Picked up the Astra - Window tint Pics (5/25/08)

[prototype66]

There was like 40 of them at the Rock Financial Center when we were doing our Malibu Ride and Drive training and I gotta tell ya....I was jealous!
Fantastic car!!!! Congrats bro, Great pics!!

13 miles!!!!
Awsome

[K-1]

Originally Posted by RoGuE

So I think the 2008 estimate is very low.

The '08 estimates are very low. The term "guesstimate" would be more applicable.

[Tiger]

Congrats! Sat in two this week at the local dealers (they have received exactly one!) and was quite impressed. Interior was larger than it looked it pictures. Liked the unique features for the class! I too would enjoy a 5 door like yours. Great choice and good luck with it.

[Josenez11]

Congrats on your new set of wheels!!

[SirRaven]

Well It ended up that I picked up this car at almost a perfect time. My parents were over this weekend for the Red Wings game, and then they WERE going to drive old car back home for my brother to use. About 5 miles from my house they called my up. The clutch in my old car is done for, its not moving at all any more to save its life. Now I am going to have to get it hauled out and donated, or junked. I will get some pics later of the two cars together. But here is a car that just happened to be parked next to me right now at my apartment. There are these silly structural pillars that got in the way of the pics, not sure why they are there. Not the greatest pics, but here ya go.

[LoneWolf]

Looks great -- congratulations!

[cs1992]

Nice car. If I were in the market for an Astra, I'd have a tough choice between it and the new Vibe/Matrix.

[justiina]

About the temp cauge. You can check the engine temperature from testmode, at least in euro versions. To access testmode:

1. Go to settings menu
2. Keep settings button pressed about 5 secs until you hear beep
3. Now you can select between different displays with BC button.

Display with temp looks like this in my car, 2005 model Opel Astra.

[SirRaven]

Justiina, Ill try that tonight and see it it works.

Anyways I got back from a nice trip in the Astra late last night. Me and 2 friends drove from the Detroit Area, up to Houghton, MI to Michigan Tech for Winter Carny. There were a total of 3 of us in the car and we had clothes for 5 days, plus 2 laptops and 3 other small backpacks, 1 snowboard and 1 set of skiis plus boots and stuff for those including 2 hemets and a bowling bag w/ 2 balls. Everything fit in there nicely without having any of the stuff on top of the car. The skiis and snowboard stuck into the back seat with the seat folded down and it was really only the backbacks besides that that were not in the trunk and we wanted those out anyways. Even with all of the weight the car accelerated just fine, I never felt like I was going to hold up traffic, and would keep up just fine when I wanted to. The ride is around 8-9 hours one way depending on how much/often you stop. The seats were very comfortable the entire time and never got sore or tired like I would in my old car. Everyone had enough room while on the trip, and we did not feel like we were cramped. There is very little road noise in this car, even traveling at 65 with winds blowing by you at 25+ mph. You could hear the engine humming along, and on certain roads you could hear some noise from the tires, but others they were silent. Even with the lower profile tires and tighter suspension the ride was smooth and would only really feel it on the shotty roads in the UP. The ride up was uneventful, just went right along, averaged around 29 while in the lower penninsula going 75-80, and a little over 30 going 65 in the UP.

While driving around the snowy roads in Houghton MI (averages around 280 inches a year) the car held on the road just fine with the stock tires. Even going up some rather steep hills the car would still just go right up. Never got stuck or needed a push. With the cold weather up there, it was -8 when I started the car to leave, there were no issues with startup or running. The car would heat up in a very reasonable amount of time, and you could get that car to cook on the inside if you turned the fan and heat all the way up even with those temps outside. The large glovebox was really nice for storage, actually we had put my CD holder in there (I want to say it holds about 32 to CDs, 2 high 16 pages).

