2007 Holden Astra Reviews

Before the Global Financial Crisis triggered a move by Holden to source cars from Korea the German designed, Europe-built Astra was one of its most popular small cars.It arrived here in 1996 and quickly established its credentials against the leading small car models.The all-new AH Astra was a stylish, small front-wheel drive car with a range of models, including a sporty coupe, a practical hatch, a wagon, a hot turbo, and a convertible.With its European roots the Astra delivered on the expectations of a dynamic drive for those who wanted to enjoy the journey.An extensive range of body styles promised a model for everyone, no matter their needs and wants.High on practicality, the five-door hatch and wagon were the family choices.The coupe was aimed at those who sought a stylish ride and didn’t have a tribe to transport; it had the looks to impress, but would only take four adults.For those who wanted a more thrilling ride when they got behind the wheel there was the SRi, which came with a regular four-cylinder engine and a turbocharged version as well.There was also a good choice of variants, with the CD kicking things off and the CDX and CDXi offering plenty of features, and the SRi hot hatch with all you could want plus the performance punch of the turbocharged engine.Given its position at the entry-point to the model range the CD was quite well equipped. Included in a relatively long list of standard features was a CD player, MP3 compatibility, and seven-speaker sound, air conditioning, tilt and reach adjustment for the steering column, remote keyless central locking, adjustable headlights, multi-function control panel, multi-function steering wheel, power mirrors, power front windows, speed dependent stereo volume, and cloth trim. Metallic paint was available as an option.The CDX was even better equipped, adding 16-inch alloy wheels, cruise control, CD stacker, a leather-trimmed steering wheel, power rear windows, and a trip computer to the CD’s list.It was a similar tale with the CDXi, which in addition to the features of the CDX also had climate control air conditioning, sports front seats, sports steering wheel, and specific trim.A diesel option was added in 2006 with the arrival of the CDTi, which was similarly equipped to the CDXi.The hot SRi was also added to the range in 2006. Available as a hatch or coupe it was powered by a 2.0-litre turbo four and had either a six-speed manual gearbox or four-speed automatic transmission.In keeping with its sporting pretentions the SRi came standard with lowered sports suspension, a leather sports steering wheel, sports pedals, roof-mounted rear spoiler, premium sound system, leather trim, and a space-saver spare tyre.Fresh air fiends were able to get into a convertible in the form of the 'Twin Top' in 2006.It had a folding steel roof for the convenience of a hardtop and the fun of a soft-top, and came with a 2.2-litre engine and manual gearbox or automatic transmission.Being of an age before the digital revolution the AH Astra didn’t have many of features regarded as essential today.Missing from its kit of tricks were things like Bluetooth, it wasn’t possible to sync an iPhone or Android device, sat nav wasn’t offered, and while there was a control panel it wasn’t a touch screen.Similarly you wouldn’t find a reversing camera, parking sensors, a park assist system, or a sunroof.Being European the cabin was well laid-out and all controls fell readily to hand.The basic trim was cloth, but some higher level models had leather as standard.There was good head and legroom in the front, the driver’s visibility was good, and even those if the rear found themselves quite confortable.Overall the cabin was comfortable, appealing and quiet, with little road noise to bother the inner calm.Depending on the model, cupholders were provided in the front and rear.With 350 litres of cargo space when the rear seat was up, and 1270 litres when it was down there was plenty of space to carry luggage in the hatch.The bulk of the AH range had a 1.8-litre fuel-injected double overhead camshaft four-cylinder engine.It ran on regular 91-octane unleaded petrol, and at the time of introduction put out 90kW at its power peak and 165Nm of torque at its maximum. That was increased to 103kW/170Nm in 2007.Holden answered the call