Mk1 Vauxhall Astra Saloon: Review and Drive (Opel Kadett D)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- Let me show you around my 1981 Vauxhall Astra E 1200S Saloon (AKA an Opel Kadett D), give you a good look round the exterior, a thorough explanation of all the controls and interior instruments, and I take it for a drive to give you a flavour of what it's like
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What a lovely, charming car! Great that it is still alive after 40 years - despite being a base model, it's been loved.
Thank you!
Even about twenty five years ago Astra mk1 base models were rare. So rare that I forgot you got the small circular headlights with them.
I sold one of the first 1.2 Astras 40 years ago. I worked at Main dealer as a salesman. Thanks for sharing a bit of welcome nostalgia 😊
Oh wow! That’s awesome
It's incredible that the car has survived this long, especially in more or less factory spec. I imagine that most examples of the Astra E were originally fleet cars (or used by dealers to upsell customers into an L) and were used up and worn out by the late 1980s.
However, I reckon that in 1981 that the model would have been an absolute revelation to anyone trading up from a Viva HC or an early Chevette.
Yes that’s a very good point. The Vauxhall all-mode brochures for 1980 or early 81 make the Astra look a world apart from the tires old Chevette and Cavalier
This is the Astra D.
Just my thoughts ❤😊
What a class car. Love the simplicity. I had the new model 2 Astra Merit 1300. A bit of a blobby shaped car with a 'cheese cutter' grey grill but it was good value for money at the time. Much better than my first car, a Vauxhall Viva HC.
My first car was a 1981 Kadett. This video brought back many memories. Great car and a great video.
Fabulous video, reminds me of my V reg Fiesta (old V reg!!) very basic 1.1L that had intermittent wipers that my parents coveted! Neither dad's montego or my mothers car had that luxury
Wow that is a prop base model of a car! So many blanks, even the ciggy lighter is blank (which at the time must have been a big loss). So much metal is on show too and the only partially cloth seats! This car must be the first occurrence of the multi light switch, plus pull for interior, that lasted for decades in Vauxhall cars :-). My friend had a 1.3 s mk1 in our day, and that was a great handling and fast car, easily out matching my Strada 1.5 super 85.
Yes! Not having a cigarette lighter is particularly mean for the early 80s!
Great review, wonderful survivor, look forward to the tinkering video
What a lovely old charmer, I remember my old Jamaica Yellow Nova SR and a prior I had a Nova 993cc ohv smaller engine to this car featured
Cool little car😍😍,love the yellow,but not crazy about tan interiors,though.
Cracking video. Memories of my dads 1.3 L company car that I drove whenever I could. China blue as I recall.
Absolutely mint old car lovely.
Yeah, more Opel Kadett content, please! 😍❤️
Wonderful content! Thanks for sharing this Kadett with us. I love this car, have two and grew up with them. Also the first car I ever drove. Thank you for this video. It's definitely one of a kind and special.
Keep it coming. I hope to see much more of this Kadett.
Also, my father's 1200 L also had the handbrake button staying in and get stuck and sometimes struggled a lot to get the button out.
Those Opel engines are stunning and has a beautiful and unique tone and rumble.
Great lovely car
What a brilliant little car I drove one the same colour last year at a car museum in matlock I thought it was very well put together and modern feeling to drive compared to the chevette or viva 👌👏👏👏👏👏👏👍🏻
Oh yes, I know of that car, though not driven it. Actually perhaps driving it would be a great comparison to mine!
What a sweet little car! Fab video x
My dad had a 3 door estate model called the caravan model and had the 1.2 engine. The Opel Kadett D was very common in Ireland, the estate was very practical in terms of space but hard to access the rear seats. Thanks for the video. I would buy that car off you. ❤
Your Astra is very austere rather like its predecessor base model HC Viva & Chevette / Chevanne.
No headrests, wow. Without central locking, those are called snipper buttons on the inside.
Haven't driven a manual since the Viva & Chevette / Chevanne days.
I remember the HC had offset pedals to the drivers seat 💺 😒 and we just got on with it & just drove without questioning it.
Thanks for the review & greetings from the colonies of New 🇳🇿 Zealand 😊❤
PS - forgot to mention mother 👩 sold those austere Vauxhalls from 74 to 81 out in the colonies of Auckland back in the day.😂
Thank you for commenting! Yeah, cars could be pretty basic back then. We still love manual cars in Europe, though that is reducing in recent years
@@MorselsAndMotors I associate front wheel drive cars with five speed manual boxes, not this Astra though, its even more basic with a four speed much like its RWD predecessor(s).
I think the first five speed manual was in 1969 with the BMC Maxi which was a five door body.
A car ahead of its time.
Great video, I couldn't help noticing that in the front passenger footwell you have a slot where the service history book is meant to go. If you can find a copy, get the book by Trevor Alder "Vauxhall: the post war years" you will like it!
Thank you for the recommendation; I’ve just ordered one 😀. Sadly the original service book has been lost
I was driving a base level VW Golf at the time this Astra was launched. I went to look at the base model and admittedly was very tempted to buy one but was swayed by the then new Golf 5 door Formel E which I subsequently bought and kept for 3 + years.
Great video, was highly tempted by this when it was for sale, glad it's gone to a good home :-)
There was an update to the mk1…the headlights went square.
The gearshifters changed to mk2 cavalier style.
The 1.2E was rebranded as just 1.2….but it came with slightly more stuff as standard inc the proper glove box.
I might be wrong but on the slightly later models the hatchback rear wash wipe was operated by pushing the wiper control stalk away from you….integrated in, not a separate switch.
Good detailed reviewing. 👍👍
My first car was a 9 year old X reg Astra L 1200S 5 door hatch. I really loved it as it felt more grown up than my friends Minis & Fiestas. Sadly rust killed it in the end as it did with most Astra D's.
The old 1200 Opel unit was as tough as old boots and was dead easy to work on and unlike the Family 1 OHC engine, it didn't chew through its camshafts.
Yeah I can really see the rust traps in the body, and I’m not surprised most of them dissolved!
What a great car. Love that it’s a base spec with round headlights as I am currently collecting parts for my own yellow Kadett. Mine is a 1982 1.3N automatic caravan. It is buid by german coach builder Voll for the Swedish post with RHD and sliding door for easy entrance. It has a high windscreen and is odd looking, but it is 1 of 4 in the register and it needs to get back on the road. Last MOT was in 2001.
Wow, that sounds awesome!
I had a red 2 door 1200s saloon, I don't recall the spec but mine had square headlights, headrests and a opening glove box. Sadly on having some work done on it, found serious rust issues had been hidden using such materials as bread to fill cavities, newspaper and cardboard had been used to partially rebuild the front suspension towers!
Oh goodness me!!! That sounds like a big bodge
My parents bought a new Kadett E saloon in 1986. Surprising to see how many items were taken over from this car.
Nice review. I had two mk 1 Astra's, both 1300S, one a "X" (VHA227X) the other a "A" reg and both brown lol. The X reg was a L, the A reg was a GL model so had 2 extra gauges for oil pressure and amps as well as a tachometer. Both were very nippy, however the earlier car still used points ignition unlike the later one. Between the two Astras I had a mk 2 Cavalier 1600 GL, however I found the Astra a nicer and nippier car.
Thank you very much. I’d love to try the 1300, would be a fun comparison. I really do like my Astra
Switch blanks are L to R. Front fogs, rear wiper (when fitted as accessory), heated seats. Rear wiper usually on stalk. I fitted an ash tray light to mine. I guess I got that out of a GL.
The rear wiper switch always was in the dash, never on the stalk.
@@heinrichwolf4869 In England we had it on the stalk. Say on 1984 models. Push stalk back for rear wipe and further for wash. The GL models even had intermittent rear wipe! Relay fitted at the rear.
@@AndyK.1 You are correct Andy, the earlier Opel Kadett D had the rear wiper switch on the dash, but the later Brtish assembled Astra had the rear wiper on the stalk. I had both.
I love how the roofline kicks up to fit in the hatchback it doesn’t have
A detailed and enjoyable video, thank you.
I hope you will make videos sometime about the FIATs in the background!
I certainly will!
👍
Never realised they did a saloon...😅
I'm not surprised you like the steering wheel: Over in Europe only the top-spec Berlina got this type of wheel. I personally don't remember the 1.3 engine being more refined, it seemed to have a very light flywheel. Many people disliked the automatic choke that the 1.3 had the first few years. I recommend to have a look at the gear change, I found these to have a very sweet gear change, definitely one of the plus points of the car. Lovely car, enjoy it!
Well the 1.3 being not so refined is another plus-point for this 1.2 then! I've read in the Haynes manual that there is an adjustment you can make to the gear linkage, so I will try that first, before looking at any worn bushings
I recall the GL had a 4 spoke wheel and SR / GTE had 3 spoke
@@AndyK.1 Just checked the brochure, it turns out I was wrong: The Kadett Deluxe has the same steering wheel as the E, and the Berlina has the 4-spoke. The base and Special that where below the Deluxe, had a much cheaper looking wheel, real poverty spec.
not sure whether the saloon version was just entry level. the round headlights were the trim sign for that. small boot lid was generally another option available with any trim and only for short. and that makes it even rarer. that car has it all. if you got this for under lets say 3k consider yourself lucky. i see the price point at at least 5k let alone finding such a gem.
