AUTOCARS SPORT: Saturn Astra

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Monday, December 27, 2010

Video Galore: New Opel Astra Interior, Trailers and Interviews

Once upon a time not too long ago, you'd consider yourself lucky if you found a single official video of a newly presented car. Nowadays, carmakers churn them out like sausages at a factory. Only today, along with the first official interior shots of the Astra, Opel released five new videos on its hatchback. Something tells us that most will stop at the first animated film showing the Astra's interior, but for those that might be interested, there's four more films including an interview with Mark Adams, VP of Design at GM Europe and with John Puskar, Director of Interior Design. The latter seems like the kind of guy who'd design a really, really, relaxed cabin...

2010 Opel Astra Interior Unveiled: New Gallery with 45 High Res Photos

Opel and its sister company Vauxhall have published the first interior photos of the all-new, sixth generation Astra, which is due to make its world debut at this September's Frankfurt Motor Show and reach European showrooms by late this year. Along with the interior shots, the German automaker also issued a new set of studio photos as well as sketches of the Astra that show the evolution of the exterior and interior styling of the car.

As anticipated from the various spy shots, the 2010 Astra's cabin is a fresh reinterpretation of the Insignia's design, which isn't a bad thing at all. Highlights include the recurring wing and blade motifs, the wraparound instrument panel with deep set gauges and the ambient lighting that provides illumination from above the centre console and within the door handle recesses.

The company says that the interior also stands out due to the high quality of the materials which can be seen in areas like the grained, soft-touch surfaces, the textured panels, the chrome trim elements, and the feel of operating buttons and switches.

"Our goal was to make the perceptual quality in the interior of the next generation Astra as great as that of the Opel/Vauxhall Insignia," says Peter Hasselbach, in charge of Design Appearance Quality. "This is in line with Opel/Vauxhall's mission to bring innovations and quality to the compact class."

Opel claims that with the new Astra it has addressed one of the most common complaints on the previous model, that of limited storage areas in the cabin. The company said that it has created a raft of "clever storage solutions" like a shelled sunglass case inserted above the door opening on the driver's side, coin slots and pen holders moulded into the inside edge of the glove box lid while the glove box itself has two removable compartments.

There's also a second mini-glove box below the light switch, an under-seat drawer beneath the passenger seat which is big enough to hold a pair of shoes while the centre console can accommodate nine CD cases, as well as having a small storage area and an insert for two cup holders.

"It was important for the team not only to find places for the items to fit, but for the new Astra's interior to still look great, and maintain high quality standards throughout the cabin," says Max Kuncl, Performance Integration Manager.

For more details on the 2010 Opel / Vauxhall Astra click here.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Buick to get 2010 Opel Astra in China?

It seems that China has become some kind of paradise for Buick as the brand is getting some of the best products that General Motors has to offer. After the Park Avenue and Regal which are essentially rebadged variants of the Holden Statesman/Caprice and Opel Insignia respectively, it looks like that Buick's Chinese range will also benefit from the addition of the next generation Opel Astra, the first photos of which you can check out here.

These spy pictures from Chinese website Auto Sina show that, just as with the Insignia-based Buick Regal, the only significant difference between the European 2010 Opel Astra hatchback and the Chinese market model will most likely be limited to Buick's family crest and waterfall-style grille.

source: http://carscoop.blogspot.com

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

2010 Opel Astra: First Official Photos of Hatch, GTC Coupe and Estate models

These are the first full blown photos of GM's all-new Opel / Vauxhall Astra that is destined to make its world debut as a five-door hatchback at the Frankfurt motor show in September 2009. Along with the photos of the five-door model, Opel also released two sketches depicting the new Astra GTC which looks more like a fastback coupe than your traditional three-door hatchback, and the more practical and spacious Astra Estate.

As expected, the new Astra's exterior styling echoes that of the well received Insignia with details such as the shape of the headlamps, the roofline and the concave surfacing on the doors all pointing towards the larger Opel. Overall, the new Astra hatch looks sportier and more dynamic in an upscale sort of way compared to the current generation model.

While Opel has yet to release photos of the interior, previous spy shots reveal that the Astra's interior is heavily inspired from the Insignia with the dashboard featuring four deeply positioned instrument dials in front of the driver and a swoopy central console with an elevated lower part.

All three variants of the Astra are based on GM's new front-wheel-drive Delta platform that is also found on the Chevrolet Cruze and Volt models. However, from what we learnt, the chassis has been modified by Opel's engineers to offer more dynamic handling to Opel's trio.

The 2010 Astras will be available with numerous diesel and gasoline powertrains including GM's an all-new 1.4-liter turbocharged petrol engine that will be offered with outputs ranging from 120 hp to 140 hp and torque values between 175 and 200 Nm.

The 5-door hatchback versions of the newly developed Astra will find their way to Opel showrooms across Europe by the end of the year, while the GTC coupe and the Estate variants should follow by mid-2010.