Following the recent Astra teaser sketches released by Vauxhall, spy photographers have caught the 2010 Opel/Saturn Astra testing in the United States for the first time. Also pictured from Germany is the OPC performance version with it's alloy wheels and aggressive front bumper fascia with huge side vents as indicated by the area with the solid black tape.
Despite the car’s irritating disguising, the new profile, the front fascia and the massive rear bumper with the parted taillights are yet visible. While we can’t say anything to the shape of the three-door model yet, it seems to be clear the five-door version will again get the current model’s sloping roof line plus the trapezoidal-shaped c-pillar. All in all, however, the new car looks somewhat sleeker and yet more aggressive. The Astra also seems to have very interesting headlight clusters with a jeweled arrangement at the top of the housing. We aren't yet sure if these are in fact an array of LEDs for daytime running lights.
On the inside, we can see the normal Astra prototype has a 6-speed while the OPC version ironically shows an automatic. Buttons for 3-stage, heated seats are visible towards the bottom of the centre stack. What caught our eye even more are two buttons on the top of the centre stack. One on the right reads "Tour" and the one on the left reads "Sport." While an adaptive suspension seems like a pricey feature for such a low cost car, those buttons may very well control such a system.
Besides the 5-door model pictured here, Opel has an estate (“Caravan”), a convertible (“Twin Top”) and the 3-door (“GTC”) in the pipeline, all following the 5-doors introduction, one by one. The engine range will be similar to that used in today’s cars, but we do expect greener engines to arrive shortly after the car’s introduction in about one year. The new Astra will debut at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show.
