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Car #1
Make
Model
Variant
Engine
Car #2
Make
Model
Variant
Engine

compare selected cars
1998. - 2003.
C - Small family car
wagon, 5 door
front
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
1998. - 2004.
C - Small family car
wagon, 5 door
front

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4397 mm
1735 mm
1473 mm
460 liters
1470 liters
55 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4288 mm
1709 mm
1510 mm
480 liters
1500 liters
52 liters
1998 Volkswagen Golf Variant
1998 Opel Astra Stationwagon

Engine

Volkswagen
1.9 TDI AJM
Diesel
4 - Inline, 2 valves per cylinder
Turbo
1896 cc
115 hp
285 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Opel / General Motors
2.0 Y20DTH
Diesel
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Turbo
1995 cc
101 hp
230 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 5 gears
1280 kg
11.3 s
193 km/h
6.6 l/100km
4.1 l/100km
5.0 l/100km
135 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
manual gearbox - 5 gears
1280 kg
12.5 s
183 km/h
7.7 l/100km
4.8 l/100km
5.9 l/100km
158 g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

automatic - 4 gears
1303 kg
12.8 s
190 km/h
9.1 l/100km
4.9 l/100km
6.4 l/100km
173 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km

Expenses

800 EUR
Price from
500 EUR

Virtual Adviser's™ opinion

Overview

Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the small family car segment and utilize the same 5-door wagon body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific diesel engine choice they offer. The first one has a Volkswagen-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 8-valves 115hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 101hp engine designed by Opel.

Safety

Both vehicles got tested by European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), with the same number of safety stars gained in the process. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the small family car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle safety-wise, but that fact doesn't break the tie between the two cars. Furthermore, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, Astra offers a marginal difference of 1% more metal.

Reliability

Reliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that both brands display similar results in faults and breakdowns, all the models observed together. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Volkswagen, as well as Opel, with the same average rating of 4.2 out of 5. Independent research findings rank Golf as average reliability-wise, and Astra is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as Golf rank it on average as 4.1, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.2 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

Volkswagen is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1.2 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 193 kilometers per hour, 10km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be Golf, averaging around 5 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (57 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 18% difference compared to Astra.


Verdict

Opel appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, Astra offers slightly better overall protection and takes the lead. From there things take a different direction, with Volkswagen being considerably quicker, thus putting more smile on driver's face. To make things even better, it consumps less fuel! All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but Volkswagen. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. Also, you could use the oportunity to find out which car, everything taken into account, would be the perfect choice for you in the eyes of the virtual adviser, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.

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