Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer estate (2010-2016) - Interior & comfort

As it’s aimed squarely at cars like the Volkswagen Golf estate, the Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer has a well built and smartly styled interior. While the Volkswagen may have a slight edge for build quality, the Astra estate cabin does feature plenty of good-quality materials and overall fit-and-finish appears to be right up there with the class best.

The Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer is also a very comfortable car, especially on longer journeys. With plenty of adjustment in the seat and steering wheel, it shouldn’t take too long for buyers to find their ideal driving position, while the seats offer decent cushioning and support.

Despite being marketed as a more upmarket car than its predecessors, the current Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer isn’t that impressive when it comes to standard equipment – unless you go for the more expensive trim levels, quite a few creature comforts that are standard on rivals are optional extras on the Vauxhall.

Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer dashboard

Just like the regular Vauxhall Astra hatchback, the Sports Tourer has a well built interior, with impressive all-round fit and finish, good-quality materials and a classy design.

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The seats in particular are worth singling out for praise, as they offer a decent amount of support and a wide range of adjustment. When combined with the Astra Sports Tourer’s decent ride quality and good refinement, they make the estate a very comfortable car that’s well suited to longer journeys.

One area that does let the side down, however, is the centre console. Though the main controls themselves are fine, the sheer amount of buttons and dials not only makes the dashboard look cluttered, but also means it’s fiddly to use. Thankfully, as with pretty much every other car in this class, most of the Astra Sports Tourer’s features can be operated using the car’s multifunction steering wheel.

Equipment

Despite being one of the more upmarket small estate cars on sale today, the Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer doesn’t come with a huge amount of equipment. Although climate control and cruise control are featured on every model, there are some unusual omissions – only the top-spec Elite trim, for instance, comes with electric rear windows as standard.

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If you want lots of technology without spending too much money, it may be worth considering the Tech Line specification. It’s not the outright cheapest version, but it does come with some useful features, such as dual-zone climate control, a DAB digital radio and a built-in sat-nav system.

Options

One of the more interesting and useful options available for the Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer is FlexFold seating. Exclusive to this model in the Astra range, they allow you to fold the rear seatbacks down completely flat just by pushing a button and without having to remove the headrests.

To help increase your car’s resale value, it may be worth considering some of the more sought-after options like sat nav, leather upholstery and parking sensors. However, as some of these extras can be very expensive to buy, it may not be worth fitting them if you plan on keeping your Astra estate beyond the usual three or four years.