Vauxhall Astra interior
The Vauxhall Astra’s interior comes with a good amount of built-in tech as standard, but you’d never describe its interior as particularly eye-catching.
Style
The Vauxhall Astra’s interior looks rather more interesting than the one you get in a VW Golf, but can’t hold a candle to the futuristic cabin you get in the more expensive Mercedes A-Class.
All the controls are sensibly placed and easy to understand, and you get a central infotainment display as standard in every car that – unlike the free-standing display you get in a Ford Focus – looks like it was designed to be there from the start.
This dashboard is covered in lots of squidgy posh-feeling plastics but there isn’t much scope for personalising your Vauxhall Astra’s interior as in some hatchbacks. Pay extra for an SRi model and you get a leather steering wheel and a black roof lining while higher-spec cars get some extra glossy dashboard inserts and shiny metal-effect trims, but that’s about it.
Even the supposedly sporty SRi VX-Line Nav versions don’t come with any particularly exciting cabin decoration – for that you’ll want to consider a Ford Focus ST Line, instead.
Even the supposedly more exciting Vauxhall Astra SRi models look pretty bland inside when you compare it with sporty versions of the Ford Focus.
- Used
- £9,259
Infotainment
Even entry-level Vauxhall Astras come with a 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system as standard that’s pretty bright, fairly responsive and comes with a handy row of physical shortcut buttons to help you switch between key features while you’re driving.
It doesn’t look anywhere near as slick as the huge dual-screen display you get in the more expensive Mercedes A-Class, but it’s easier to use than the similarly-sized touchscreen you get in a Ford Focus.
Beside SE and SRi models, every Vauxhall Astra comes with built-in sat-nav as standard and every model gets smartphone mirroring for Apple and Android phones as standard so you can use your favourite navigation apps through the car’s built-in screen, instead.
These phone connectivity features also let you play music from streaming apps such as Spotify through the Astra’s stereo. This doesn’t sound particularly bassy though, so if you’re serious about sound quality you might want to consider upgrading to an Ultimate model with its standard seven-speaker Bose stereo.
These high-spec models also come with a larger 8.0-inch touchscreen (shared with Elite Nav versions) and an 8.0-inch digital driver’s display instead of conventional analogue dials. This replaces the central speedometer with easy-to-read graphics, but it doesn’t integrate particularly well with the conventional rev-counter and fuel-gauge. The full-width screen you can get in a VW Golf looks much better.
- Used
- £9,259