The Astra used to be the bluest of blue collar vehicles, the choice of the terminally unadventurous customer looking for something inexpensive to buy and run that wasn't intimidatingly foreign. Back in the Eighties, the Astra's heartland was the sort of guy who liked beer and football but would be intimidated by a curry house menu. How things change. It's now become massively more sophisticated. Its old clientele has shifted its loyalty to Korean badges and it now campaigns to a far more informed buyer profile. The latest model has found a ready market and deservedly so, as it's superbly built and attractively styled.

This Astra is significantly bigger than the model that preceded it. There's been an 18cm increase in length, 7cm more wheelbase and the track is 6cm wider. It gives rise to good space for three adults to occupy the rear bench and a boot of 370 litres, which is equal to the previous generation car. Vauxhall is particularly pleased with the array of storage options it has installed around the cabin, designing purpose-built receptacles for cups, sunglasses, coins, CDs and the other paraphernalia that people tend to have cluttering up their cars.