A little lesson on instruments clarity comes free with the current Opel Astra, writes Brian Byrne. A timely one, as too many cars these days have so much screen-based complication that they are almost travelling video games. Something no driver should be made to play while on the move.
Yes, the Astra has a centre screen. No, you don’t have to navigate your way around it while setting temperatures, seat heaters, or radio volumes. A good old-fashioned knob does that last, the seat heaters are push button, and the climate control is by a row of simple piano-type keys. All well placed, all simply labelled as are the buttons and switches on the steering wheel. The driving instruments are digital, a big speed readout and straightforward graphics for power and range — it was the Astra Electric I was driving. I like the transmission shifting via simple console-mounted finger switch. Beside it a simple drive mode switch for Eco, Normal and Sport. I pretty well left it in Normal all the time.
The style of the overall car could be called sharp flat minor. Straight-edge lines with a fair amount of flat panelling, the whole lightly tempered with some gentle curving. A style designed not to wow, but to stay the distance. In the review car, the effect was made a little darker by the black roof and all-black grille with the blitz badge barely visible because it was black too. The rear follows the same recipe as the rest of the car, clean lines with enough designer input to make it interesting and not so much as will date it quickly.
Inside follows a similar theme. Angles and lines. Opel likes subdued, so shades of grey you get throughout, but it’s not gloomy. The seats look and are supportive. More important, on a long trip they proved to be comfortable. I didn’t have back seat passengers this time, but they’d have had ample legs space. If there were two, a drop down section of centre seat makes a good wide table and safe cupholders.
Given the different kinds of trips I did while I had the car, I had the opportunity to see how they affected range, and I apologise in advance for all the figures. An initial full charge of the car suggested I could travel 440km. On a 110km/h all-motorway shift, the 20.3kWh/100km consumption gave me a range of 254km. And a typical town to town commute averaging about 75km/h worked out at 329km on a consumption of 15.4kWh/100km. No surprises there, motorway driving will eat battery just as it will drink petrol or diesel. I'd say that a consistent 320km would be most owners experience. The poor national charging infrastructure showed itself when I needed a recharge in Waterford city. There are seven ESB points in the city but only three are CCS Fast. The nearest available to me was at the traffic-busy Ballybrick Green, and its placing made reversing into it a quite hairy exercise.
The drive experience was, and no surprise, smooth and easy(going). With a relatively mild 156hp available, acceleration at 9.2s to 100km/h certainly wasn't sweat-breaking. But adequate. The battery size is chosen to give some kind of balance between weight and range, with the idea that there's generally no point in a compact family car lugging around battery capacity beyond what will generally be required. That means the car handles fairly similarly to any other Astra. Just for information, the car is also available with petrol and plug-in petrol hybrid powertrains, and a diesel. There's something, you might say, for everyone in the audience.
PRICE: From €39,500. WHAT I LIKED: The easygoing drive, and minor key style.