The drive home was interesting. The car performed marvously even with temps as low as -10 before windchill and I think the highest was maybe -1. Winds were blowing at 25+ mph and some roads were even close (US 2 for most of the UP and M28 from Marquette to Munising), but the car never made you feel like you might lose control, our average speed for most of the trip was 50 due to weather conditions. Visibiliy got down to nothing at points and mostly the visibility was just horrible. Only 1 time did it slide at all, but that was turning from one road to another me going a little to fast for condition, but it was nothing to be worried about becuase there were no cars around and we never got close to a ditch. Again, there was plenty of room even with our stuff and the seats were comfortable. After a 3 hour wait at the bridge because it was closed (winds as high as 65 mph at times) we finally made it downstate. Similar weather for the start of the Lower Penninsula, but finally after a few hours it cleared up and we were able to travel 75 again. Thats when the only problem arose. After getting up to 75 for a few miles my car started to vibrate, then it got really bad. We had to slow down to 50 just so that we could feel safe driving. We figured out it had nothing to do with the engine. So we pulled of into a well lit gas station and looked at the tires, they were caked with snow from the drive. We nocked off as mich snow as we could from the inside of the rims then jumped back on the highway, there were no more issues the rest of the trip. We left Houghton at 8:30 am and I did not get back until almost midnight, but not once did I feel uncomfortable or tired becuase of the car. Overall we thought the car worked really well for the trip, but the fuel economy could be better, but I am still breaking it in and the car was loaded with weight in winter. We averaged 29.6 on the trip, it could have been just over 30, but I was not careful after the tire issue because I just wanted to get home.

Some other small issues that we thought could have been better, rear defroster turns off after 15 min or so (not sure on the exact time). Fine for trips around town, not 6 hours in the UP during a blizzard. Center armrest would have been nice for the long trip and to throw my wallet in during the trip. Loading CDs in a little wierd and they do not play right after loading, have to hit the CD button again. Also the car revs really high going 75, a six gear above 5th would have been nice, but leave all 5 others alone. Other things were small issues involved with getting used to the german influences like central locking.

With almost 2,000 miles on the car in the first 3 weeks I have owned it I am glad I have made this purchase. No issues to far, I just can not wait for accessories to come out so I can add some needed parts to the car.

Most of my friends said it looked great, both inside and out. Most were suprised at the size of the sunroof and said that they would like something like that. Even got a comment from one of my friends dad that had owned 2 different Saturns saying that this does not lookat all like a Saturn, proof that they are changing.

[genjy]

Are you into modding your cars?

You can totally add a set of aftermarket HIDs to your Astra's projector headlights for like $200-ish.

I bet some guys at various Astra forums have already done it or at least researched it.

[SirRaven]

Originally Posted by genjy

Are you into modding your cars?

You can totally add a set of aftermarket HIDs to your Astra's projector headlights for like $200-ish.

No, mostly things like roof racks, trailer hitch and would love to get an armrest. Also some good rubber floor mats molded to the car that are not $140 dollars like the ones from Saturn. Universal ones are to thick in the wrong places so it makes it hard to fully depress the clutch at times. Things more along that lines.

[caddycruiser]

Originally Posted by SirRaven

Some other small issues that we thought could have been better, rear defroster turns off after 15 min or so (not sure on the exact time). Fine for trips around town, not 6 hours in the UP during a blizzard.

Interesting note...except for the fact that essentially every vehicle has a timed rear defroster, usually that turns off at 10 minutes. Or at least that's what I've become used to with GM's and some others.

I've never been in a situation of such extreme cold and weather that it staying on full time would be necessary, but I understand you. Then again, I think another reason for that may be a thermal heating issue with the glass and/or the defroster parts themselves.

Regardless...long trips give the BEST impression of the smallest details of a car, and sounds like you're loving it even more so fantastic. Makes me want to be sure to drive an Astra when the new car time rolls around.

[targa]

Originally Posted by DuSpinnst

It is a European thing. I can't remember why, although on their cars I think it is 30 kph and 70 kph. 30 kph is the speed limit in many villages, and most surface streets in towns and cities are not over 70 kph.

The mainland european layout shows km/h (=kph), so it's a different print anyway. This one pretty much reminds me of the UK-Astra that I drove in 2004. They have 30/50/70 mph restrictions.
/Tomas

[SirRaven]

Originally Posted by justiina

About the temp cauge. You can check the engine temperature from testmode, at least in euro versions. To access testmode:

1. Go to settings menu
2. Keep settings button pressed about 5 secs until you hear beep
3. Now you can select between different displays with BC button.

Display with temp looks like this in my car, 2005 model Opel Astra.

That did work for my car, but like yours the temp is in celcius. Now I would just have to figure out whats the normal range for this engine. Also its a little inconvienient doing it this way and it would be hard to catch a problem as its happenning, but at least you could check it to find out when its warm enough to blow hot air in the winter. Now I want to figure out what all of the other screens are just for the fun of it.

[TheGeneral]

Put your MPG on www.fueleconomy.gov you would be the first for this model.