Johannesburg - Opel station wagons were relatively popular in South Africa in years gone by, with the Kadett Voyage and Astra Estate providing affordable-yet-practical transportation back in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
But sadly South Africans just don't buy wagons anymore, which is why it’s very unlikely that the new Opel Astra Sports Tourer that you see here will ever reach our shores.
This new estate car is the second variant of the new Astra, which was revealed in hatchback form earlier this year. This is also the first Astra generation to have been designed under Stellantis (formerly PSA) ownership, which means that beneath the skin it’s relatively similar to the Peugeot 308.
With a new platform comes a degree of future-proofing too, and like the hatch, the new Opel Astra Sports Tourer will be available with two plug-in hybrid powertrain options, producing up to 165kW.
Of course, conventional petrol and diesel engines are also part of the mix, offering between 81kW and 96kW. Opel is offering a choice of six-speed manual and eight-speed automatic gearboxes, depending on the variant.
Being an estate car practicality is a given, and the new Opel doesn’t disappoint here, with its luggage capacity of 608 litres, expanding to 1634 litres when the back seats are folded flat. The hybrids are slightly less practical though, with the batteries restricting packing space to 548 and 1574 litres respectively.
As with the new Astra hatch, the cockpit area boasts a new ‘Pure Panel’, which is a curved wide screen set-up that incorporates the infotainment and digital instrumentation. Another tech highlight is the Intelli-Lux LED Pixel headlights, which have 168 LED elements.
“The new Astra Sports Tourer is the all-rounder for a new era – electrified, digitised and designed to excite”, daid Opel CEO Uwe Hochgeschurtz. “This is how we combine our long tradition of compact estates with the latest innovations such as plug-in hybrid technology. We are certain that we will win new customers for Opel with the fantastic looking Sports Tourer.”