Astra H Pics from Holden Drive Day

[Vectracious]

ATTENTION - THERES A PROBLEM WITH THE IMAGE HOSTING - WILL FIX ASAP - DON'T SHOOT!!!!!

Better Late than never - here they are

Http://www.opelaus.com/Images/New%20astra%20H/AstraBlue.jpg

Http://www.opelaus.com/Images/New%20astra%20H/AstraBoot.jpg

Http://www.opelaus.com/Images/New%20astra%20H/AstraDash.jpg

Http://www.opelaus.com/Images/New%20astra%20H/AstraHeadlight.jpg

Http://www.opelaus.com/Images/New%20astra%20H/AstraHeadlight2.jpg

Http://www.opelaus.com/Images/New%20astra%20H/AstraRear.jpg

Http://www.opelaus.com/Images/New%20astra%20H/Astrainterior.jpg

And here's what I thought about the New Astra - This is just a snippet from a THREE PAGE report I wrote for another forum - the rest is about the VZ Commodore range which doesn't really relate here...

Astra – a brilliant car. Better than the current one, you have a lot more confidence chucking it around corners, without feeling that the rear end will overtake the front. I only got to drive the auto’s which was a bit frustrating. The auto is supposed to be improved with adaptive shift control, but it would not do what I wanted it to do, and I ended up having to shift through the gears manually. What was nifty thought was the gear display in the dash would actually tell you what gear it was in even in drive (so it would show D1 D2 D3 D4) . The engine although the same unit as the old Astra, sounds a lot better (probably due to some exhaust tuning). It looks bigger than what it is, but at the same time, it doesn’t have that huge ass that the photos of it tend to imply. Dash is sporty and the centre console has that plastic expanse theme that Holden is doing with all its cars . The menu driven Radio and Aircon controls in the CDX and CDXi models was confusing and fiddly – maybe if you use it every day you’ll get used to it. The other difference was the tyres. The cars with the 16” wheels handled a lot better that the 15” wheels on the CD. The CD rolled a lot on its tyres and when I slammed the brakes on at about 130, it squirmed and shifted around quite a bit. Top speed obtained – 130-140km/h.

[extralarge]

nice pictures

[YuSuF]

Lights make the front look HUUGGGE!

Love the colour

[mixmelb]

Nice one Pete, are u gonna get 1??

[Anonymous]

Nice Pics Pete :)
Later in the week I'll be taking one a Test Drive, It better be Manual :)

[Anonymous]

i dunno guys, i'm just not convinced!, my and i got a private test drive with a dealer down in Dee Why cause he knows the owner of that shop, and we both got to drive the manual and the auto, engine wise you can feel the difference under your foot but as vectra said it can be all over the place at times, and me and my father both found our selves shifting with the auto gear stick :P, anyway the manual was pretty good i loved it so did my dad, my only problem with the car is its overall look, to me it doesnt look like an improvment so my final judgement is to keep my astra for a year and see where the astra H goes with its design, maybe if a sedan comes out i will consider it hehe

[Vectracious]

Probably not Donnie - my wife doesn't want an Astra as her next car, this whole computer thing has put her off unfortunately.

[astra_city]

was this drive day where you got to take the new astra and vz commodore range around a race track??

My mum just got an invite to test the new astra and commodore range at barbagallo raceway and she isn't doing it!!! I've asked her to ring up and ask if I can do it, since I own an astra as well and didn't get an invite (maybe it's only for people who have owned them for a certain amount of time?)

[R3N]

maybe cos you didnt buy that astra yourself, it'd have had to be in their names

[astra_city]

yeah but it's in my name (my dad told them to put it in my name) and also my dad didn't get anything sent to him either. So there must be a certain amount of time that you need to have owned the car for, because my mum has owned hers for nearly 3 years. She's going to ring them tomorrow to see if I can take her place :)

[Vectracious]

The whole day is basically a PR exercise by Holden to get you to buy a new car - its pretty smart of them too. Most of the people there that day had bought their car from Booran Holden in Cheltenham - so it might have been only owners that had bought their cars from certain dealers were contacted and offered this opportunity. Also, most of the people there had cars that were 3-4 years old...