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

compare selected cars
1999. - 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

4152 mm
1735 mm
1427 mm
350 liters
1100 liters
55 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4288 mm
1709 mm
1510 mm
480 liters
1500 liters
52 liters
1999 Audi A3 Sportback
1998 Opel Astra Stationwagon

Engine

Volkswagen
1.9 TDI ASZ
Diesel
4 - Inline, 2 valves per cylinder
Turbo
1896 cc
130 hp
310 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 - 6 gears
1175 kg
9.2 s
205 km/h
6.9 l/100km
4.2 l/100km
5.1 l/100km
138 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 - 5 gears
1220 kg
9.8 s
200 km/h
8.6 l/100km
5.0 l/100km
6.3 l/100km
170 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

700 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 130hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 101hp engine designed by Opel.

Safety

The first thing to look into here would be the results from European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) tests performed on the two cars. Good thing is that both vehicles got tested, with the same number of safety stars gained in the process. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. 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. On the other hand, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, Astra offers a marginal difference of 9% more metal.

Reliability

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Opel does have a slight advantage, all the models observed together. These are the results of an independent reasearch, while our visitors describe reliability of Audi, as well as Opel, with the same average rating of 4.2 out of 5. Independent research findings rank A3 as average reliability-wise, and Astra is more or less at the same level.That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as Audi A3 rank it on average as 4.5, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.2 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

Audi is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 3.3 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 205 kilometers per hour, 22km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be Audi A3, averaging around 5.1 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (55 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 16% 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 Audi outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. 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 Audi. 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. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.

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