Opel Astra

The Opel Astra is a 3 and 5-door hatchback / 4-door sedan / saloon / 5-door wagon / estate / 2-door convertible / 3-door sedan delivery (panel van) from Opel, built from 1991, when airbags, anti-lock brakes and Japanese build quality became the world standard. Under the bonnet: ubl.

How it came about

The Opel Astra is a compact car/small family car (C-segment) developed and produced by the German automaker Opel since 1991, currently at its sixth generation. It was first launched in September 1991 as a direct replacement to the Opel Kadett. As of 2025, the car slots between the smaller Corsa supermini and the larger Frontera subcompact crossover SUV.

The hardware

Power comes from ubl. It shifts through a 5-speed manual / 6-speed manual / 4-speed automatic. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is convert|25. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Family and rivals

Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Opel Kadett / Vauxhall Astra; its successor was the Chevrolet Cruze / Chevrolet/Holden Cruze (for Chevrolet, Saturn and Holden Astra) / Chevrolet Cobalt#Second generation (2011) / Chevrolet Cobalt (South America) / Opel Combo (for O; assembly was at Antwerp. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Volvo 850, the Dodge Viper, the Renault Clio — show what else the money bought that year. Its Opel stablemates include the Opel Sintra and the Opel K-180.