Opel Astra

The Opel Astra is a small family car engineered and manufactured by the German automaker Opel since 1991. It is branded as Vauxhall Astra in the United Kingdom, the Buick Excelle XT in China and the Chevrolet Astra/Vectra in Latin America. The Holden Astra was discontinued in Australia in 2009 due to exchange rates making the car uncompetitive, and was replaced by the Holden Cruze. It is planned to return it to the Australian market in 2012 as the Opel Astra. The Astra is now built in China, Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland, as well as being assembled from complete knock down kits in... other countries. The Astra nameplate originates from Vauxhall who had manufactured and marketed earlier generations of the Opel Kadett and Kadett E as Vauxhall Astra. Subsequent GM Europe policy standardised model nomenclature in the early 1990s whereby model names were the same in all markets regardless of whether the vehicle was being sold as an Opel or a Vauxhall. As of 2009, there have been four generations of the Astra. In a fashion typical for Opel they are designated with subsequent letters of the Latin alphabet.
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