Opel New Astra BiTurbo Diesel
Diesels are still considered the
reasonable, and mostly conservative, choice in Europe, but Opel wants to make
own offering in the C-Segment appeal to a wider audience.
To this end, it has launched a 1.6-liter
four with two sequential turbochargers. With an output of 160 PS, this Astra
does the zero to 100 km/h sprint in 8.6 seconds and tops out at 220
km/h with an average consumption of just 4.1 lt/100 km (57 US
mpg).Peak torque measures 350 Nm, all of it available as early as 1,500 rpm.
A quick rundown of some of the all-new
Astra's rivals will (sort of) back up Opel's claims. Models such as the Ford
Focus, VW Golf, SEAT Leon or Peugeot 308 have 2.0-liter diesel engines with
outputs of 150 PS, while the Mazda3's 150 PS come from its 2.2-liter Skyactiv-D
engine.
While on paper, the Astra 1.6 BiTurbo CDTI isn't the quickest to
100 km/h (that would be the Mazda, followed by the Leon) nor the most fuel
efficient (that would be the Peugeot), it is pretty close in all of them
despite sporting an engine with a significantly smaller capacity.
