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Astra K - Positives!

15K views 34 replies 19 participants last post by  astraowner 
#1 ·
Hello everyone,

I thought I would do a post to focus on the positives of the Astra K. We, including myself, can become obsessed with finding faults with our cars.

So here's a positive. The Astra has a very impressive Lane Assist! Level 2. This means the system is automated and takes full control of the vehicle (accelerating, braking and steering).
Think of it this way, no other car with same segment had this feature. Astra led way in safety tech for nearly 3years.

Check out this brave individual, who has shown the Astra completely working on it's own. With this I will add a WARNING and say I am not responsible for any actions of anyone who attempts to mimic this, this a safety feature and for assistance ONLY. The video is for GUIDANCE only:

YouTube link:


What, I've learnt is it's very impressive stuff. A feature I havent used too much, only every now and then on long straight motorways. When I got accustomed to the system, I showed my missus, and she absolutely hated it, as she didn't like how the car took full control, EVEN though it was doing the job correctly. I can understand, as it's a new technology, for the masses!

Anyway, reply with some positives!
 
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#2 ·
Standard interior kit, much of it free like Car Play / Android Auto, that other manufacturers charge for. I had a Mercedes driver in my car who commented on how modern and 'technological' it was. He thought it was a brand new car (2 years old at the time).

The overall handling of the car is good too. Of course, it is 'safe' as a mainstream car but it gives you enough information about what is going on.

The 150 and 200 have enough pace to surprise other cars. Last night driving home for instance I had a BMW 318 in front of me going slow around a roundabout and on to a dual carriageway. He must have been annoyed that I was close. He tried to accelerate away but gave up when he realised he hadn't lost me :lol:
 
#3 ·
How does your car have level 2 Lane assist?

I have a 16 plate SRI with lane assist and collision alert. However the lane assist doesn't do the acceleration and braking? Nor does my cruise control. Also my lane assist is no way as smooth as that haha. It drives to a white line then turns. I wouldn't trust it so close to the centre of the road lol.

Do love the car, many positives. Like the android auto ability. The lane assist and collision alert. Sport button. I find the economy and mpg impressive too.
 
#4 ·
Well I've had my astra k 1.0T sri nav for 3 years now and 33k miles. It hasn't missed a beat with absolute no complaints. It still looks as fresh as it did when I bought it 3 years ago. Impressive mpg of 56mpg in the summer and 50mpg in the colder winter months and also I've achieved 70mpg + on motorway journeys down the M5.
In comparison to my Mrs more expensive Ford focus, it has way more tech still.
 
#6 ·
I would also say that the lane assist only serves as a safety feature, not something you can rely on to just drive on its own. It doesnt steer until you hit the white lines and if an opposite car is coming, you might hit it.

Also sometimes it doesn't see the lines and therefore doesn't respond on it.
 
#7 ·
MrSM82 said:
Standard interior kit, much of it free like Car Play / Android Auto, that other manufacturers charge for. I had a Mercedes driver in my car who commented on how modern and 'technological' it was. He thought it was a brand new car (2 years old at the time).

The overall handling of the car is good too. Of course, it is 'safe' as a mainstream car but it gives you enough information about what is going on.

The 150 and 200 have enough pace to surprise other cars. Last night driving home for instance I had a BMW 318 in front of me going slow around a roundabout and on to a dual carriageway. He must have been annoyed that I was close. He tried to accelerate away but gave up when he realised he hadn't lost me :lol:
I know what you mean, I read that BMW from I believe September will be offering Android Auto/Apple play as a subscription!

Yeah the Astra is pretty good and sticks to the road really well. I think the Petrol variants offer a lot more agility then the diesel.

Which Petrol have you got buddy? Haha, I love that, especially when they are going around as though they own the road!
 
#8 ·
Rob14 said:
How does your car have level 2 Lane assist?

I have a 16 plate SRI with lane assist and collision alert. However the lane assist doesn't do the acceleration and braking? Nor does my cruise control. Also my lane assist is no way as smooth as that haha. It drives to a white line then turns. I wouldn't trust it so close to the centre of the road lol.

Do love the car, many positives. Like the android auto ability. The lane assist and collision alert. Sport button. I find the economy and mpg impressive too.
Well if this video is correct, then we who have the driving assistance park, such as yourself, but not to extent of a Tesla.
The only extent I've had this is where the lane assist did all it could to pick up the white lines, had my cruise control on at 60mph, and then braked for me as the car thought I wasnt going to brake as I got too close. (Set at highest distance(safest)).
Terms of accelerating I activated the cruise and it went back up to speed..
But, I know where you're coming from. I would give it a Level 1.5 haha. And I really wouldn't trust it on the roads he's on! I did it on motorway, quiet, and obviously room for error if needs be.

I know, I'm getting 64mpg (80% motorway). She loves the M4, not like me... she's a comfortable cruiser!
 
#9 ·
Crosseyxpower said:
Well I've had my astra k 1.0T sri nav for 3 years now and 33k miles. It hasn't missed a beat with absolute no complaints. It still looks as fresh as it did when I bought it 3 years ago. Impressive mpg of 56mpg in the summer and 50mpg in the colder winter months and also I've achieved 70mpg + on motorway journeys down the M5.
In comparison to my Mrs more expensive Ford focus, it has way more tech still.
I've only heard positives about the 1.0T. That's really impressive fuel economy as well. I've never driven the 1.0T, I bet it's probably the best car to experience to test out the agility in the corners. I've got the diesel variant, and I'm only getting 65mpg, so the weight much be a massive benefit of your car! Is your missus Focus the 1.0 EcoBoost?
 
