I got a hire car from Kindertons today whilst mine is having its back passenger door repaired.They give you like for like and I got a silver 10 reg astra active 1.6 petrol.It is a nice car to drive better than I thought it would be and not much bigger than the mk 7 fiesta.What did surprise me was it sounded more noisy at 70 mph than my diesel and it took a bit more effort to get up to speed.Also something I don't agree with is the £47.88 charge the other guys insurance is paying per day for me to have that car.It costing his insurance £620+vat just to sort the back door.

1.6 in an astra sounds underpowered. What happened anyway?

Guy parked next to me in work opened his door and the wind took it off him and it went into mine putting two dints in it.He was good enough to own up and give me his details.

Funny you should say that about the Astra. While my Fiesta is being repaired after I rolled it a couple of weeks ago, I've had a 60 Plate Corsa 1.4 Petrol.

These things are supposed to be on a par with the Fiesta. Dare I say it, but this thing is actually put together a lot better than my Fiesta. The build quality is excellent.

It rides bumps and pot holes without crash banging. The doors shut with a solid thunk. There's more romm inside it, when you have a passenger on board you can change gear without using their knees. The finish inside is far better than the Ford.

Downsides, doesn't go round the twisty bits a sell, lacks electric windows on the base models and is a bit softer riding. The petrol engine has only 2 cylinders I'm sure. Like you needs to be revved hard. Overall I'm quite impressed.

Will I miss it when I get my car back in a couple of weeks .........yes I think I will.

Tone

Surely 'like for like' would be a Corsa and not an Astra?

I had a brand new (50 miles on the odometer) Astra 1.4 Exclusiv as a rental car last year. Beautifully built, great interior design, really uncomfortable seats, poor handling compared to my Focus, Mondeo and Fiesta and the 87PS engine felt totally overwhelmed by the mass of the vehicle it had to haul up the M4.

Still, it looked nice.