The test of the Opel Astra: after the preview in which Simone told us every detail of the sixth generation of the German compact sedan, we finally drove it. The first contact is; with the hybrid plug-in version with 180 horsepower , in the more & ugrave; rich, the Ultimate .
- DESIGN AND DIMENSIONS
- HABITABILITY & # 39; AND INTERIORS
- TECHNICAL DATA Astra 1.6 Turbo 180 hp e-EAT8
- TEST Astra 1.6 Turbo 180 hp e-EAT8
- ADAS AND SAFETY
- EQUIPMENT AND PRICES
- ALTERNATIVES
- VIDEO
< li> TECHNOLOGY ON BOARD
DESIGN AND DIMENSIONS 
The design? I like the new stylistic language of the brand. So it is l & rsquo; Astra, between cuts, edges and ribs and taut lines, a little & rsquo; muscular with pronounced wheel arches, it has considerable appeal. Seen from the side, it has a particularly dynamic appearance thanks to the rear pillar which is very inclined forward. However, it never goes unnoticed, even with more colors; sober of this, which & egrave; the Kult Yellow with the two-tone contrasting finish, with the black roof.
Here are the dimensions : length 4.374 mm x width 1.860 mm x height 1.472 mm, with a wheelbase of 2.675 mm.
HABITABILITY? AND INTERNAL 
Even inside & egrave; changed everything: the new dashboard & egrave; dominated by a single rectangular element, which they call Pure Panel (seen for the first time on the Mokka) and includes the digital instrumentation and the infotainment display. Both displays are 10-inch and oriented towards the driver.
Under the central touch display there are some physical keys dedicated to the functions that are used most; often. I know that c & rsquo; & egrave; who would like to eliminate them completely but not & egrave; a matter of taste or why & eacute; maybe someone try more; taste in physically pressing a button, & egrave; only a practical reason: while driving, you are less distracted and immediately check the climate or you get to the desired menu more; quickly.
Speaking of details: & egrave; pleasant finish in the upper part of the soft dashboard. Overall, the materials and assemblies are of good quality.
Habitability speaking, four people are very comfortable, five people do what they can, as on any car in this segment. room for the head even for the most & ugrave; high, the one for the knees is not; abundant and perhaps those more & ugrave; & ldquo; long & rdquo; they could touch the seat rails with their feet. If you are looking for space, there is no shortage of compartments and compartments in the passenger compartment, even on the central tunnel.
The trunk of the new Astra has a capacity; of 422 liters (not the best in its segment but it is a good value) for & ograve; in the case of the plug-in hybrid variant it loses 70 and stops at 352 . With the rear seat folded down 1339 liters for all the others, 1268 for our PHEV.
TECHNICAL DATA ASTRA 1.6 TURBO 180 HP
- Engine: turbo petrol
- Number of cylinders: 4
- Displacement: 1598 cm3
- Power: 110 kW/150 hp at 6000 rpm
- Total system power: 132 kW/180 hp
- Maximum torque: 360 Nm
- Capacity battery: 12.4 kWh
- Transmission: 8-speed automatic gearbox
- Drive: front
- Curb weight (including driver): 1678 kg
- Tires: 225/40 R18
- Capacity; fuel tank: 40 l
- Speed; maximum: 225 km/h (135 in electric mode)
- Acceleration 0 – 100 km/h: 7.6 s
- WLTP combined cycle consumption: 1.0-1, 1 l/100 km
- WLTP mixed cycle CO2 emissions: 25 g/km
- Autonomy in mode & agrave; electric min/max: 56/58 km
< li> Electric motor power: 81.2 kW/110 hp at 2500 rpm
ROAD TEST 
The first impact is; positive: I like the driving position. The seat is comfortable, in Alcantara as standard in this top Ultimate trim, and here even in Nappa leather , which & egrave; an optional from 1,350 euros. The price includes front seats with massage function and 10-way electrically adjustable, heated rear seats and windshields. The session is; low, and this already; I like it, and whatever your size is, you will find the ideal driving position. The ergonomic seats are a source of pride for the German manufacturer: I recommend you read the dedicated article on HDmotori.
Visibility front & egrave; good, behind is not & egrave; the maximum. Fortunately, here as standard there are the front and rear parking sensors and the rear view camera with 360 & deg; vision, very useful in the most maneuvers; complicated.