for a diesel in 2007 and released the option of a 1.9-litre overhead camshaft four-cylinder engine.At its performance peaks it put out 88kW (118 horsepower) and 280Nm of torque.The SRi came complete with a choice of the regular 2.2-lire four-cylinder engine with 110kW (147 horsepower) and 210Nm, or the sizzling turbocharged 2.0-litre engine with 147kW (197 horsepower) and 262Nm.The downside of the turbo engine is that it ran on 95-octane premium unleaded.When the convertible arrived in 2007 it had the 2.2-litre four-cylinder engine.The transmission choices were a five-speed manual gearbox or a four-speed automatic transmission, and all were front-wheel drive.Diesels and the SRi had a six-speed manual gearbox.Europeans place a high regard on handling and performance and the AH Astra didn’t disappoint on either front.With MacPherson strut front suspension, and also independent rear suspension, the AH handled well exhibiting good grip and balance when cornering, and the ride was comfortable without being soft or soggy.The SRi Turbo hot hatch set the mark for performance in the range, but even the lesser, smaller engine cars were impressively speedy.The CD and CDX had a good array of safety features, with lap/sash seats belts in all five seating positions; the front belts had pretensioners and load limiters as well.There were also front and side airbags for the driver and front passenger.Active safety features included ABS braking and emergency brake assistance.The CDXi and CDTi had the additional safety of head airbags for those in the front and rear seats, and traction control.Electronic stability control was a feature of the SRi Turbo.Lap/sash seat belts in the rear allow the use of a baby car seat, but there were no ISOFIX mounts.The earliest examples of the AH are now 14 years old, which makes them old and more likely to have problems from normal wear and tear.When buying an older car it’s important to understand that it is just that, old, it’s not new, so it will have problems a new car won’tAnyone buying an AH Astra with the 1.8-litre petrol, or 1.9-litre diesel engine needs to be aware that the engines have cam timing belts, which need to be changed regularly. Ignoring the change is risking serious engine damage should a belt brake, as many did in the previous model.Check for signs of a hard life when driving a turbocharged SRi, smoke from the tailpipe under hard acceleration is a good indicator of wear.A service record is a must. It gives a good indication of a caring owner, and alternatively if the servicing has been neglected one that doesn’t care.Capped price servicing didn’t apply to the AH, but service costs are not excessive. The service interval is 15,000 km or 12 months.The Astra was generally well built and shouldn’t squeak or rattle to any major degree. If squeaks and rattles can be heard it could indicate the car has been in a crash.Being a relatively old model now it’s a good idea to look for the external signs of crash repairs in the form of misaligned panels or mismatched paint.Shop around for one that hasn’t done a lot of kilometres, has been regularly serviced, and appears to have been well looked after.The new car warranty on the AH was three years/100,000 km, but that’s well and truly expired.MORE: If anything crops up, you’ll probably find it on our Holden Astra problems page.Allan Caplan: Our AH wagon was 10 years old when we bought it in 2016 and had done 160,000 km. It’s been a good car, reliable, and cheap to run.Phil Ward: We’ve had our 2007 CDX wagon for more than 10 years. It’s easy to park, handles well, has a large boot space, and in that time it has been very reliable.Nicole Jenner: I’ve got a 2007 CD hatch and find it zippy, reliable, and economical. It’s a great car.Sarah Roberts: We bought our 2005 CD hatch new. It’s the best little car we’ve ever had, it handles like a dream, is economical, and its reliability has been commendable. The only problem is the paint, which is sunburnt and patchy.Honda CivicA small car class leader with quality, reliability, and performance.Hyundai ElantraGood value for money and standing the test of time well.Mazda3Perennial class favourite. Ticks all the boxes.Safe, sound and reliable, but it must be in good condition.

Holden Astra is a small medium car that was popular in Australia for many years.

