Car review from our weekend in Portugal at SteemFest²

Audi A4 2.0 TDi SW (Avant in the UK) and Opel (Vauxhall) Astra St 1.6 CDTi compared

Day one
Audi A4 2.0 TDi SW (Avant in the UK).

We had planned a 300km route taking in approximately 70 % motorway, 20 % rural and 10% city usage.

The test car was fitted with a 143bhp diesel engine and a 6 speed manual gearbox. I found the gears spaced a little odd for my driving. Starting off and in town the first gear was very low and you found yourself changing up straight away, whereas on the motorway at 120km/h, you found yourself forgetting to change into 6th.

Suspension is excellent and is very smooth even on the very uneven cobbled village streets and almost silent on the motorways. Hence it was easy to forget to change gear.
At £33,715, as expected it is well specified, with Sat-nav, cruise control and a great infotainment system. The seats are good quality and gave good support. The auto dipping headlights worked all the time and I never did find how to manually control them.

Sat-nav information was available in between the speedo and rev counter and provided sufficient information for the driver to make direction choices early. Gear change and km/l info is also displayed.
The Sat-nav was quite easy to programme using the centre dial although I did not find out how to erase a mistake without deleting everything using backspace. It did have voice input but my pronunciation of Portuguese place names would have been fun, but could lead to mistakes.

We travelled 328km / 204 miles and the car returned a very good 21.68km/l or 51mpg. The official figures are 69mpg average and 76mpg motorway. I was not trying to equal those but feel it fell a little short due to the amount of motorway driving with cruise control set at 120kph.

Driving
This is a very large car at 4.75m and 1.82m wide, on the smaller roads and in the hotel car park it was a problem and would take a while to get used to. We picked this car due to requiring plenty of space for 4 people.
I found the car a little under-powered and the official figure of 9.7seconds for 0-60mph; I feel would be difficult to achieve. I do believe, although not tested, the official figure of 121mph max speed.
It was quite easy to drive but felt big and heavy. The steering was easy but I found the car followed road irregularities far too easily and you needed to use both hands on the steering wheel to feel in complete control.

Conclusion
It is a great car for long distance travel and if this is what you need it for, then you will not be disappointed. It was very efficient for such a large car and provided lots of space. Audi although costly do hold their value quite well.

Day two.
Opel (Vauxhall) Astra St 1.6 CDTi Also called Holden Astra and Buick Verano.

Another estate car but this time much smaller at 4.37m. We also only had two people in it most of the time. Approximately 14km of the run was completed with 5 people and a full luggage compartment all in rush hour traffic.
The test run was 293km / 182miles with 80% motorway, 5% rural and 15% urban.

The car is fitted with a Hungarian manufactured 1.6l bi-turbo 4 cylinder diesel engine producing 134bhp. It felt lively and was very easy to drive both in town and on the motorway with good acceleration and very quiet running at 120kph with the cruise control set.

The car is quite well specified with a touch screen infotainment system and good in dash information. Our car did not have Sat-nav fitted. The seats were comfortable but not up to the standard of the Audi. The car however, did only cost £23,000.
We travelled 293km / 182 miles and returned 61mpg/26km/l which was very good. Again we fell short of the official figures of 69mpg combined and 76mpg motorway. This time the 9.7 seconds 0-60 felt achievable although the top speed of 123mph I feel would take a while to achieve.

Driving
I found the car very easy to drive and well powered. Steering was precise with very little feedback which for an everyday car is very suitable. Driving with one hand was easy and road irregularities did not affect the car very much. Gear change was smooth and the gears well-spaced.

Conclusion
The new Astra (From 2015) is a great car for all occasions and looks to be very good value for money. With low tax and insurance and good mpg it will provide a 5 person family everything they need. It is too soon to look at depreciation but with a good reputation they should be better than previous models.

Source of Astra photos here