[edit:typo]
No you’re quite right, you could get the saloon in L trim as well. But yes, the round headlights were the base model only
If you remove the plugs, you will see 1-front additional headlights (installed in the grille), 2-rear fog lights, 3-rear wiper + washer, 4-heated driver's seat.
The saloon option wasn’t as pointless as you might think. Company fleets often preferred saloons into the ‘90s, as they were generally a bit cheaper to insure. The first hatchback cars (of all makes) from the ‘60s onwards were treated by insurance companies as as big a risk of break-ins (because the contents of the boot were visible) as estate cars. This continued even when removable parcel shelves became commonplace in hatchbacks - the lag in cottoning on to the contents of a hatchback’s boot being hidden were advantageous to the insurance companies. Plus they had the excuse that the owner *may* leave the parcel shelf out of the car anyway. Plus there was the perceived problem of people pulling the tailgate glass down on their luggage and smashing it. Any excuse to bump the premium up a bit, but which wouldn’t wash with a saloon. Fleet buyers noticed the difference in premiums with cars like the Chevette which came in hatchback, saloon, and estate variants, and no doubt exerted some pressure on manufacturers like Vauxhall to keep a saloon in the family car range.
I know the chemical plant where my Dad worked had a fleet of Allegro 3s that they kept until the mid/late ‘80s - bought as a job lot from the local dealer as the run-out models were cheap, and specifically because they were saloons rather than hatchbacks.
As an aside, the two door Mk1 Astra saloons were highly sought after for their shells by anyone who’d totalled their (hatchback) GTE or SR in rallying. The saloon shells were stiffer, and so reckoned to lead to marginally better handling, as well as less chance of damage if they landed after a jump. A mechanic I used to take my cars to had a Mk1 Astra saloon car for rallying - though somehow it was on an F plate as he’d put the mechanicals of a Mk2 GTE into it. Never could figure out how that was anywhere near legal, and I’m guessing that meant the Mk1 and Mk2 must have had the same/similar floorpans?
That’s a really interesting point, one I hadn’t considered from that perspective before. You must be right.
Yes that doesn’t sound the most legal thing to do! I don’t honestly know how much the mk2 shares with the mk1, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was quite a lot as the mk1 really didn’t last terribly long for all the development costs
@@MorselsAndMotors I’ve been doing a bit of research into the relationship between Mk1 and Mk2 Astras. It seems that one of GM’s world car programmes (what we knew as the Chevette in the UK) was coming to a natural end, so GM looked around their divisions and decided to adapt the Astra for a new world car in that market segment. This would also serve as an early replacement for the Mk1 Astra. It would also allow them to jump onto the developing “aero look” design trend.
It seems that the Mk2 was a very, very comprehensive rehash of the Mk1. I haven’t found definitive proof, but it seems as though they may have shared a floorpan. The body structure may have also been partially retained (obviously with new outer panels) - the clue here being the similar wheelbase, width, door profiles and, crucially, the dummy vents in the C pillar that are common to Mk1s and Mk2s.
What we knew as the MK2 Astra was truly a world car, and manufactured in Korea by Daewoo (which made its way to the US as a Pontiac) as well as in Brazil (sold as a Chevy). The Daewoo versions outlasted the Western European models, and evolved into what was sold in the UK as the Daewoo Nexia. Which then ended up being produced in Daewoo’s Polish plant.
It’s all a tangled web, isn’t it?
So it seems as though the basic underpinnings of your Astra lived on (albeit modified and evolved) up to the millennium as a Daewoo, and could for a time be bought in branches of Halfords.
@@BungleBare That's really interesting stuff, thank you very much. I think what you say must be correct, as I can't imagine GM would have spent all the money developing a brand new FWD platform, for it to last less than 5 years in production
Nice Video (as always) and have you test driven a 1.3S?
When I was 17 (just) and I had a 1.2 Hatchback (RSG714Y) which i (stupidly) wrote off after a week (my first car). I then went out and bought (with the insurance money) a 1.3S Hatchback, and i can tell you that the 1.3S engine was amazing when compared to the 1.2, a lot more refined, and went like stink! The 1.2 felt like a slug when compared to the 1.3. I recall they both had similar mileages on the engines.
Sounds like you have a really nice 1.2 there though.
You asked about ideas for future videos and I know this has nothing to do with the Astra, bur I've always wanted to watch a Sweeny challenge, Mk1 Ford Granada vs Jaguar 2.4. It would be really nice to see if the Granada was the better of the Jag or was it that Ford gave the Sweeny free cars providing they were used by the goodies not the badies.
The dinky door cards at least allow plenty of cheery yellow gloss to show through. And even the base-spec interior looks better than the Chevette's.
