Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer (2016 – 2022) Review

Vauxhall has managed to close the gap between the Astra and its main rivals. And in some cases, it’s even overtaken them. But competition is fierce in this market and while Vauxhall might benchmark Ford and Volkswagen, smart buyers will be comparing it to the SEAT Leon and the Skoda Octavia. And those are both better options.

The Astra Sports Tourer costs from around £16,500. But is Vauxhall’s new British-built model good enough to give rivals like the Volkswagen Golf Estate and the Ford Focus Estate a run for their money?

On paper, it certainly has a lot going for it. It might be almost the same size as the model it replaces, but Vauxhall has manged to increase interior space. In fact, this car can take three child seats across the back. It also has 540 litres of luggage space with the seats up and 1630 litres with the seats up down.

In fact, the Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer seems to have been designed with young families in mind. For the first time on a Vauxhall, the boot can be opened by sweeping your foot under the rear bumper – ideal for those moments when you’ve got your hands full with shopping, sleeping children, or your priceless vinyl collection.

Even better, the estate’s load area is devoid of any silliness. There are no wraparound lights that eat into the load space or trick rear suspension turrets that compromise the load bay. It’s just a good, old-fashioned, fuss-free square space.

Making its 2015 debut in the Astra Sports Tourer was Vauxhall’s new 1.6-litre BiTurbo diesel engine. With 160PS and 350Nm of torque, it’s got plenty of poke. Even better, it can achieve up to a claimed 67.3mpg and emits 112g/km of CO2.

Like the rest of the car, it’s competent – but it won’t set your heart alight. Behind the wheel, this Astra lacks the sense of driving enjoyment offered by the Focus, or the sense of quality offered by the Golf (although in both departments it is well ahead of the outgoing Astra).

There’s plenty of engine choices and also plenty of trim levels to choose from. Even driver’s on a budget won’t feel too hard done by. The basic Design model gets alloy wheels, Bluetooth, air-con, cruise control, a tyre-pressure monitoring system, LED daytime running lights and automatic lights.

The Ford Focus tends to get all the headlines when it comes to ride and handling balance, but in truth the Astra has been pretty close in recent years.

There is some fidgeting on poor road surfaces which is transmitted into the cabin more than is ideal, but it’s little more than a minor irritation in certain circumstances. The rest of the time the Astra does a good job of filtering out the worst of the road surfaces so it’s comfortable both in town and at higher speeds.

There’s more good news when the Astra Sports Tourer reaches a B-road too. There’s little body roll when turning into a corner and it responds promptly to your steering inputs.

Even if you’re not one for taking the long way home for kicks, the fact that the Astra is responsive and dependable makes any kind of journey a little more pleasurable.

You don’t have a massive choice here - essentially just two engines with five power outputs between them - but that might be because they’re all pretty good units.

The basic 1.2-litre is probably better than you’d imagine, with decent performance and good refinement. The 130PS version is a better real-world choice particularly if you plan on doing regular motorway trips.

As for the diesels, there’s not a huge amount to choose between them either. Both offer impressive fuel economy and useful torque from low engine speeds, and are pleasantly refined too with very little diesel clatter. The 105PS version is the best for money saving, but it’s not much more cash to go for the 122PS version and it has a little extra performance that is especially useful if you plan to carry heavier loads.

The Astra received a five star rating from EuroNCAP when it was tested in 2015, with hig scores across all the categories including 86 per cent for adult protection, 84 per cent for child protection, pedestrian mitigation at 83 per cent while safety assist was recorded at 75 per cent.

As standard, all Astras are fitted with front airbags including side chest and pelvis airbags for the front seat passengers and curtain airbags for front and rear passengers. A knee airbag for the driver or passenger is not available as standard or an option.

All versions of the Astra are fitted with ESC as standard, as well as cruise control with speed limiter. SRi models are also fitted with a driving assistance pack which includes features such as automatic city braking, following distance indicator and lane departure warning. The pack can also be upgraded with traffic sign recognition and pedestrian detection at extra cost.

