The Vauxhall Astra has shifted its profile from being something of a conservative small/medium hatchback to a car endowed with stacks of driveability. The Astra has been a mainstay on our roads for the last 30 years but never has it been so commercially appealing. In the last couple of years, Vauxhall's design team have elevated the old Vauxhall brands to new heights with some cutting edge aesthetics. If you are wanting to view some of the models visit motors.co.uk.
A number of highly technical features have served to consolidate and indeed raise the Vauxhall Astra's status. Their cutting edge range of diesel ecoFLEX engines epitomise the best in diesel refinement. The 1.3CDTi returns a whopping 58mpg combined, but if you demand more power, the 1.7 or 2.0 CDTi versions could be more fitting. The price range on the Vauxhall Astra is wide to the extreme and there is a version for everyone. The base model is practically half the price of the top of the range model. Specification seems to be everything on the modern car, and on the Vauxhall website you are invited to configure your own car.
Felxride is a system that is present on the Insignia due to its premium status but has been adapted for the Astra. It's a system whereby the car adapts its settings according to the road conditions and your own driving habits. You can have a taut sports set up for those twisty country lanes, or, a soft cruising set up for long motorway drives.
The new Vauxhall Astra benefits from continuous damping control (CDC), four-channel ABS, traction control and EPS which make for a formidable driving aid when they're all working together to balance and guide your vehicle through the bends. These features illustrate how far motoring technology has come since the first Astra 3 decades ago.
The Watt's linkage system was thought up over one hundred years ago, but has found an ingenious place in modern suspension systems. Where normal suspension can flag in terms of lateral control, the Watt's linkage adds more balance to the wheels as the central axel rises.
The Watt's linkage system pretty much sums up the new Vauxhall Astra - a perfect blend of old and new, combined to produce motoring synergy. The Astra is an old favourite revamped for a new age.
By: Guts
Added: 20-12-11
