phar, the newcomer model clearly surpassed. Bends of headlight circuits evoke memories of VW Tiguan, but the LED cilia a la Audi give the head lighting a completely harmonious appearance. Speaking of designer tricks. Compared to the previous generation, the new Astra has grown significantly: the front track expanded by 56 mm, the rear is 70 mm, and the base added 71 mm. And to add the silhouette of the car more rapid elongation forward, Opelian couturier went along the way of deceit of vision of the outside observer. To do this, the nickel -trial edging of the door glasses made a deliberately massive and attracting look. This part is designed to visually mask the fact that the roof of the machine is noticeably higher than this brilliant line. This straightforward course allowed both the style of observation and the head of the rear riders from contact with the ceiling protect.
The interior of the latest Astra will not surprise. In the sense that, being in it, you feel deja vu (as if you were sitting in Insignia). The same instrument panel, the same steering wheel, a familiar handbrake button, a music center with navigation on the front console everything is in the mind, everything is in place. True, I had to get used to the algorithm for managing music and navigation. The twist, also burdened by the pressing function, the solution is original, but not quite functional. A banal screen with the Touch Screen function would have come to place here. Fortunately, now it has become very inexpensive. Representatives of the company, by the way, are very proud of this fact: they say, now the level of comfort of the older model is available to the youngest customers. Here it is worth mentioning the availability for future Astra buyers such options such as adaptive head light, heating the steering wheel, a system of recognition of road markings and signs, as well as other smart electronics.
Under the hood of the car can be four gasoline and four diesel units. Regarding the supply of diesel Astra to Russia, the company's leadership has not yet been made, but everything will be presented with gasoline. Motors have a volume of 1.4 and 1.6 liters. Both are produced both in atmospheric and in a turbocharged version. The power range ranges from 100 to 180 hp.
The smallest engine is equipped only with a mechanical gearbox. The rest are also automatic transmission. It would be great if we would also supply diesel engines! I can only say that the trip to Opel Astra with a two-liter 160-horsepower CDTI under the hood gives much more adrenaline than on a similar 180-horsepower gasoline. The diesel torque is a great thing, you know. Thanks to him, the car is just rushing!
In general, riding on the new Astra forced the author of these lines to slightly change the personal perception of Opel brand machines. During the test, there was an opportunity to have an overwork for all the money (as far as the courage and driver's skill) was enough) along one of the landfill tracks in Dudenhofen. The ring route consists of almost continuous mother -in -law languages \u200b\u200bwith a difference in terrain ten meters.
The nuances of the suspension operating modes (there are three of them) manifested in all its glory. If in the standard and Tour the car behaved with predictable wolfness and tendency to demolition, then in Sport, if briefly, the author does not imagine how, in the real road situation, on dry asphalt, to make this machine get out of control. Of course, it is clear that, having set a goal, you can break your nose, but Astra’s handling was on top! It turns out that the point is the advanced suspension design.
Of course, the body’s hardness increased by 7% plays a role, but the suspension still plays a large role. Firstly, the rigidity of all shock absorbers here is controlled by electronics. Inside the buildings of the anterior ammas there is an additional spring, which is included in the work during the steering process. Rear suspension is a real hybrid. Designers added to the usual multi -link Watt mechanism. The traditional part of the beam is responsible for comfort with rectilinear motion, and Watt gives the design stiffness in the transverse direction, which is extremely useful in terms of controllability.
The landfill, but a trip on real roads gives a much wider range of impressions of the car than flights on a closed highway. In addition, the vast majority of potential buyers in their thoughts do not hold the last juices in extreme modes from their car daily. Immediately make a reservation that moving along the roads of Germany is far from the same as riding in domestic directions. It was not possible to find a plot with traditional potholes, waves and quasi -road joints this time. Only in one place on the provincial path caught a hundred -meter section with several patches. And far from any section of the autobahn can be tanned at a speed of more than 130 km/h. But here everything is simple: the suspension in the Tour mode, and you saw peacefully in the left row. The smoothness of the course is not like a limousine, of course, but still very good. But on the tracks crossing the wooded slides of the Rhine Taunus in different directions, it was still possible to slightly fuck. Fortunately, the chambers measuring the speed there still seemed to be not observed, and a small number of Aboriginal cars made it possible to hope for the absence of hidden patrols of the road police.
The results of the Visbaden Special Stearing Council were fully confirmed by landfill impressions. Only the egregious stupidity of the driver can knock down this machine from the turning path. The maximum speed in the bend reached during the dough is difficult, but eyeballs the size of a saucer among the drivers of oncoming vehicles were fixed regularly. Sport suspension, lower transmission, gas to the taste of a six-speed mechanics allows you to go very differently, but the author of these lines really liked to move almost only on the third, adjusting the speed with a gas pedal and only occasionally sticking the second and fourth gears. It turned out, by the way, that no matter how great the driver’s love for high speeds of the motor and speed, he can always communicate with passengers without raising his voice. Most likely, the acoustic comfort was worked tightly here.
Competitors
DANDY
French cars in Russia do not buy because they have powerful motors, excellent reliability or image of a cool car. Models such as Peugeot 308 are acquired due to advanced design. The appearance is at least recognizable! The space of the salon is large enough to accommodate all the systems necessary for the modern citizen and options. And from a technical point of view, this machine is no more than a slightly modernized PEUGEOT 307 predecessor model. The minimum amount of money required for the purchase of the 308th, 660,000 rubles.
The ancestor
The current Volkswagen Golf is already the sixth generation of the German bestseller. With a saying from good, they are not looking for good in Germany. Only for this reason, the epithets are rustic and averaged for the design of the machine. The machine demonstrates unchanged quality, reliability, economy, ergonomics and other virtues of the German automobile industry. The design is based on the time-tested platform of the predecessor model Golf V. The Kaluga assembly car can be purchased for 590,000 rubles.
CONSERVATIVE
Nissan Tiida (according to Nissan Marketectologists) was created with a sight of customers with conservative views on automobile design. What happened as a result to judge customers, but the appearance of the car is really an amateur. Moreover, a fan of the designer school Renault, apparently. At the same time, with ergonomics, internal volume and comfort, everything is in order of Japanese is a Japanese. To get behind the wheel of your own Tiida, it is enough to have a little more than 540,000 rubles in your wallet.
SPECIFICATIONS
Opel Astra
Dimensions (mm) 4419x1814x1510
Wheel base (mm) 2685
Trunk volume (L) 370795
Slave. engine volume (cm3) 1598
Max. Power (L.S.) 180
Max. Twisting the moment (NM) 230
Max. Speed \u200b\u200b(km/h) 221
Acceleration 0100 km/h (c) 8.5
Material: Batushenko Alexey

 

A source: Mkobil magazine [November/2009]