Vauxhall Astra TwinTop Review
Published: 23rd July 2006
Vauxhall Astra
There are three model choices: TwinTop, Sport and Design. All of them have the same smart, functional fascia, featuring a Satin Stone centre console with matching door inserts and fascia trims. They all have rake and reach adjustable steering columns but the Design has a ‘sports’ steering wheel.
The test car was the middleweight Sport, which usually means, 16-inch alloy wheels with ultra-low profile tyres, multi-function trip computer and CD30 radio/CD player. However, in the test car, the audio system had been uprated to a CD70 with MP3 compatibility, along with sat-nav and colour monitor, costing £1250. As part of the £550 ‘Plus Pack’, the wheels had been replaced with 17-inch alloys clad in even more ultra-low profiles. Cruise control had also been added, as had height adjustable rear headrests and the rear roll-over bars gained a pop-up function instead of the standard integral hoops.
The fold-away windbreak adds an extra £150 to the asking price, although, I didn’t find that it made that much difference. Add a further £350 for pearlescent paint and the TwinTop Sport with the 1.8i petrol engine, plus options came to £20,595 as opposed to the standard OTR price of £18,295.
There is a choice of four engines. The standard TwinTop has a 1.6i petrol engine only. This unit is also available in the Sport along with a 1.8i petrol and a 1.9CDTi diesel unit aimed at fleet buyers. The TwinTop Design doesn’t come with the 1.6i but instead is the only model to be offered with the 200PS, 2.0iTurbo. Both of the larger engines have 6-speed manual gearboxes, while the other two are mated to 5-speed manual transmissions.
The tested 1.8i produces 140PS, that’s about 138bhp, and 175Nm of torque. It takes 10.7 seconds to get from nought to 60mph (not 62mph) and the top speed is 130mph - where legal.
The fuel consumption figures are quite good at 27.4mpg urban; 45.6mpg extra-urban and the combined are 36.7mpg.
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