Holden Astra: FAQs

First off, we need to go back and explain the history of the Astra.

It first appeared in the line-up as a rebadged Nissan N12 Pulsar hatchback in 1984 and was updated in 1986. Astra was overhauled in 1987 to coincide with the arrival of the N13 Pulsar. There was even an HSV SV1800 version.

The Astra badge took a hiatus from 1989 to 1996 while Holden switched to the Toyota Corolla-based Nova.

Holden then tapped fellow-GM division Opel for its Astra small car. It was imported through three successful generations, especially the TS second-gen. In 2010, it bowed out in favour of the locally-built Cruze.

The Astra was sold in Australia as an Opel in 2012-13, but when that experiment failed it was next seen in the Holden line-up in 2015 as the GTC and VXR hatches.

The end of Cruze in 2016 triggered the return of a full Astra line-up. This was a new-generation model with turbo engines and high-tech gear that remained on-sale until stocks ran out in 2020.

Holden axed the sedan and wagon mid-2019 and announced it was canning the hatch in December 2019. But then the whole Holden brand got killed off in February 2020 and that was that.

The final Astra sold in Australia came as a hatch, wagon and sedan, although the latter was the second-generation GM Cruze rebadged for Australia.

The carsales.com.au reviews of the hatch were always positive and some extremely so. We also liked the wagon and the sedan.

So is the last Holden Astra a good car? Yep, we reckon it is.

Through the generations the Holden Astra has been manufactured locally in co-operation with Nissan or imported from various international General Motors plants.

In the final generation the Holden Astra hatchback was sourced from Poland, the Sportwagon from the UK and the sedan from Korea.

Timing belts were an issue for the Holden Astra, especially when the TS generation was popular and Holden dealers were charging $1600 for a replacement every 60,000km!

GM transitioned to longer wearing timing chains for its new-generation of turbo-petrol engines sold in the final Astras.

The Holden Astra is a small car that sells against the likes of the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla, while the Holden Barina was a light-car that lined up against the likes of the Mazda2 and Toyota Yaris.

The Astra is a bigger car with more powerful engines, more interior space and higher prices.

Holden sourced Barinas variously from Suzuki, Opel and Chevrolet (GM Korea). It was axed in 2018.