| Road Test Vauxhall Astra TwinTop 1.8 Sport |
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Odd But Effective
Unlike other cars of the type, the TwinTop - and you have to give Vauxhall credit for coming up with the funkiest name in the class - is impressively good-looking whether the roof is up or down. The process of changing from one mode to the other takes 26 seconds, which is pretty much how long it takes with everything else, give or take a second or two. That's quite impressive in itself, since the whole performance is among the most complicated you'll find in any coupé-convertible. Bits of metal and plastic whirr constantly into and out of view, and it's easy to view this with concern. How long would it be, you wonder, before something breaks or fails and requires a massively expensive repair job? The answer, according to Vauxhall, is about 27 years, assuming that you ask the roof to fold and unfold itself once a day for that entire period. This information comes after intensive testing, but don't come crying to me if you buy a TwinTop now and find that the roof doesn't work in 23 years. One very odd thing about the roof is that you don't have to be stationary in order to raise or lower it. You can actually do either of these things when the car is travelling at up to 18mph. I'm not sure why anyone would want to do this, except when caught out in a sudden shower of rain - but is it any more convenient to drop your speed to 18mph than it is to stop altogether? I can also imagine a few potential safety issues here. Other manufacturers insist that the car has to be stationary (and sometimes that your foot has to be on the brake) before you start operating the roof, and I think Vauxhall would have been wise to do the same.
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