Based on the Astra hatch, which by comparison looks decidedly frumpy, the Coupe gets its allure from a lower roofline and squint-narrow side glass.It looks sensational, especially given its $26,990 price tag, though its design, unfortunately, is integral to all that is wrong with the car.Visibility from the driver's seat, especially to the rear, is so poor that parking without contacting anything else is a practised art.It will seat four people with rear seats that, once you fold the body into the required shape to get in, are quite accommodating.Some may find the back seat a bit claustrophobic, which is a byproduct of those narrow side windows and sloping roofline.But this is hardly a family car.The need to give access to the rear also means the two doors are long. The first time you notice that is when parking close to a wall and realising the doors don't open wide enough to let you out.The Coupe does, however, have a level of functionality, the rear seats split and fold and the boot is a decent size. Good news is the full-size spare tyre.Whether to enhance its sporty looks or because of its Belgian origins, the interior is all black. Yet despite the sombre decor, the Coupe CDX's dashboard controls are simple and easy to use and include a six-disc CD player with seven speakers, trip computer and cruise control.The Astra range gets a new 1.8-litre engine, though it doesn't feel much different from before.Performance is adequate, thanks to 103kW, up 11kW on the old engine, but to get this output it needs to drink premium fuel. It loses about 3kW when fed standard unleaded.More than anything, the engine has a bit more grunt at lower revs to get it off the mark quicker and neater.It comes with a five-speed manual gearbox (auto is optional) though six cogs would better suit the engine.Holden claims 7.4 litres/100km, 0.4 litre/100km better than before. But for a bit more performance, it's necessary to factor in the extra cost of premium fuel.Handling is good, with confidence through the bends and a quick-ratio steering box so it points and shoots with accuracy.Part of this solidity through the bends is a taut chassis that gives the Coupe a quality feel.The steering feel is far firmer than, say, the Corolla, which gives the arm muscles a workout when parking. The bonus is the sure-footed steering at cruising speeds.ABS brakes are standard, but ESP is not available on this model. The SRi and Turbo Coupe versions get ESP as standard.But the CDX tested gets front, side and curtain airbags as standard.For its price, the Coupe CDX rates well as a runabout for a couple or a single owner.More performance is available in the bigger-engined SRi and the Turbo, but at an additional $5500 and $8000 respectively, there are better fish in the water.

Convertibles with folding hard tops are supposed to remedy all of the problems associated with rag tops. They are more rigid so they handle better, they are more secure and they are quieter. Or so the theory goes.In reality, not all rag-top problems are remedied by a hard roof and there are some new problems that are added to some models, such as extra weight, complexity of design and operation, reliability of the electro-mechanical opening operation and a reduced amount of cargo space.Holden's Astra now comes with a two-piece folding top, called the Astra Twin Top. Having just two folding pieces must make it more compact, faster and a simpler mechanism, right? Wrong.The folding roof mechanism has all sorts of other bits folding out from it and the whole complex shebang takes about 33 seconds to fully open or close.  That compares with about 20-odd seconds for most rag tops.One useful function is that you can open it up with the remote control. However, as with the button above the interior light, you have to hold it on throughout the long process. The operating thumb was pulsing red by the time it was finished. And if you don't keep the pressure up on the button, it stalls.When the roof is all folded away in the boot, there is only cargo space for a briefcase, although you won't be able to access it unless you put the roof up again.There were no problems encountered with the mechanism's reliability during the test, but other folding hard tops, as well as rag tops, have been noted as behaving erratically. Also, when the roof was closed, the car sometimes had a lot of creaks, groans and wind noise, while at other times it was fairly quiet and rattle-free. This could be because the various hard bits haven't quite matched up when it has closed. The same problem has been noted with other folding hard tops as well.At least the added weight in the rear hasn't badly affected handling. Like all Astras, it steers and points very well, without having an uncompromisingly hard ride.The Twin Top comes with the new German-built 2.2-litre direct injection petrol engine which is a lusty unit with linear power delivery and less of a grainy feel like the previous engine. But it is hampered by the dull and lifeless four-speed auto transmission that GM Holden is stuck with. The six-speed manual is a far better option.The Twin Top looks like a sleek coupe with the top up, but appears ungainly with the top down.Inside, it is standard Astra fare, which I have grown to dislike. The decor is fine, but there is a lack of storage space and the controls are fiddly. The only storage bin is a uselessly small square hole behind the handbrake. There are no bottle holders and the door map pocket isn't even big enough for a UBD. I hate cruise controls on the end of a stalk like the previous Commodore. They are difficult to use and if you fumble with it you could accidentally turn on the indicators.Up front, there is still plenty of space with the sun visors not too close to your head as in most convertibles. However, there is virtually no room in the back for an adult or a teenager. If you did fit in, you would quickly become uncomfortable with the bolt-upright seat back.Just as well you can use the rear seat as a parcel shelf which augments the lack of cargo space. When the roof is up, the boot is quite deep, but it is also very narrow.The on-board computer and sound system controls are more difficult to use than the notorious BMW i-Drive system. They are certainly not intuitive. Despite having had several Astras to test over the past couple of years, I always have to consult the handbook and I still haven't conquered it. Some of the buttons have strange symbols on them that mean absolutely nothing to me.One button on the steering wheel has a symbol that looks like a home phone handset on a set of wheels. I pressed it but it doesn't seem to do anything. Another shows a box with one side missing, a dot in the middle and three arcs radiating out. It changed channels on the radio.Go figure.

