Despite what the do-gooders and nanny-state mentalists would have us believe, we’re not all the same. Some of us want bland cars that can carry a family of five with two weeks’ worth of luggage, and run on the sniff of an oil rag for 30 years without much in the way of servicing, while others will take performance over functionality every day of the week.
A large group of people in the middle enjoys the in-betweeners; cars that don’t cost an arm and a leg to buy or run, and don’t reach obscene speeds in seconds, but deliver satisfying performance and sexy styling at the cost of a few minor inconveniences.
The recently launched Opel Astra GTC 1,9 CDTi is very much one of the latter. It’s a two-door coupé version of the Astra hatchback, with which it shares little or no bodywork, and while there are plenty of boring-looking petrol-engined sedans that will leave it for dead on the road, the stylish coupé feels more than lively enough to justify living with the few quirks that come with the package.
Let’s start with the old coupé bugbear — wide, wide doors, that mean the safety belts are located so far behind the driver that they are literally a pain in the neck to reach. The Opel two-door is one of the worst around in this regard — every time I got behind the wheel of the test car I just about dislocated my neck and hips, trying to buckle up. Still, I can live with that. After all, I’ve been known to travel 900km in a day in the rain on a motorcycle, so who am I to get heated up about such a minor inconvenience?
The second problem with the GTC is that there isn’t much room in the back. Rear-seat accommodation isn’t the best, but if you want to cart your entire overweight extended family to their Weighless session every Monday night, you shouldn’t be looking at a car like this, right? Case dismissed!
The third glitch, which could irk some but didn’t bother me much, is that, at idle, the 1,9-litre turbo diesel engine sounds like, well, a truck. Sliding in behind the wheel in a parking bay at Fourways and then unleashing what sounds like three tonnes of gravel being poured down a corrugated iron tunnel kind of destroys the image one hopes to engender through the car’s sleek looks. Once rolling, however, the sound effects disappear, and the car runs as quietly as a luxury petrol-engined car.
Now that I’ve got the attention of the people at General Motors, who are probably already reaching for their keyboards, let’s get on to what I loved about the Opel. In a nutshell, everything. The car’s a joy to drive, it’s got oodles of mid-range grunt, it handles beautifully, and it’s economical. Above all, it’s desirable in that it’s not boring to look at, and it’s well priced.
When I took delivery of the test car I had no idea what it cost, and I didn’t bother finding out for about four days. In the meantime, I’d guestimated that it would slot in around the R250Â 000 to R275Â 000 mark. I was out by between R20Â 000 and R45Â 000 — enough to buy a second-hand plodder for the Monday-night Weighless brigade.
At R229Â 700 the Opel provides excellent value. It comes with sporty seats clad in leather, four airbags, electric everything, all the electronic driver aids you’re ever likely to need to keep out of trouble, and enough space for four medium-sized adults. The boot is reasonably capacious for a coupé, and the rear seat can be split in a 60:40 configuration to allow extra baggage if you get rid of the kids.
The diesel Opel doesn’t provide the outright performance that its looks imply, but its 110kW of power at 4Â 000rpm and 320Nm of torque at just 2Â 000rpm make it feel much quicker than many cars with more absolute power, thanks to the large wave of mid-range torque. The 0-100kph dash takes about 9,5 seconds, and top speed is a tad over a genuine 200kph, with 220kph or so showing on the clock.
The beauty of the engine, though, lies in the fact that it’s revving smack in the middle of its torque band at the national speed limit, meaning that a prod on the loud pedal gets the car leaping past slower traffic without the driver needing to play with the lovely six-speed manual transmission. There’s a moderate amount of turbo lag off the line, though, and first gear is rather low, so getting moving from a standstill in a hurry takes a bit of practice.
The Opel Astra GTC CDTi is a great car at a great price. It’s not ridiculously quick, but goes better on the road than it does on paper, and does it without swallowing copious amounts of fuel or needing endless gear changes.
For those who want something even livelier, there’s the 147 kW two-litre turbo petrol version, which sells for R230Â 920, and the OPC (Opel Performance Cars) 177 kW rocket ship that should be here within a year. In the real world, I suspect the diesel offering makes the most sense.