Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer estate (2010-2016)
“The Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer is a very well rounded family estate car, although isn’t quite up there with the best this class has to offer”
Pros
- Well judged ride quality
- Quite practical
- Smart styling
Cons
- Noisy diesel engines
- Poor secondhand values
- Not as efficient as rivals
Intended for buyers who want a bit more practicality from their mid-sized family car, the Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer is aimed squarely at the Volkswagen Golf estate, Hyundai i30 Tourer and SEAT Leon ST.
Like the standard Astra hatchback, the Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer has plenty of good things going for it. While its boot isn’t the largest you’ll find in this class (that title belongs to the extremely spacious Peugeot 308 SW), it’s still a decent size and there are plenty of generous storage cubbyholes dotted about the cabin.
The Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer makes light work of longer journeys, thanks to its composed ride and decent noise insulation. The car also deals with built-up areas and twisty roads quite well, although chunky front and rear window pillars do hamper visibility a bit and the Vauxhall isn’t as much fun to drive as a Ford Focus estate.
There’s a wide range of petrol and diesel engines. We’d recommend skipping past the 1.4- and 1.6-litre petrol engines because they feel a little underpowered and have high running costs. The diesel range includes 1.3-, 1.6-, 1.7- and 2.0-litre engines but there’s a clear favourite here. The 1.6-litre engine is the most modern, so is offers the best performance, lowest running costs and most refinement of any of the diesels.
Many of the problems that affect the five-door and three-door Vauxhall Astra are also present in the Sports Tourer, with a cluttered centre console and poor second hand values being the biggest issues.
The standard equipment on the entry-level car is also quite basic by class standards. There’s a range of trims available, including Design, Tech Line, SRi, BiTurbo and Elite. The Tech Line is our favourite in the range, because it brings with it kit such as alloy wheels, sat-nav, Bluetooth and a digital radio.
The Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer isn’t quite good enough overall to trouble the best in the class. If you can look past those issues, though, then there’s a fairly good (if not exactly class-leading) family estate car to be found here.
