What's the news?

Vauxhall has announced the final piece of the Astra-shaped jigsaw. The Astra saloon will join the five-door hatchback, the Sports Tourer station wagon and the GTC coupé when it debuts at the Moscow Motor Show in August. The Astra saloon is being pitched as a more affordable alternative to mid-sized saloons like the Volkswagen Passat and Ford Mondeo.

Exterior

Forward of the B-pillar the Astra saloon is much the same as the rest of the Astra family; from there back it changes considerably. Much like the Focus saloon the new model features a sweeping roofline that gives the car a sportier look, but is likely to impede on rear headroom. The rear screen is steeply raked to match the roof and along with extended C-pillars does a good job of disguising the boot jutting out the back. Hatchback-derived-saloons tend to have a 'boot plonked on' look to them but General Motors has been clever with the Astra saloon's design by effectively concealing it. Despite the look the boot is said to offer 460 litres of load space (90 litres more than the five-door hatch) extending to 1,010 litres with the rear seats collapsed.

Interior

Unsurprisingly, the interior will be much like that of the rest of the Astra range. Ergonomic AGR ("Aktion Gesunder Rücken e.V") approved seats that are easy on the back will be available for front seat passengers and a choice of infotainment systems will be offered including the Navi 900 unit that features the routes of more than 30 European countries and a digital travel guide stored on an SD card.

Mechanicals

At launch the Astra saloon will be offered with a choice of seven engines, all carried over from the rest of the Astra range. Four petrol engines with power outputs ranging from 100- to 180hp will be available alongside three diesel units with power varying from 95- to 130hp. Three of the petrol options will be available with a six-speed automatic transmission while the 110- and 130hp versions of the ecoFLEX diesel engines will be fitted with stop-start as standard to deliver 76mpg and CO₂ emissions of just 99g/km.

Early next year the engine line-up will grow with the addition of the new SIS ECOTEC petrol engine. The 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged unit will offer more power and refinement than current engines but also with efficiency savings of up to 13 per cent.

Anything else?

General Motors is predicting big things for the Astra saloon with growth opportunities seen in Western European markets such as Germany and Spain. There is stronger demand expected from Eastern and Central Europe, particularly Russia and Turkey, where the saloons account for 51 per cent of the segment sales. It is for this reason that Moscow has been chosen as the venue for the new cars debut rather than Paris a month later. As yet there are no plans to sell the four-door Astra in the UK.