Test station wagon Opel Astra Sports Tourer 1.5 CDTI

This term has quickly caught on in today’s over-technological era and is used for vehicles that do not shock with electric doping, do not bind drivers with intrusive electronic systems and do not get lost in the mirror world of huge displays. Cars for people who don’t live life with a phone in front of their face, according to them, electricity is only good for heating water for coffee or lighting in the apartment, and they prefer to drive their cars themselves. In short, normal cars for normal people.

And the Opel Astra is one of the last Mohicans in this class. It is not a fashionable SUV or a crossover, but a regular hatchback or a more practical station wagon. The latter will especially please all cottagers with 597 liters of trunk volume (which you can also easily expand up to 1,634 liters), add to that four places for passengers and every family will be satisfied.

And the driver who will be most satisfied will be comfortably reclined in an ergonomic seat (with AGR certification), and even if he looks at the digital instrument panel and has touch infotainment at hand, the information is provided to him clearly and sparingly, so that he does not drown in it.

Driving is easy and pleasant (assistance systems cover your back, but do not impose in any way), the car is obedient and agile, it also boasts a great compromise between confidence in corners and comfort on straights. There are a number of assistance systems at your disposal, but they are not intrusive and do not interfere too anxiously with your driving.

The Astra also doesn’t shy away from electrification, but it doesn’t force it on you. Under the hood, you can growl a supercharged three-cylinder gasoline engine with the support of a mild-hybrid system, you can reach for a plug-in hybrid or a purely electric drive – but it also offers a fairly common four-cylinder turbodiesel, on whose typical “kadly-kadly” combined with a moderate appetite (you can driving for plus or minus 5.5 liters) is something familiarly reassuring.

In addition, it is perfectly matched with an eight-speed automatic, which always has the right quality at hand and sensitively changes one gear after another without you noticing, thereby pleasantly smoothing the ride. But many customers would certainly appreciate the option to go for the manual, especially if it saved them fifty thousand (as in the case of the petrol engine, which has this option) – but it is simply not possible in the case of the diesel engine.

Also, be prepared for the Astra to sit low to the ground, so if you’re eyeing a crossover for sore backs/knees or better visibility, look no further. You will also have to accept that the rear seats do not give an adult that much room to spread out or that the diesel engine under the hood is a bit noisy by today’s standards. But you can probably easily forgive Astra, for the money…

Opel offers promotional discounts, and you can buy the Astra ST for 100 thousand or more cheaper than the list price: You can buy the gasoline 1.2 Turbo in decent Edition equipment for 549,990 CZK, the diesel 1.5 CDTI is a brutal 120 thousand more expensive, so if you don’t drive long distances every day, we’d rather go for the petrol in the higher GS trim (as in the tested version) for 629,990 CZK (i.e. forty thousand cheaper than the basic diesel).