The new Euro IV compliant engine puts out 103kW of power at 6300rpm and 175Nm of torque at 3800rpm in manual form, up 11kW and 5Nm respectively.As well as producing more power it also delivers better fuel economy, down from 8.2 to 7.8 litres/100km for the four-speed auto.They’re modest gains but come at no extra cost because Holden has held prices for the new model at the current level.The bad news is that these figures are generated using premium unleaded petrol.Holden tells us the car will run on standard unleaded but could not supply figures for the reduced power output that will result.The previous engine dropped from 92kW to 90kW when run on standard.The Astra range starts with the entry level CD five-door manual hatch priced from $21,990, topping out at $47,490 for the 2.2-litre Twin Top coupe-cabrio auto.The auto adds $2000.It’s all part of a mid-life makeover for what is Holden’s second biggest selling model behind the perennial Commodore.Launched here in 2004, the Astra holds third place in its own segment, behind Corolla and Mazda3.Holden describes Astra as one of the most complete small car ranges in Australia.However, this overlooks the fact that there is still no sedan.What of a diesel wagon, fivespeed auto or standard electronic stability control? The latter is standard on Commodore, which leads its segment, and diesel Astra gets a sixspeed auto.Holden remains vague when asked about these possibilities, saying only that it is constantly reassessing the pricing and specification of its car in what is a very competitive segment.The engine upgrade is accompanied by minor styling changes with a revised front fascia, headlamp and grille.We were able to take the fourspeed auto for a quick run up to the Blue Mountains and back at the launch of the new model in Sydney.New engine or not, it’s still not going to set the world on fire but it will not disappoint the average driver.

Try to show off, and things are sure to go wrong. For instance, you can be left sitting in a new convertible like a dill as its roof at first refuses to budge, then partly raises itself only to halt, whirring and buzzing furiously, halfway aloft like a sail.Memo to self: in future, read the handbook before trying to demonstrate fancy technology.Holden's Astra TwinTop is yet another of the new breed of convertibles with a multi-piece folding hardtop. It turns out to be simple to operate when you know how.Once everything was correctly in place and everyone was well away from what the driver's handbook calls the “action zone of the roof”, the TwinTop did its thing with robotic precision.It proves to be a nifty machine, albeit one that costs almost $50,000.In my defence, the handbook devotes five pages to explaining how the roof should be operated, using the phrase “risk of injury” twice in the first five lines. Looks like the lawyers gave the engineers a hand there.For those who want the open-air experience of a convertible along with the security of a solid-roofed coupe, the fast-growing flock of versatile cars like this answer their prayers.And, unlike many rivals, the Astra's roof can be made to go up or down while the car is on the move — up to 30km/h. In another handy feature, it can be operated while you're standing outside, using the remote-locking gizmo.How cool would that be: parking your open convertible in some hip street, then casually pressing the remote button to shut the roof as you walk away. Of course, with my luck, it wouldn't work.But, honestly, the roof is simplicity itself. Just press a button on the top of the windscreen and the boot lifts, the roof splits into three sections, various flaps extend, motors and hydraulics do their thing, the side windows go up and down — it's like a robotic ballet.Luggage space is 440 litres when the roof is in place, and 205 litres when it's folded down. So you need to packlight for the wind-in-the-hair option.The open-air TwinTop joins quite a family of European-made Astra models: hatchback, wagon and coupe, with engines in 1.8, 1.9, 2.0 and 2.2-litre sizes, fuelled by petrol or diesel.It's the dearest of the bunch, more than twice the price of the entry-level Astra CD hatchback. That's understandable, as the engineering and packaging involved must have been quite a challenge.It's a big step ahead of Holden's previous Astra convertible, which appeared