Faults:

Nothing mechanically.

Front doors have recently begun creaking for no apparent reason at low speeds over medium size pot-holes and speed bumps. Very annoying and difficult to pinpoint the exact cause. Any ideas?

General Comments:

The Astra is a great handling car especially when fitted with lowered suspension and low profile tyres.

Throttle response (or lack thereof) is a little annoying, but performance is excellent for the class.

The seats are also VERY uncomfortable at first, but become better over time. Driving position is also very high and leg room isn't great for tall drivers, which doesn't really inspire you to push the car dynamically.

If anyone has any idea as to why the doors creak intermittently I'd love to hear from them.

Overall though the car is easily the best in class. I only wish that I'd waited a while on buying it so I could have picked up an SRi!

Faults:

The remote control for the convertible roof and doors does not work as advertised. Very intermittent.

Especially when the weather is hot.

General Comments:

This is an excellent car to drive.

Very good suspension for the tyres and suspension.

Dealers still have no info or brochures on the car. Still advertising the wrong colour.

Black is a flat midnight black, not metallic charcoal.

Service depot insisted that I had to stand with the remote key pressed against the drivers door to get it to work.

Service depot has no service manuals or training on the convertible. Still trying to fob me off.

Faults:

Nothing.

General Comments:

I bought my Astra hatchback just recently. Before purchasing, I test drove almost every small hatchback available on the market. I eventually chose the Astra because of its looks, handling and performance. In my opinion the Astra is the best small car available in Australia for the price.

Astra is very hard to fault, but if you were being really picky, then you should take note of the following:

- The seats are VERY hard, I'm planning to install some new ones next month.

- The gear change lacks the precision and smoothness common to Japanese cars.

- The throttle is weird, you really have to adapt to it.

- Don't get the factory CD player if you have to pay extra! The player is terrible. I was going to have the CD player installed (roughly 800 bucks), but after hearing the sound quality I decided against it. You can easily get a much better quality after-market CD player head unit for under $500 installed.

But don't let these negative comments put you off, no car is perfect. In terms of a package, the Astra is second to none for the price. And don't just take my word for it, the Astra has won the 2001 NRMA/RACV best small car (under $25000). It also won the same award last year.

Another piece of advise is that you should use premium fuel. It will give you a much better ride and more power. I actually did some calculation, using premium fuel (I use Shell Optimax) will cost you roughly the same as using unleaded. Although unleaded fuel is cheaper, but Optimax will allow you to drive further.