It also featured a sports body kit and widened front seats in the interior. The Astra F consisted of two main revisions and was revised in 1995, with the launch of Opel's new Ecotec engine.Īside from the South Africa-only 200t S, the lead model was the GSi – a 2.0 L I4 16V petrol injected model with 151 hp (110 kW), available as a three-door only. While the Astra F finished production in Germany in 1998, Polish-built Astras remained on offer in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Turkey, with the name Astra Classic from 1998 to 2002. A cabriolet was also offered, designed, and built by Bertone in Italy. It was offered as a three- or five-door hatchback, a saloon (sedan), and an estate (wagon) known as the Caravan and available with five doors only, bringing Opel's run of three-door wagons to an end at long last. With the Kadett E's successor, Opel adopted the Astra nameplate, which was already used by Vauxhall for the Kadett D and E (see Vauxhall Astra). Models sold as Vauxhall, Holden, or Chevrolet have different generation designations reflecting the history of those nameplates in their home markets and their naming conventions. The usual convention would have started with Astra A, if the Astra had been considered a separate model. Opel's official convention is that the Astra is a logical continuation of the Kadett lineage, thus, the first generation of Opel Astra as the Astra F (the last Opel Kadett was the Kadett E). In a fashion typical for Opel, they are designated with subsequent letters of the Latin alphabet. Subsequent GM Europe policy standardised model nomenclature in the early 1990s, whereby model names were the same in all markets regardless of the marque they were sold under.Īs of 2021, there have been six generations of the Astra (or eleven generations of the Kadett/Astra family as a whole). The Astra nameplate originates from Vauxhall, which had manufactured and marketed earlier generations of the Opel Kadett (the Kadett D (1979–1984) and Kadett E (1984–1991)) as the Vauxhall Astra. On, Opel announced that the Astra GTC and Astra VXR (Astra OPC) would return to Australia and New Zealand in 2015, again bearing the Holden badge. It briefly returned to the Australian market in 2012, for the first time badged as an Opel, but was discontinued after Opel withdrew from the country a year later. The Holden Astra was discontinued in Australia and New Zealand in 2009, because exchange rates made importing Opel cars uncompetitive, and was replaced by the locally-assembled Holden Cruze. It is branded as the Vauxhall Astra in the United Kingdom and the Buick Excelle XT in China.
These bodystyles were later followed by a coupé (the Astra GTC) in 2004, the sporty Astra OPC appeared in 2005, the Twin Top retractable hardtop convertible replaced the soft top convertible in 2006, while the Caravan was rebadged Astra Sports Tourer from 2009 onwards. A sedan delivery/panel (the Astravan) and a convertible (the Astra Cabrio) also appeared in the early 1990s. It was launched in September 1991 (for the 1992 model year) in hatchback, saloon, and station wagon (known as the Astra Caravan) forms. The Opel Astra is a compact car/ small family car ( C-segment) engineered and manufactured by the German automaker Opel since 1991, currently at its sixth generation.