in 2001. That was the traditional sort, using a fabric roof.Like the TwinTop, it had a 2.2-litre engine, but the new car has a more advanced fuel-injection system (shared with the sporty SRi hatchback and coupe), improving power and torque.This powerplant — developing 110kW, compared with just 90kW in base-model Astras — has the TwinTop scooting along happily, easily overcoming the extra weight of the roof system and the reinforcing added to make the open car feel reassuringly solid.The car I drove had the optional four-speed transmission, which didn't seem to impede its progress, though life would be sweeter if Holden offered the six-speed it reserves for the diesel Astra.No matter, because the TwinTop is zippy enough, and with the roof up it looks and feels like a coupe: solid and secure.Retractable hardtops like this are becoming so widespread — VW's Eos has just arrived, and a Ford Focus is on the way — they're practically the conventional type these days.Maybe pretty soon we'll even be able to operate them without having to read the handbook.

There's more to producing a convertible than chopping the roof off a sedan or coupe. The steel roof forms a vital part of a car's structure, giving it strength and rigidity, and that strength has to be replaced somehow once the roof is removed. Dash or scuttle shake is often a sign of a lack of strength in a soft top, and a measure of the amount of development that's gone into the body.A car that exhibits scuttle shake, evidenced when the dash area shakes or vibrates, can be a most annoying vehicle to drive. The Astra convertible is pretty good in that respect. The body is quite tight and shows no real evidence of scuttle shake, even with quite a few kilometres under its belt.Another challenge convertible designers always face is how to make the end result look good with the top raised. The Astra also fares well in this respect.The Astra sedan and coupe were good-looking cars to start with so the basics were there, and designer Bertone did a good job in slicing the roof off and producing a new roof so that it looks good with the roof up or down.The Astra's top goes up or down at the touch of a switch, or remotely by the key, and disappears under a hatch at the back. It not only works well, it is triple insulated and has an electrically-heated glass rear window so it feels much like a sedan or coupe once the roof is raised. Like all convertibles, the Astra rag top sits atop the Astra range but also comes fully equipped to ease the price pain: leather sports seats, airconditioning, cruise, trip computer, power windows and mirrors and a CD player with steering wheel controls.The engine is a 2.2-litre double overhead cam 16-valve four-cylinder producing 108kW at 5800 revs and 203Nm at 4000 revs. From 2003 there was a choice of a 2.0-litre turbo, which gave 147kW at 5600 revs and 250Nm at 1950 revs. Standard transmission is a five-speed manual with the option of a four-speed auto.With any convertible its important to listen for body rattles that might show that it's loosening with age, or more seriously, that it's suffered a crash. Make sure the roof goes up and down with no jerking or misalignment. Check that it operates with the button in the car and remotely with the key.Closely inspect the roof inside and out for damage such as tears or folds that will need repairs down the road. Body damage can also affect the smooth function of the roof, so look for ill-fitting boot lids and doors, etc.Mechanically, the Astra convertible is pretty much the same as any Astra.The 2.2-litre engine has a chain for the camshaft drive so it doesn't have to be replaced like the belt on the regular Astra.The turbo engine does have a belt, so be aware it needs to be replaced regularly. Brake wear can also be a headache on Astras, as it is on all European cars. Be prepared to replace disc rotors and brake pads quite regularly - about every 60,000km on average.The Astra convertible is well-equipped when it comes to the crunch. It has front airbags for the driver and front-seat passenger and front side airbags as well, with reinforced A-pillars and padded roll bars behind the rear seats for protection in the event of a rollover. Dynamically, it has anti-skid brakes, traction control and electronic stability control - the first time such a system was used on a Holden.