sorea rea blog: Opel Astra Twintop 2007

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It is branded as Vauxhall Astra in the United Kingdom, the Buick Excelle XT in China and the Chevrolet Astra/Vectra in Latin America. The Saturn Astra was also built for the American and Canadian market, but sales were discontinued in 2009 due to the discontinuation of GM's Saturn marque. The Holden Astra was also discontinued in Australia in 2009 due to exchange rates making the car uncompetitive, and was replaced by the Holden Cruze. It is planned to return it to the Australian market in 2012 as the Opel Astra. The Chevrolet Vectra (Astra H) was also discontinued in Latin America and was also replaced by the Chevrolet Cruze.

Opel Astra TwinTop (2007)

Opel Astra TwinTop (2007)
The Astra is now built in China, Germany , the United Kingdom, Brazil and Poland, as well as being assembled from complete knock down (CKD) kits in other countries.

Opel Astra TwinTop (2007)

The Astra nameplate originates from Vauxhall who had manufactured and marketed earlier generations of the Opel Kadett (the Kadett D (1979–1984) and Kadett E (1984–1991)) as Vauxhall Astra. Subsequent GM Europe policy standardised model nomenclature in the early 1990s whereby model names were the same in all markets regardless of whether the vehicle was being sold as an Opel or a Vauxhall.

2007 Opel Astra TwinTop

As of 2009, there have been four generations of the Astra. In a fashion typical for Opel they are designated with subsequent letters of the Latin alphabet. Opel's official convention is that the Astra is a logical continuation of the Kadett lineage, thus referring to the first generation of Opel Astra as the Astra F(the last Opel Kadett was the Kadett E). Another convention used by GM starts with Astra A, adopting the notion that the Astra is a separate model. 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.

2007 Opel Astra TwinTop

Interior » 2007 Opel Astra

The Opel Astra F debuted in October 1991. 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). It was offered as a three or five-door hatchback, a saloon (sedan), and a 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. A cabriolet was also offered, designed and built by Bertone in Italy. This car was offered in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Turkey with the name Astra Classic from 1998 to 2002. The Astra F finished production in 1998.

2007 Opel Astra Twin Top

Opel Astra Twintop - 2007 1.6i

2007 Opel Astra TwinTop
The model was launched in Europe and South Africa in 1991. In South Africa it was produced under licence by Delta. However, the Kadett name was retained for the Astra hatchback until 1999. The South African Astra included a variant with a 2.0 L turbocharged engine called the Opel Astra 200t S. The 200t S was a specific name where Delta Motor Corporation wanted to show the specialty of the type, which could beat the M3 in a quarter mile in that time. The 200t S stands for: 200 for the horsepower, t for the turbocharger and S for the six speed transmission which was unique in its class at those ages. Both engine and chassis was produced in limited numbers (250 only) in both sedan and hatchback guise in Opel's Hungarian factory at Szentgotthárd. The engine (C20LET) in the Opel Astra 200t S was sourced from the Opel Calibra and Opel Vectra A 4x4 2.0 16V turbo, 4 wheel drive found on European markets, but local engineers converted the 6 speed, 4 wheeldrive drivetrain (Getrag F28) to front wheel drive only and as such was unique to that market. Sedan, hatchback and station wagon models were offered under the Astra name. Controversially, the Kadett and Astra in South Africa won the title of 'Car of the Year' in two consecutive years (1993 and 1994) even though they were versions of the same car. South African nomenclature was denoted in centilitres, so the Astra and Kadett ranges featured 140, 160i, 180i and 200i models.

Opel Astra Twin Top.

Opel-Astra TwinTop 2007

The Opel Astra also became available in Australasia badged as a Holden, first in New Zealand in 1995, and then Australia in 1996. The first models were imported from the UK, but later models were imported from Belgium. The Holden Astra name had previously been used on rebadged Nissan Pulsar models from 1984 to 1989.