As already said our Astra for this first contact & egrave; the plug-in hybrid: the powertrain , combined with an eight-speed automatic gearbox, & egrave; consisting of a 110 kW (150 hp) 1.6 four-cylinder turbo petrol engine and an electric motor with 81.2 kW (110 hp) for a total system output of 180 horsepower and maximum torque of 360 Nm . The traction is; front.
Opel says 12.4 kWh battery, if & egrave; 100% charge, can & ograve; allow you to travel up to 56-58 kilometers in mode; purely electric. But this we will be able to verify only in a more test; long, where we will have time to load it and carry out a real complete test in mode; electric, to understand the real autonomy with zero emissions. The Astra on plug promises a full battery charge in about 2 hours with a 22 kW Wallbox.
The & ldquo; MyOpel & quot; app allows you to set the plug-in charging times from your smartphone, while & egrave; charging connected to the electricity grid.
In the city it is rather comfortable, quiet; the steering wheel & egrave; light, even when maneuvering. The pair of our plug-in hybrid & egrave; certainly of great help in more traffic; intense.
Perhaps the pav & eacute; and the holes of Milan (but to tell the truth of almost all of our cities) are not ideal for these 18-inch wheels, standard on this set-up, but with that size and the lowered tires I imagine that it will be done & agrave; surely forgive as soon as we find some & rsquo; of curves.
We also covered a few kilometers in fully electric mode : obviously great silence on board, just a little bit; the noise of the tires. Acceleration from a standstill does not egrave; not bad and it seems it can reach 135 per hour without resorting to the four-cylinder petrol engine. Consumption in the city? Too few kilometers traveled to report any relevant data.
Left the city ; behind us, we tried to test the Astra between curves . It steering & egrave; quite ready, perhaps not so; direct like that of some competitors, but & egrave; linear and precise. The trim , as I had noticed on the occasion of the test of the small Corsa, in the cars of the German brand & egrave; more and more; rigid compared to that of the other & ldquo; cousins & rdquo; of the group. Here, too, the suspension calibration is; rather rigid but not too much, not like a true sportswoman, but it has a safe and predictable behavior.
Whatever the curve you face, our Astra sleeps little and by slightly raising the pace you can & ograve; also have some fun. In mode Sport, if the battery is charge, the heat engine and the electric one push well together; the steering becomes artificially a bit & rsquo; more heavy.
The eight-speed automatic , already tested on other cars of the Group, it will not have; the speed of certain double clutch transmissions, for & ograve; he gets along well: for sure & egrave; able to better manage the good torque available. His numbers are not bad: from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.6 seconds and reaches a speed; maximum of 225 km per hour. But if you are a bit & rsquo; more demanding, you will have to wait patiently for the arrival of the top-of-the-range hybrid that will offer; a system output of 225 hp. Even in our short test on extra-urban roads, we did not have the opportunity to record significant values for consumption.
I didn't take it on the highway but a ride on the ring road we did it to understand how it fares at speed; more high: the voice of the thousand-six turbo petrol is not; never too intrusive, you will only have to deal with some rustle. L & rsquo; Astra mi & egrave; always seemed rather precise and stable even in the corners faced at speed; more high. Thanks to the automatic, at speed; constant, the engine turns really low and this obviously goes in favor of consumption .
In this regard, the House declares a fuel consumption in the mixed cycle of about 1/1.1 liters per 100 km: I think reaching such a value is hard, for & ograve; in a much more test in-depth we will see where it can & ograve; to arrive the electrified Astra.
For sure I already & agrave; noticed that even with the battery practically discharged, the consumptions remain more; than humans, and we already have; seen in other tests that rarely happens with plug-ins. At the end of our journey, the average was still around 4.5 liters per 100 kilometers .
Overall this Astra me & egrave; it seemed like a car that makes us feel at ease, right from the first kilometers together, with safe behavior and boasting a good balance between performance and consumption. Positive vote also for the braking system: as soon as I am there possible to put it & ograve; a little & rsquo; more under pressure.
ADAS AND SECURITY 
The new Astra & egrave; safe. Gi & agrave; in the entry setting, the Edition, also available for this plug-in hybrid, & egrave; there is a Safety Pack which includes: lane maintenance assistance, cruise control, emergency braking, Intelligent Speed adaptation, speed limiter, fatigue detector and recognition of speed limits.
In the slightly higher version, the Elegance, the adaptive cruise control is also added, with Start & amp; Stop function, only if c & rsquo; & egrave; automatic transmission.