Well done Sion a lovely review and what a great car a true survivor! Ironically my dad was one who was suspicious of front wheel drive so he had another chevette then had a couple of nova Astras and then belmonts! It was strange back then! A lot of what you said I remember my dad saying with his Vauxhalls the unusual driving position, direct steering and engines picking up well. He also used to mention an issue with second gear on his Vauxhalls!
Great to see it survive and look forward to see it receive the morsels treatment!
Thanks very much! I'm glad it's not just my car that's a bit stiff on the gearbox then. I've already been tinkering a bit, so there will be a video coming on that soon
The round headlights scream "base model" so loudly - merely to annoy the owners into upgrading...
Yup!
Yeah but nostalgia is a funny thing..it twists minds and empties wallets....its nice to see older cars surviving but would you really go back there? I loved my Kadett C (sport lol) and sort of wish I'd kept it but times move on and they are so basic now compared to say a modern Hyundai
We tend to forget that parts and planned obsolescence are a major factor plus I fancied an astra gte ;)
I haven't really got the inclination to buy and maintain an oldie especially at the asking prices....we don't have the room for a Sunday driver.
The 1200S needed to run on super while the 1300N ran on regular petrol. Later there was a 1300S too which had 75 hp
From what I can see, we never got the N versions here in the UK
@@MorselsAndMotors you are right only the 1300S here in UK
On the continent there also was a 1200N with 53 hp DIN and, only for Italy, a one litre with 50 hp DIN.
We knew it as two star and four star petrol here in the UK (four star having a higher octane rating) when I was growing up in the ‘80s. I can remember my Dad filling up with four star in his Mk1 Astra and Austin Maestro, but when he bought a Rover 213 with a Honda engine in it he was delighted to find out that it could run on cheaper two star petrol. He reckoned it was quite a saving to have a car that could happily run on cheaper two star - probably the equivalent in financial terms of it doing a few more miles to the gallon.
Some petrol stations occasionally had older signs (from the ‘60s or ‘70s?) mentioning three star petrol, but I can’t ever remember it being available to buy into the ‘80s.
All evidence of this was swept away as petrol stations refitted their forecourts in the late ‘80s onwards, and the two types of pumps then dispensed unleaded (roughly equivalent to two star) or leaded (equivalent to four star). If you had a car that needed leaded petrol, but had previously run happily on two star you were out of luck - you had to pay four star prices for leaded petrol from then on.
@@MorselsAndMotors The 60bhp 1300N versions were available as the German built Opel Kadett D prior to production moving to Ellesmere Port. I know because I had both the German Opel and the British Astra in the early 80s. The 60bhp 1300N was just as pokey as the 75bhp 1300S at motorway speeds. I wish I still had one.
The MK1 with OHC 1.3 engine was a great car to drive - a way better engine than your example [sorry] and far better than the Fiesta equivalent. I was a big fan of both Ford and Vauxhall but the Astra interior even though equally poverty spec' as the Fiesta appealed more to me - the gearbox on the Astra was also a delight so your car needs some tlc
Got to be honest, the 1300 was sooooo much better than the 1200, free revving, quiet, and MUCH quicker actually 20 bhp more 75 vs 55 thats a big difference percentage wise, in fact they were as quick as everyone else's 1600, my first car, a sierra 1.6l could'nt hold a candle to my girlfriends mk2 astra 1300 merit, sierra had 52000 on the clock and astra had 120,000 on the clock to.
How do you know that Astras steering wheel angle is strange compared to Fiat Uno for example? You did not give us the whole clue?
I always remember that the heater only comes out hot on the window or the feet but not on the vents that face you 🤷♂
That's quite common on a lot of 80s cars!
Its got the twin tow eyes that not a 1st year thing?
I am liking your collection. I notice you do like early models of certain cars and base models.
The driving position looks awful and I've always found Vauxhalls seating not good.
Try blipping the throttle going frm 4th down to second gear.
Theres a twin tow eye astra up in Scotland at my local show it was a Opel RHD
Yes, the twin towing eye is a sign of German production I think, as they made the bodies for both LHD and RHD. The British built cars from late 1981 would only have been RHD so I suspect the unnecessary extra towing eye was deleted to save a few pennies.
The driving position takes a couple of minutes to get used to, but actually is fine. I’ve driven it to France and back and it was very comfortable.
Noted re the throttle, I’ll have a go, thanks
Maybe I. Wrong
🤣I think you might be!
This ain’t no saloon no saloon at all.. on the contrary it’s a hatchback
I’m sorry but this car really isn’t poverty spec. Far too many L features!
It's a hatchback not a saloon
No it is a saloon rob and the boot is split in two with a hinged lower part and no wash wipe
Getting carried away lol 😆
@@danielrussell446 the saloon was available with a rear wash wipe, wiped in a semi circle arc, I assume that it was an option