The Astra GSe is a top-of-the-range Astra that comes with lots of sporty badging, but the performance labelling is a bit deceptive, said Autocar. What we have here is a comfortable, nicely rounded, everyday plug-in hybrid. Softly suspended, it has a fair bit of roll in corners and the grip from the Michelin Primacy 4 tyres is OK, but not tenacious. It’s “quite satisfying on a twisty road, but it’s never exciting”.
The GSe is nicely proportioned and classy, with comfy seats and a sweeping dashboard, said The Daily Telegraph. You can fit three adults in the back, at a push. But at £40,550, it’s no bargain, and you’ll pay £355 a year in luxury car tax (applied to all cars over £40,000). You’ll also need to fork out an extra £500 for a 7.4kW charger to plug it into a household wallbox and cut charging from 5.5 hours to just under two.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In pictures: Vauxhall Astra GSe
-
Buddhist monks’ US walk for peaceUnder the Radar Crowds have turned out on the roads from California to Washington and ‘millions are finding hope in their journey’
-
American universities are losing ground to their foreign counterpartsThe Explainer While Harvard is still near the top, other colleges have slipped
-
How to navigate dating apps to find ‘the one’The Week Recommends Put an end to endless swiping and make real romantic connections
-
Catherine O'Hara: The madcap actress who sparkled on ‘SCTV’ and ‘Schitt’s Creek’Feature O'Hara cracked up audiences for more than 50 years
-
6 gorgeous homes in warm climesFeature Featuring a Spanish Revival in Tucson and Richard Neutra-designed modernist home in Los Angeles
-
Touring the vineyards of southern BoliviaThe Week Recommends Strongly reminiscent of Andalusia, these vineyards cut deep into the country’s southwest
-
Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
-
American Psycho: a ‘hypnotic’ adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classicThe Week Recommends Rupert Goold’s musical has ‘demonic razzle dazzle’ in spades
-
Properties of the week: houses near spectacular coastal walksThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, Devon and Northumberland
-
Melania: an ‘ice-cold’ documentaryTalking Point The film has played to largely empty cinemas, but it does have one fan
-
Nouvelle Vague: ‘a film of great passion’The Week Recommends Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave
