My 09 Saturn Astra review

[darek_dade]

Hi all. In my first post on this forums I decided to share with you my Astra review

Exactly a month ago I bought a 2009 Saturn Astra and I think I am ready to write a short review of the car. I was looking for a good looking 3-door hatch. The only other competitor was VW Rabbit but it turned out to be too expensive.

Important equipment:
- 8 airbags
- esp
- rainsense wipers
- cd player
- foglights
- power windows, power heated mirrors
- air condition
- cruise control

Exterior:
Judge yourself, here's a couple of pictures




And more...
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/9681/dscf0503.jpg
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/8550/dscf0504v.jpg
http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/1809/dscf0505.jpg
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/4789/dscf0506.jpg
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/3154/dscf0507t.jpg
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/4495/dscf0508.jpg

In my opinion the exterior is very hot. The car gets a lot of looks, it's still quite rare on canadian roads so driving it is not like driving civic, corolla or even rabbit. It definitely has this unique, european look.

Interior:
Well, if you can't live without 4 cupholders in the front then this is not the car for you. The quality of assembly is very high, quality of plastic materials is also high (much better than civic and corolla). Styling is what I would call "different", people either like it or don't like it. Seats are very comfortable, and have extremely good side support, leather interior gives the car luxury look and feel, noone who sat in the car believed that it cost only 23k otr. Things people don't like is unintuitive audio system and onboard computer steering. I do agree with that - it's not the easiest systems I have seen, but as long as you are not mentally challanged you should figure out the buttons in 5 minutes. Saturn also provided an additional book with instructions (with pictures, yay) as how to use audio and computer.

It's a 3 door car but accessing rear seats is not hard because doors are very wide and front seats can move all the way to the front when you fold the backrest. There is enough room at the back, traveling with 4 people onboard is not tiring for anybody. As for the cupholders, there is one behind the handbrake lever (you have to reach quite far for it), 2 smaller ones in the doors (small bottle of water fits in there) and 2 at the back hidden in the seat (it's possible for driver and front passanger to use it). Glove compartment is huge but overall number of clever spots for keeping your stuff is rather small. Having said that, I figured out how to use every possible place in the car to keep my cellphone, change, notes etc. so I cant complain.

Standard sound system is surprisingly good. I heard that advanced audio doesn't perform exceptionally well so I wouldn't pay extra 1000 bucks for it, I'd rather build some custom system. It's very easy to find a good driving position for the driver because you can adjust the steering wheel in all four directions.

Driving impressions:
If you finally get rid of people asking you questions about the car on the parking lot and you will drive the car the frist thing you will notice is how well this car corners. Driving it is such a pleasure,
everytime I am taking a ramp to the highway I can easily drive with a speed two times higher than the one suggested on the sign without feeling that the car will fall off the road in any second. I never got the tires to squeak on the corners.

The 1.8 enging pulls out 140 hp. It's not a lot but together with manual gearbox they can do quite surprising stuff. One time I was merging in on the third gear with speed of ~60 just off the ramp, I hit 130 on the same gear in no time. From what I heard automatic tranny is sluggish so stay away from it and learn to drive stick - it's not as hard as you'd imagine. The only bad thing about the manual tranny is that it could have 6 gears, travelling at 130km/hr is quite noisy as rpms hit 4000.

Fuel economy is not bad. Driving in the city gets me 8.5l/100km (exactly what Saturn says) and I'm driving usually in high traffic. One time I decided to be very gentle with the accelerator and I was getting 7.5/100km on average. Saturn says that Astra consumes 6.2l/100km on the highway and I do confirm that.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

//I am Canadian so sorry for km/hr and l/100km :P, prices are in CAD

[MrCritical]

Get us a quote there locally for replacing the t-belt, parts and labor included.

[civilzues]

they made an 2009?

[darek_dade]

Originally Posted by civilzues

they made an 2009?

Yup, but they sold them in Canada only (improvements include 12-hour clock, bluetooth, optional tan interior and some other less important stuff)

[ne_one]

Originally Posted by MrCritical

Get us a quote there locally for replacing the t-belt, parts and labor included.

Is that service pretty ghastly?