Towing capacity for the Astra Sports Tourer varies between 1110kg braked for the 110PS petrol up to 1450kg for the 122PS diesel, with all the petrols rated at 660kg unbraked and 680kg unbraked for the diesel engines.

Unsurprisingly you get a very similar amount of room in the Astra Sports Tourer as you do in the regular hatch. Those in the front have more than enough room, with good head and legroom as well as shoulder and hip room too.

It’s similarly impressive in the back too, with competitive if not exceptional legroom but headroom is better than the class average, giving taller occupants the opportunity to be genuinely comfortable. As with most cars of this size the centre seat in the second row is not as well-shaped, but it is big enough to take a third child seat (within reason) which is certainly not a common feature.

As for the boot, the Sports Tourer has 540 litres of luggage space with the seats up and 1630 litres with the seats up down. That compares favourably to the estate versions of the Focus (476 and 1502) and the Golf (605 and 1620).

You get a lot of black plastic and little scope for brightening up the cabin with choices of trim or fabrics.

There is a fair smattering of soft touch surfacing in here,  but rather than contrast this with straightforward harder plastics, the Sports Tourer has more piano black instead - it’s a personal taste issue as to whether or not that’s a good thing.

The actual build quality of the Astra Sports Tourer is good however; the switches and buttons may be mixed in terms of how tactile they feel, but it is clear that they are robustly put together which inspires confidence that it is a car that is built to last.

Whichever spec of Astra Sports Tourer you choose you get a touchscreen display with DAB radio, Bluetooth for phone operation and audio streaming, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and six speakers. Business Edition Nav and SRi Nav trim add a sat nav function to the system including European mapping and increase the screen size from seven to eight inches.

To use, the system can be a bit of a pain. The screen itself works reasonably well and responds to inputs, but the colour scheme uses a mainly white and red colour scheme which makes it harder to see and quite low in contrast.

You can operate several functions via the steering wheel controls however, so you don’t have to stick to punching numbers on the screen.

Because the Astra in Sports Tourer form is aimed to cater more for a business customer than the hatchback, there are fewer trim and engine options available if you need the estate version. Prices start at £20,540 for the SE model with the 110PS 1.2 petrol engine, and the standard equipment list is strong.

You get the 7-inch touchscreen with DAB, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, air con, cruise control, alloy wheels and automatic lights. The 1.5 Turbo D with 105PS in the same trim is £21,560.

Business Edition Nav adds navigation to the touchscreen system plus a leather steering wheel, and is exactly £1,000 more than the SE for the 1.2 Turbo but with 130PS - if the 110PS engine is sufficient however, keep the money. The diesel only comes in 122PS guise and costs £22,685.

The top spec SRi costs from £24,800 for the 145PS 1.2 petrol up to £26,290 for the 1.4 Turbo auto, and adds sports seats, 17-inch alloys, LED headlights and the driving assistance pack.

All three versions of the 1.2-litre petrol have the same claimed combined fuel consumption of 54.3mpg, so you should be able to get towards the high end of 40mpg with relative ease. As for the diesels, the 122PS versions claims 64.2mpg with 65.7mpg for the 105PS version, so if you drive with care you should be able to get close to 60mpg.

Because there are relatively few engine options and trim levels to choose from, the Sports Tourer also fits into a pretty small range of insurance groupings.

The 110PS petrol and 110PS diesel in SE trim are both in group 16, as is the 1.4 petrol automatic in SRi Nav trim. The 145PS petrol and 122PS diesel in SRi Nav trim are in group 17, while the Business Edition Nav trim is in group 19 for the 130PS petrol and 20 for the 122PS diesel - the extra safety kit on SRi means it’s in a lower group than the Business Nav version, so may result in a small saving on your premium.

Because the Sports Tourer range is reduced compared to that of the regular hatch, there are fewer decisions to make when it comes to choosing a spec.

SE models get the 7-inch touchscreen with DAB, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, air con, cruise control, 16-inch alloy wheels and automatic lights. Business Edition Nav adds built-in navigation to the package, while SRi trim includes sports front seats, 17-inch alloy wheels, automatic wipers, LED headlights and the driving assistance pack.