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Road Test: 2013-2014 Opel Astra OPC
Car Reviews

Road Test: 2013-2014 Opel Astra OPC

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September 28,2013
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11 min read

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UAE and Middle East region in general have always been quite averse to the hatchback concept – most people preferring compact sedans instead. When it came to hot-hatches, sales barely seemed to ever cross double digits. The VW Golf GTi was the only hot-hatch sold in the region for a very long time with the odd pot-shot from Honda with it’s Civic Type R and the Volkswagen’s (VW) own cousin, the Seat Leon FR.

However, off late, the market for hot hatches has been steadily increasing with Renaultsport’s Clio RS, Ford’s latest entrant, the Focus ST and of course the Golf’s more stylish brother, the Scirocco (they call it a coupe, but really, it’s a 2 door hatch, isn’t it?).

With Opel’s return to the local market after a decade, the Astra OPC is set to take on the segment stalwarts and leave a mark. Does it have what it takes?

 

Style

I’m not going to waste time on this and I won’t hear any arguments about it either. The Opel Astra OPC is a good looking car. Our test car’s canary yellow is not the colour I’d have selected personally, but it is still a well proportioned car. Its got a much more aggressive look over the standard Astra GTC thanks to new bumpers with larger air intakes and the flared arches (especially at the rear). The character lines running along the sides of the car are a particularly nice touch with one creating a wide ‘L’ shape running along the bottom of the car just above the new side skirts and the other coming from the tail light, curving around the door handle and boomeranging (did I just create a word?) back towards the rear wheel arch. The neat rear spoiler is not too flashy and is the perfect cherry on top of this well proportioned cake.

The car does appear to sit lower on its 19 inch wheels but this led to my one disappointment in terms of the appearance. Elsewhere around the globe, the Astra sits on 20 inch wheels (the same as the ones on the Insignia OPC we have tested previously) which really fill up the flared arches and add to the cars sporty looks. The 19s aren’t too bad, but when you know what you’re missing out on, it hurts just a little bit.

Nonetheless, the car has a fantastic stance and turned a fair number of heads on the road. 

 

Interior Space and Comfort

Swing open the door to get into the car and you experience a dilemma. You see, the Astra has just 2 very long doors but still features rear seats. The doors open exceptionally wide allowing you a comfortable amount of space to enter the rear seats (as long as you have even an average amount of flexibility, you should be fine). However, in tight parking lots like a shopping mall, opening the doors and getting in, especially to the front seats can prove quite cumbersome as the seats are quite far forward from the opening aperture. So the wide doors have both their merits and their disadvantages. It’s a price you will have to pay for those looks. 

You will then rest your derriere on some of the nicest sports seats in this segment. They look the part and prove useful when cornering hard with their heavily bolstered sides keeping you reasonably firmly in place.

For a 2 door hatchback, the car is surprisingly accommodating. Entering the aforementioned rear seats is not the most appealing proposition, but once in, the car has sufficient space in the rear. I did manage short trips with 5 people on board with no major complaints. Granted my passengers weren’t basketball players, but you can comfortably fit 2-3 average sized people in the rear. The only gripe was that due to the shallow tiny windows, the rear cabin did feel claustrophobic – especially with the high-back sports seats ahead. In the front, the car feels roomy and comfortable. There are cubby holes everywhere from the centre console, to the large dash compartment, the glove box between the two seats and the large door pockets. 

Interior Finishing and Technology

The materials aren’t exactly premium but don’t feel too shabby. The centre console does have a rather cheap looking piece of piano black plastic surrounding the controls but other than that, the cabin is acceptable. There is a plethora of buttons scattered on the console – most of which would require a degree in advanced rocket science to figure out. The visible surfaces are covered in leather or soft touch materials though it won’t match the quality of the Volkswagens - the Germans have always been a league above when it comes to the interiors of their cars.

Where the disappointment comes is in the gadgetry. Hot hatches are typically aimed at the youth and today’s i-generation love to have various toys to play with. The Opel fails quite miserably in regard to this. Forget touch screens – all you’re getting is a dot matrix screen about 3 inches across. It’s terribly archaic and would probably feel aged in a decade old car. The car does come with reverse sensors, a speed limiter and cruise control and that’s the sum and substance of its features. In a car costing AED 116k onwards, the same price as a base Golf GTi, that surely can’t be acceptable.

 

Drive Performance

Drive Technology and Road Noise

Turn the key (what? No push start!) and the car’s 2 litre turbo engine comes to life. It has a loud, bassy idle initially but quietens down a bit once the car warms up.

You can get quite comfortable as those sports seat drop right down low and the steering wheel adjusts for rake and reach – though both adjust manually. The car rides very well and is quite supple over the lumps and bumps in the road. The engine does makes its presence known at all times – there is a constant boom permeating through the cabin that isn’t always pleasant. Wind noise is well suppressed, in no small thanks to its slippery shape but there is still a lot of sound from the powertrain making the cabin a loud place to be in. 