On this version & egrave; Intelli-Drive 1.0 system as standardwith: accident warning with automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection, active lane positioning (that is, it keeps the Astra in the center of the lane by automatically activating the steering), extended traffic sign recognition, blind spot detection and rear cross-traffic alert. To get it on the other versions you have to add another 550 Euros.
In this first short test I noticed that the maintenance of the trajectory is; sweet when he corrects and will not put you & agrave; never in trouble.
On the Ultimate top of the range there are standard Pixel Matrix LED headlights : LED matrix active headlights, which greatly improve the safety of your travels, but which could be; judge only when it will be able to drive it even in the dark.
TECHNOLOGY ON BOARD 
The new generation of the German compact is; definitely more; technological: since the entry level version & egrave; as standard the Pure Panel with the 10 & rdquo; digital cluster, so & igrave; such as infotainment display, DAB radio with 6 speakers, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto both in mode & agrave; wireless , two USB ports. Digital instrumentation cannot be done; reconfigure completely but it provides all the information you need and quite clearly.
Starting with the Business Elegance version the infotainment system can & ograve; be commanded with voice recognition : c & rsquo; & egrave; & quot; Hey Opel & quot; , the networked voice command system with natural language recognition. Personal preferences can be saved as profiles; the infotainment system recognizes the driver or passengers via their smartphone: so & igrave; different people can activate their specific settings by simply touching the display.
Standard c & rsquo; & egrave; the navigator , which online in real time (with the Connected Navigation Plus ) detects traffic jams as they occur; the maps are updated in a modalit & agrave; & quot; over the air & quot; , so & igrave; & egrave; the most popular version is always available; recent. The system I would say works pretty well. The smartphone, if & egrave; among those compatible, it always loads in modality & agrave; wireless.
On this top of the range version c & rsquo; & egrave; also standard l & rsquo; Head Up Display: the serious one, which projects essential information directly onto the windshield in our field of vision. This older generation recently boasts a larger projection area; wide and better resolution; you can & ograve; set the system to display different pages linked to the dashboard, with pop-up alerts, incoming calls and media information.
EQUIPMENT AND PRICES 
He already has prices; Simone spoke in his preview, however for now these are the engines available: a 1.2 turbo petrol three-cylinder direct injection with 110 hp, with 6-speed manual gearbox, combined also to the 130 hp version of the same engine, also offered with an 8-speed automatic gearbox.
For those who grind many kilometers c & rsquo; & egrave; the 1.5 diesel four-cylinder 130 bhp, available with a 6-speed manual gearbox or an eight-speed automatic.
And then there is & rsquo; & egrave; our 180hp plug-in hybrid , for which & egrave; only automatic; as said, more & ugrave; ahead will come even the more & ugrave; powerful 225 hp. In 2023 it will come; launched the 100% electric version, the Astra-e .
The new Astra & egrave; offered in five versions : Edition, Elegance, Business Elegance, GS Line and Ultimate. The standard equipment & egrave; good, already in the entry level version you will find: 16 & quot; alloy wheels, front and rear LED headlights, front and rear parking sensors, multifunction leather steering wheel, on-board technology and the ADAS that I already have there; reported and much more.
This plug-in hybrid you can & ograve; already have in the Edition version with 35,700 Euros, to reach the 42,700 of this Ultimate top of the range. And if you want it station, c & rsquo; & egrave; the Sports Tourer, with the same petrol, diesel and even plug-in engines.
Avr & agrave; also the platform in common with other & ldquo; cousins & rdquo; of the Stellantis Group (DS 4 and Peugeot 308, for example), so & igrave; like the engines and other components, but the Astra still maintains, as far as possible, its identity; Opel.
THE ALTERNATIVES 
C segment > compact sedans & egrave; very fierce but what are the real alternatives to the Astra plug-in hybrid? C & rsquo; & egrave; the & ldquo; cousin & rdquo; Peugeot 308 , also station wagon, with which it shares powertrain and automatic gearbox. Then the Seat Leon e-Hybrid , also Sportstourer, with 204 HP and 7-speed DSG gearbox. We also tested the Renault Megane E-Tech , also station, with 158 horsepower and the Multimode gearbox. C & rsquo; & egrave; also the Kia Ceed , plug-in hybrid only in the Sportswagon version.
And finally c & rsquo; & egrave; the Golf : eHybrid from 204 hp or the sporty GTE with 245 hp, which I already have; tried. Could it also become a threat to Volkswagen's bestseller? You of all these which would you choose? And in this first short test, has the new Opel Astra plug-in hybrid convinced you?
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