Saturn of Greenville

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Driving Impressions

The Saturn Astra is a mildly entertaining car to drive. While you may equate speed to entertainment, the Astra delivers a nice overall balance, with balanced brakes, steering and handling that invite you to really drive if you wish or just get there as easily as possible if that's your preference. And at about 30 mpg taking the winding road, why not?

Power comes from a 1.8-liter inline four-cylinder that drums up 138 horsepower at 6300 rpm and 125 pound-feet of torque at a bit more than half that speed. Those are nearly identical values to Honda's Civic 1.8-liter. Idling or pushed to the limit it is smooth and lacks any annoying buzzing; you'll hear the noise but it will never scare you into shifting early and, given what Europeans can and do do to their engines we'd have to call this GM's best small engine in the American market. Opel has a long history of engineering fine small cars that are enjoyable to drive, and the Astra is no exception.

The Astra pulls evenly from any speed without peaks or jumps and it is geared realistically so you needn't downshift any time you encounter a grade; the 3300-rpm engine speed at 70 mph won't grate on your senses and is often masked by radio or road noise.

EPA fuel economy numbers are 24/32 mpg City/Highway, and we managed almost 30 mpg in commuting in our Astra three-door with the manual gearbox. Automatic transmissions often cost a couple more miles per gallon on the highway.

Clutch and shifter are both light, the former progressive and the latter direct, with a lockout collar for reverse. The manual is easy to drive in traffic, with smooth throttle travel and good programming to keep launches from lurching.

Brakes are all disc with antilock and plenty capable of halting an Astra in short order. There is no sponginess in the pedal, effort is moderate and the car stays planted under heavy braking without burying its nose or throwing the tail in the air.

Steering is nicely weighted rack-and-pinion so you know where it's pointed and you needn't work hard at keeping it that way. Since there isn't a lot of torque, torque steer is well-managed and even full throttle acceleration can be managed with one hand.

Astras rely on MacPherson-strut front suspension and a torsion beam rear axle with coil springs. The torsion beam design is neither as sophisticated nor expensive as fully independent multi-link setups and allows for minimal cabin intrusion, meaning more back seat space. You may find on particularly bad roads or heavy braking into a bumpy corner that a full independent system is a tick better, and you may also find that for $16,000 this is some good stuff already.

There is some adjustability in how much fun you want to have with an Astra. The five-door XE rides the softest and its sixteen-inch steel wheels will best fend off potholes and those curbs your kids are so adept at finding. On the XR five-door you can add a sport handling package that, at just $200 more than stability control alone, is a good value adding firmer suspension settings, quicker steering, stability control, and 225/45-17 tires on clean five-spoke alloy wheels. On our tester these were Michelin Pilot HX and with a footprint as wide as the three-door's top setup plus some ride comfort, they might be the best compromise for those in Pennsylvania or on the eastern I-40 corridor in Arkansas The only drawback of fat tires, not unique to these tires or this car, is some tendency to tram-line and follow grooves in the road like a bloodhound's nose.

The driver's suspension is standard on three-doors and those owners may opt for 18-inch alloys with 215/45R16 sticky tires; we're used to seeing Pirelli PZero Rossos on things like Mercedes AMG cars or supercharged Jaguars and welcome them on the Astra. Naturally, these deliver the crispest response, most tenacious grip, and not coincidentally a bit more road noise; perhaps not ideal for pockmarked

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