It's like watching Doctor Who, you know. Vauxhall has been building small family cars with the Astra badge since 1980, and yet with every reincarnation it looks younger and younger.The company has just launched the fifth-generation model, and there is a serious push on to take it away from its lardy, wallowing early image, and make it appeal to the more spirited driver. And do you know what? It's worked.After a few days in the company of what's likely to be one of the most popular versions, the 1.6-litre SXi, I was grinning from ear to ear. In bright "flame" red with a focused, staring frontal expression, big alloy wheels, balanced profile and tidy tail-end it looks like it's up for a fight with all comers. The SXi has lowered suspension and front fog lamps as standard, which, to my aesthetic notions of the ideal, makes it almost the best-looking of the bunch.The basic price tag is £13,995 but the test car also had Adaptive Forward Lighting - a useful if, at £750, pricey option that turns the headlamps into corners as you turn the steering wheel, and raises the dip focus at speeds over 65mph.It might not be the fastest or the cheapest version, but on paper and on the road the SXi 1.6 looks like a hard act to beat when you take into consideration value for money, unimposing running costs, practicality and sheer fun.So what's the SXi like to drive? Well, in a handful of words it's quick, it's smooth and it's involving. The car is built on a tuned version of the old Astra chassis but the bodyshell has been made 52% stiffer, and that is what Vauxhall tells us makes the new car such a well-mannered performer.The figures aren't exceptionally inspiring. It takes a rather unimpressive 11.3 seconds to reach the magic 60mph mark - to put it into perspective, that's about a second slower than the 1.6-litre Focus - but out here in the real world it doesn't seem to matter that much, because of the way you can confidently slot it into corners, dips and humps without ever feeling like it's anywhere near the edge of its capabilities.Keep the engine revs up and make full use of the super-slick five-speed manual gearbox, and it pulls away nicely. Take a trip into the back roads and you’ll find it holds on tenaciously as it slices its way, level and unflustered, through any combination of lefts and rights. Throw in a few lumps and hollows, and even the lowered suspension on the SXi never bottoms out. Thanks also to the surgically precise, electronically regulated power steering, you feel completely in control for point-and-shoot motoring.All that fun is more remarkable when you realise you should be able to get an average of over 41 miles from a gallon of unleaded.I do have one or two minor gripes, though, particularly when it comes to visibility. The rear view mirror is big and low and takes away from your left front view, and when reversing the big, solid C-pillars at the back conspire with the rear seat headrests to block out a lot of daylight there too.While we're indoors, it's worth mentioning that the driving position is excellent, thanks to the two-way adjustable steering wheel and the multi-adjustable seat. The trim on this model was relatively basic in black with metallic plastic inserts, and while it's not as jazzy as the Ford rival, it is functional and logically laid-out. It would be nice, though, if the ventilation control knobs at the bottom of the console were angled up towards the driver's eye rather than towards his knuckles on the gearstick.As for the details on the functioning of the CD/radio, well they're combined with the other in-car information features like the clock and outside thermometer. They’re all displayed through an LCD screen, and the whole kit and caboodle is known by Vauxhall as "infotainment". If anyone ever uses the word without irony or sarcasm in a conversation with me, I'll punch them on the nose with no apology.Despite the great driving experience, there are one or two things I found niggling while behind the wheel. Firstly, I don't like the speedometer to have the important 30mph and 70mph marks in diminutive numbers, and secondly, I think to have a revcounter marked off in multiples of ten can draw in an unnecessary emporary confusion between the dials while glancing at them in heavy town traffic.Without wanting to sound too negative, I'm also not a fan of the one-touch sequential stem controls for the indicators and wipers. They seem unnecessarily fiddly to operate cleanly.I found the audio system on this particular car a bit of a faff too, because of two things - the steering wheel-mounted controls seemed reluctant to work smoothly and sometimes needed a second push; and every morning when I turned on the engine, the radio or CD would come on, even if I'd switched it off the night before. Irritating.No problems with the accommodation, though. In the back seats there's adequate space for three adults, all of whom get three-point seatbelts, and the boot is a reasonable size despite having a bit of a lip to get your shopping over.In conclusion I have to say I’m very fond of the new Astra. It's got its work cut out in the face of the competition, but there's no reason why it shouldn't succeed like its predecessors have. This is the best Astra yet built, and in SXi form it's a strong performer, economical, practical and good-looking too. There's only one thing I’d very much like to see completely changed on it, and that's the dusty old name. Engine 1598cc, 4 cylinders Power 103bhp Transmission 5-speed manual Fuel/CO2 41.5mpg / 163g/km Acceleration 0-60mph: 11.3 seconds Top speed 115mph Price £13,995 Details correct at publication date
Our Rating
