I spoke early in the year about Holden’s new Astra hatch. The five-door hatch was joined this week by the Astra sedan and I spent a few days around rain sodden Byron Bay driving the four-model range. Developed in Europe and built in Korea the Holden Astra sedan displays enormous polish. For our market Holden tuned the suspension at its Lang Lang proving ground in Victoria and on badly washed out roads this new small Astra sedan impressed –tuning of the electric power steering was also confidence building especially on the wet surfaces. Just one engine in the four Astra grades LS, LS plus, LT and LTZ – all with an all-alloy 1.4-litre turbo engine linked to a six-speed manual or automatic and happy to run on standard 91 Ron petrol. Holden claiming fuel consumption at 5.8L/100 for the manual, 6.1L/100 for the auto. Pricing kicks off at 21,990 drive-away for the LS manual. More details in later segments. I’m David Berthon

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