Holden to axe Astra sedan and wagon

Following the axing of the Barina and Spark in 2018, Holden will soon axe two of its three Astra body styles.

Soldiering on with just the hatch body style, Holden will cease importing the Astra wagon and sedan due to overseas plat closures and dwindling sales.

Overall, sales of the Holden Astra have dropped by 21 per cent to May this year, from 3647 units to 2876.

Nevertheless, the car is still Holden's second-best selling model after the Colorado ute, outselling every SUV offered by the Lion brand.

While the Astra wagon only accounted for a small portion of overall Astra sales, the sedan was the price-leader of the small car range, starting at $20,490 for the manual, and has accounted for around half of Astra sales thus far in 2019.

That said, it has been in runout mode, in which dealers price the vehicle to sell quickly, helping it to defy the 40 per cent overall share of sedans in the small-car segment.

Badged as the Chevrolet Cruze overseas, the current Astra sedan has been on sale in Australia since mid-2017, when it joined the current Astra hatch launched here in late 2016.

While the previous Astra was sold here briefly as an Opel, both models effectively replaced the previous Australian-made Cruze hatch and sedan, production of which ended in Adelaide a year before Holden ceased manufacturing in October 2017.

The writing was on the wall for the small sedan when GM announced it would shut its Gunsan car factory in South Korea (along with several others globally), which also produced the Barina but was shuttered last month.

The Cruze sedan is now only produced in China and Argentina, following the end of production at GM’s Lordstown plant in Ohio, USA.

Meantime, the current Astra Sportwagon, which was launched here in September 2017, is produced at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port factory in the UK, which is now owned by the PSA Group.

Sales of the Astra sedan (and wagon) will continue until current stock runs out, leaving only the Polish-built Astra hatch available in Australia, priced from $21,490 for the R manual variant powered by a 110kW/240Nm 1.4-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine.

The mid-spec Holden Astra RS ($26,240) and top-spec RS-V ($30,740) round out the Astra hatch range; both models are equipped with a 147kW/280Nm 1.6-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine.

Holden’s Astra cull follows news the PSA-produced Commodore range will also be pared back in Australia, with diesel models expected to get the axe when the facelifted large liftback, wagon and crossover range arrives from Germany later this year.