I took the same model out for a test drive about 6 weeks ago and can concur... this vehicle is an order of magnitude better than its siblings -- the interior in particular is far better than the G5/Cobalt.

I found the price for an outgoing model to be high (the loaded version is within spitting distance of the Camaro) and it really should have been offered with a 2.0/2.2L engine. The 1.8L engine is surprisingly peppy but for a premium package it deserved more.

Terrific little car... let's hope the 2010 model appears in NA and is comparable to the Opel offerings.

[tbirderic]

derek dade, awesome first post, and a great review. Please post more often.

[BigAls87Z28]

Wow man, very cool! I love love love the 3 dr and without a doubt I would have to get that over the more civilian 5dr.
Beautiful car man, good luck with it. Its a shame that the Astra didnt fly off lots like they do in every other part of the world.

[jaydee]

Sweet car! The only thing I didn´t like in the test drive was the visibility, but I suppose it´s not much better with comparable cars. So I bought the 5-door Astra

[MrCritical]

One of my neighbors has one in red, and I love it.

I don't remember the time, but I was looking at the diagram for the t-belt job. Not for the faint of heart. But I don't think it was due till 100k or so.

[cbennie2]

Nice car!!! Oh..wait I havce the same one in blue=0)

I really like the way it drives and have gotten pretty decent numbers with fuel economy...probably get better, but I drive pretty fast...

I completely agree with the engine pining for that 6th gear too...

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by cbennie2

Nice car!!! Oh..wait I havce the same one in blue=0)

I really like the way it drives and have gotten pretty decent numbers with fuel economy...probably get better, but I drive pretty fast...

I completely agree with the engine pining for that 6th gear too...

Is it just me, or does 3rd and 4th gear seem unnecessarily close together? A 6-speed would be nice, but more simply I think they could have done a better job with the 5 gear ratios, specifically making 4th gear and 5th gear a lower ratio...

[cyclone]

I'm glad you pretty much are satisfied with the car. But, if I were you I would of held out until the new Astra comes out. Beautiful scenery were you live too.

[RedVee8]

Nice car mate.
Good luck with the Astra.

From an Aussie Astra Owner.

[darek_dade]

Originally Posted by jaydee

Is it just me, or does 3rd and 4th gear seem unnecessarily close together? A 6-speed would be nice, but more simply I think they could have done a better job with the 5 gear ratios, specifically making 4th gear and 5th gear a lower ratio...

They are close together, but I think it's done on purpose of city driving. 3rd gear is good for economic drive in 40-50 speed limit and 4th gear is good for 60-70. Sometimes I appreciate the 5th gear being as it is because I don't have to downshift whenever I want to accelerate from say 100 to 120 since rpms are high and power is there.

Recently I noticed two things: there are 2 cupholders (or more like bottle holders) at the back on the sides and the AS (Auto Search?) function for audio system which finds 9 best playing radio stations (very handy when you travel a lot).

New Astra? Quite a nice car, but I honestly like the exterior of the current Astra more. New Astra could have a Hyundai or Kia badge and no one would be surprised. Current Astra? You don't see anything looking like this car on American roads. And how do you know that Astra 2010 will be coming to US anytime soon?

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by darek_dade

They are close together, but I think it's done on purpose of city driving. 3rd gear is good for economic drive in 40-50 speed limit and 4th gear is good for 60-70. Sometimes I appreciate the 5th gear being as it is because I don't have to downshift whenever I want to accelerate from say 100 to 120 since rpms are high and power is there.

New Astra? Quite a nice car, but I honestly like the exterior of the current Astra more. New Astra could have a Hyundai or Kia badge and no one would be surprised. Current Astra? You don't see anything looking like this car on American roads. And how do you know that Astra 2010 will be coming to US anytime soon?

I agree that on the highway, it's nice having that 4000 RPM torque at 70mph to give you that good acceleration, but I'd still prefer a lower gear ratio, as I'd rather just downshift for that extra power once a month or so I actually use it and save 1 mpg highway ALL the time.

New Astra probably won't be here until 2011 CY and a Buick at that, so count on it starting >$20k MSRP. I paid $15.5K USA for mine, so I have no reserves about waiting. Now if it was coming over in CY 2010 as a Saturn ~$17k base price, then I would have waited.