Well, made the trip down to Bedfordshire yesterday morning with my Dad to spend a few hours driving the new Astra around Millbrook.....

Verdict.........???

What a lovely lovely little car they have made the Astra into....

First they took us into a cinema type room and there was the car centre stage with smoke and lights and all that.....

Then a brief 15-20 minute introduction to the design philisophy and all the marketing schpeel then out onto the apron to start the testing.....

Interesting they also supplied VW Golfs, Audi A3s, Ford Focuses, Honda Civics and Peugeot 308s for comparison.....they must be confident of the new Astra !!!

Bloody loved the new Astra.....Cant believe I am saying that.....!!!!

Theres a REAL feel of quality to it, beautiful interior (Insignia derived?) and great great fun to drive....

Styling wise theres quite a lot of a Seat Leon about it, particularly the C pillar and rear end....

Went out alone in the 1.6 Turbo SRi around the Hill Route (as seen in Casino Royale and Top Gear £5000 truck challenge!!!) and that thing flew.......Handling was fabulous, really really gripped well and got air going over the jump bit of the track.....!!!

They let us do laps of the high speed bowl too, although that was limited to 100mph and we werent allowed in the top (of 5) lanes of the track there....

Also drove amongst other variants a 2.0 CDTi Auto Tiptronic Elite, and that was very very quick too......!!!

Great great day out and well done Vauxhall.....you have made a big big step forward with that car.......!!!!

Pics are up on my Facebook page for anyone interested (taken covertly so not great though!!!)

Any chance of posting them somewhere other than shitbook? It's saying I need to log in to view and I'm not signing up just to see a blurry photo