Brakes

The standard Brembos on this OPC model are fantastic. The car is not exactly a light weight coming in around 1.5 tonnes but the brakes do a fantastic job of repeatedly hauling the car down to a dead halt. The downhill section on the mountain roads we use to test the cars handling usually takes a toll on any car’s brakes with brake fade and a long middle pedal being typical features. However, the Astra’s brakes remained strong through the entire run without the middle pedal ever feeling like it was giving up. This really inspired confidence to push on.

Fuel Consumption

In the city, the car is calm and easy to use. Despite the sizable blind spots created by the tiny rear windows, the car is still easy to place thanks to massive door mirrors. The Astra even features an engine start/stop function which automatically shuts down the engine at a set of lights when not required. Saving a few drops of fuel in this country really isn’t a priority but it’s a feature that’s not found on many competitors. The car is relatively frugal when driven with a light to moderate throttle but this drops drastically when you decide to mash your foot down. Typically you can expect to see less than 10 litres/100 kms – possibly much lower if driven sensibly but the truth is, you’ll want to press on when you feel the power lurking under the hood.

Transmission

While the Astra OPC’s old fashioned little information screen was not a highlight, the old fashioned 6 speed manual transmission does feel like a step in the right direction. I know the lazy ones among you who are averse to using your left leg will moan and complain and head straight down to VW who will give you a shoulder to cry on and then sell you a dual-clutch transmission because here in Dubai, they don’t know what a stick shift is, but the truth is, these rorty little boxes on 4 wheels feel best when you’re shifting gears yourself, allowing you to really take control and wring the life out of them. The clutch is light as is the gear shift action making pulling away a breeze.

Power and Acceleration

The engine is the defining feature of the car. The 2 litre turbo is average in size for this segment but has power output figures that surpass all the competition. 280 horses and more importantly 400Nm of torque ensure that this car pulls away from the competition in a straight line. However, there is a significant amount of turbo lag below 2000rpm and you get a real surge only around the 2500rpm mark. However once on boost, the car pulls away like nothing else hitting 100kmph in around 6 seconds. The sensation of acceleration is quite suppressed (you don’t really get a kick in the back) but a glance at the speedometer shows the needle sweeping around at an alarming pace. You will reach grossly illegal speeds before you’ve finished reading this sentence and it will continue to pull faster still well beyond the dark side of 200kmph. The downside though is that the engine just does not provide a soundtrack to go with that pace. Above 3500rpm, you hear the turbos sucking air in, but the sound is almost industrial and just not appealing to the ears. Under hard acceleration, most passengers felt that the bottom of the car must be scraping the road – such was the sound that emanated through the cabin.

Having Said That...

However, as you up the pace, you do find some positive revelation and some not very complimentary findings. 

Once you get over the turbo lag and work around it, that mountain of torque is just stupendously addictive. Out on twisting mountain roads, you can typically find atleast 2 if not 3 gears that will have sufficient pull to keep you moving along at a decent clip. This means you don’t need to work too hard and can afford to make mistakes without it really impacting your forward momentum too seriously. However, the gearshift itself is not the best. The clutch pedal is terribly long as is the gear shift. This means you really can’t hurry too much through the gear box. Also, fifth and sixth gear are definitely in a parallel gearbox requiring a firm shove to the right to get the transmission to slot into gear. The shifts to these gears in particular are just not precise at all with the gear slotting into third on several occasions rather than fifth. The steering is quite feelsome letting you know what the front wheels are upto. Under full throttle, the car does have a tendency to torque steer and you do feel quite a pull on the steering wheel in lower gears when you’re really going for it, but then what else would you expect when you try to send 280bhp through the front wheels?!

Suspension

The Astra does feature a ‘Sport’ button as well as an ‘OPC’ button. Pressing any of these sharpens things up, most notably the suspension. We truly felt that ‘Sport’ was the best setting allowing for better control of body movements while still leaving the suspension with enough compliance for those uneven roads. OPC, which causes the lights around the dials to glow red, tends to get the suspension quite firm and while still relatively compliant, we did find that it tends to throw you off line when you meet a bump mid corner. OPC is best left for a smooth track rather than real world roads.

Handling

The best bit though is a proper limited slip differential between the front wheels. Despite the weight, you can really throw this car into corners and then get onto the power early. The diff hooks up really well allowing you to corner harder than you can possibly imagine. It really does leave you hanging on the edge of your seat wondering how those tyres are not getting ripped off their rims, such are the cornering forces you can generate. VW’s electronic differential does a decent job of allowing hard cornering without pushing into understeer but the mechanical diff in the Astra OPC is just far superior. The car was an absolute joy through the twisting roads doing just as well through the tighter corners (though the weight was more apparent here) as it did through the wide sweepers (where it felt rock solid).

Verdict

So where does that leave us? 

The Astra OPC is sorely lacking in gadgets and aside from the excellent seats, its interiors aren’t made from the best materials. It does look fantastic and can probably be justified as a cheaper alternative to the VW Scirocco but with rivals such as the Ford Focus ST (uglier, but just as involving to drive) selling for over AED 20k less, its price tag becomes harder to justify.

However, if you want a beautiful, engaging and stupendously fast hot hatch that can keep sports car honest, the Astra OPC is definitely worth considering. Just make sure you beg the dealer to get you those 20 inch alloys because they make the exterior feel complete.

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