Friday 11th December 2009

The sixth generation Vauxhall Astra hit UK showrooms after its worldwide debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Despite being more expensive than the fifth generation, the sixth generation Astra had strong sales success in the UK, where it was the best- selling car in June 2010 with well over 10,000 sales – outselling its crucial rival the Ford Focus by nearly 50%. This, however, was at a time when production of the Mk2 Focus was being scaled back prior to the launch of a new MK3 model in early 2011. The Estate version of the Astra, the ‘Sports Tourer’, debuted at the 2010 Paris Motor Show and went on sale shortly afterwards, with a starting price of £16,575 for the ES version, then Exclusiv, SRI and SE versions, with the SE costing from £20,345. The seventh generation Astra entered production at Ellesmere Port in 2015. In BBC2’s Top Gear, the sixth generation Astra with the Tech Line trim, was used as their fourth “Reasonably Priced Car”.