Vauxhall Astra vs rivals

The new Vauxhall Astra is a crucial car for the firm. We take arch-rivals from VW and Ford to meet one of the first cars off the UK assembly line.

There are high stakes involved with the launch of the new Vauxhall Astra.

It’s the sixth generation of the top-selling family car to be built at the Ellesmere Port facility in Cheshire, and its success will be pivotal to the British plant’s future. We couldn’t wait to deliver our verdict on the most important new Vauxhall of 2009, so we grabbed the keys to its biggest rivals to greet one of the first cars off the production line.

Waiting at the factory gates were the Volkswagen Golf and the Astra’s arch nemisis, the Ford Focus. The VW is fresh from victory at our annual New Car Awards, while the Focus has been a regular at the top of the sales charts since it arrived at the end of 2004. It still sets the dynamic benchmark in this ultra-competitive sector.

Headline news for the Astra is the introduction of a new 1.4-litre turbo engine, but the Golf has the award- winning 1.4-litre TSI unit in its arsenal already. The normally aspirated 1.6-litre Ford risks being outgunned in this company… so let battle commence.