Faults:

Steering wheel control went bad so far.

General Comments:

This is the best, reliable, strong, powerful and fast small engine I've ever had.

The car is very naughty on the road if you really understand and maintain it up to standard. Catch me if you can in my 1.8i Sport.

Faults:

The 1.6 XEP engine is on death row. It does cost too much money to keep it running perfect. My catalyst was replaced from dirty and bad fuel (the car don't have fuel filter), and the twinport intake was replaced also because it was making a lot of noise.

General Comments:

The rest of the car is the best that exists in the market, only the engine is too old for Euro5.

Faults:

The engine kept on burning oil - disturbing since it was not a diesel engine.

The steering wheel acted strange. Power steering became heavy duty turning.

The engine had black outs.

General Comments:

The car is excellent on the road. It handles turning, braking and speeding as a car should.

However, it seems that all of the electric work and all... well, after having owned the 3-year old car for a year, we experienced a drive you would not believe. The engine gave up as we were going down hill, and so did the power steering. When we finally got the car to at halt, my boyfriend was sitting WITH THE STEERING WHEEL IN HIS LAP!

Faults:

The car consumes a lot of gas, it is far from the 12 km/l that the sales person offered, actually we are consuming around at 6.1 km/l.

Alternator went out at 20,000 km.

Gas Injectors problems at 28,000 km.

The wheel is bit unstable after 120 km/h

Head lights problems since 5,000 km, still present (lost their bright, the adjusting level got damaged), and in general they don give enough light in the road.

General Comments:

I share this car with my wife, and I am comfortable leaving her the car to drive it along tough Mexico City’s streets, that means: I trust the car (having a not reliable car in this City might be dangerous).

The car is very comfortable and even luxurious for its class (it has tons of useful gadgets and equipment that make it out-stand).

Faults:

Absolutely nothing in 8000 km/5000 miles.

General Comments:

Superb car. My third Astra. Hoped to get new version (it's a company car) but the estate version doesn't go on sale till November. End of line model loaded with extras - radio CD/alloy wheels/metallic paint/automatic wipers/self-dipping rear view mirror. Steering seems stiff compared to previous 1.7 DTi model, although economy is similar, and performance is scorching in comparison.