#11 ·
Crosseyxpower said:
Well I've had my astra k 1.0T sri nav for 3 years now and 33k miles. It hasn't missed a beat with absolute no complaints. It still looks as fresh as it did when I bought it 3 years ago. Impressive mpg of 56mpg in the summer and 50mpg in the colder winter months and also I've achieved 70mpg + on motorway journeys down the M5.
In comparison to my Mrs more expensive Ford focus, it has way more tech still.
70mpg? are you driving miss daisy lol.

Sent from my CMR-W09 using Tapatalk
 
#12 ·
I had a new 16 plate 1.4t astra elite nav, great car no problems, loved it so much got a new19 plate 1.4t elite nav.
Paint appears thicker since PSA take over, had no paint chipping off on this car, whereas 16 plate had chips after a week of ownership. Door cards are solid compared to my 16 plate and at present no rattles,after 4 months of ownership..
Test drove new focus and mazda 5 and cx3 and still ended up with astra. All the cars had minor rattles on test drive so went back to the astra.
 
#13 ·
Agree with others, the lane assist is not "good"

Well, it does keep you in lane, but it can not be used to let the car steer itself. I tried it on the motorway on a stretch where i was the only one as far as i could see, forward and behind and let it steer and it was really ping/pong.

My guess is that this is actually totally intended from Vauxhall as if they made it too good, people would start using it to drive the car, taking their eyes off the road.

Front collision camera does a great job, as long as you dont drive on narrow streets with parked cars or oncoming traffic, and i was a bit impressed that it also has the ability to atleast cut the cruise control if it feels that you might crash into someone. Any little advantage will prevent or mitigate the damages in the event you do crash.

Looking forward to a review of the new updated camera on the 2020 onwards models. This unit will be able to do pedestrian detection as well.

Maybe it's just me but i would really like to see manufacturer's make it possible to upgrade these kinds of security features as i feel that the autobrake feature is a bit lacking as it only does car detection and is only able to actively brake the car to prevent an accident at speeds of about 40-50 kph.

But i guess that as it is with a lot of other stuff, you can not just buy the new camera and retrofit it to your existing car.
 
#14 ·
stokoe said:
Crosseyxpower said:
Well I've had my astra k 1.0T sri nav for 3 years now and 33k miles. It hasn't missed a beat with absolute no complaints. It still looks as fresh as it did when I bought it 3 years ago. Impressive mpg of 56mpg in the summer and 50mpg in the colder winter months and also I've achieved 70mpg + on motorway journeys down the M5.
In comparison to my Mrs more expensive Ford focus, it has way more tech still.
70mpg? are you driving miss daisy lol.

Sent from my CMR-W09 using Tapatalk
If you sit at between 60-65 mph then it is pretty easy to achive this figure.
 
#15 ·
I managed 70mpg once on a 10 mile stretch of motorway, finished the journey at 60mpg in a1.4T Auto - lucky to get 40mpg at the moment with my current commute though.

I had an Ioniq as a hire car not that long ago - it had a more advanced lane keep assist but I honestly prefer the Astra's version because on the Ioniq it attempts to keep you in the middle of the lane which was very scary when overtaking an extremely wide-load.

The Ioniq also had adaptive cruise control similar to the newer Astras - although I used it I felt like I lost a lot of control and think it could be more dangerous than standard cruise control.
 
#17 ·
AC2019 said:
Crosseyxpower said:
Well I've had my astra k 1.0T sri nav for 3 years now and 33k miles. It hasn't missed a beat with absolute no complaints. It still looks as fresh as it did when I bought it 3 years ago. Impressive mpg of 56mpg in the summer and 50mpg in the colder winter months and also I've achieved 70mpg + on motorway journeys down the M5.
In comparison to my Mrs more expensive Ford focus, it has way more tech still.
I've only heard positives about the 1.0T. That's really impressive fuel economy as well. I've never driven the 1.0T, I bet it's probably the best car to experience to test out the agility in the corners. I've got the diesel variant, and I'm only getting 65mpg, so the weight much be a massive benefit of your car! Is your missus Focus the 1.0 EcoBoost?
No she has the 1.5tdci. It's quite an impressive engine and does well on motorways, pulling like a train through all gears it's just not well spec'd for a car that cost a lot more than my astra. . Wouldn't have the 1.0L ecoboost as I've seen many of them fail sub 40k miles. How that engine can win 'engine of the year' is beyond me.
 
#18 ·
It is a good system however its not made to drive itself only to correct the steering should the driver fail to do so. It does not always see every white line because ive tried it and it missed one I hope it never needs to cut in for real as i would not be driving properly and it would be time to stop i do like the blind spot assist that is useful.
 
#19 ·
snapshot11 said:
It is a good system however its not made to drive itself only to correct the steering should the driver fail to do so. It does not always see every white line because ive tried it and it missed one I hope it never needs to cut in for real as i would not be driving properly and it would be time to stop i do like the blind spot assist that is useful.
What's worse is that it will actually see lines that are not white as white lines as well.

In my country if the roads get cracks in the lanes, they sometimes fix these up, if they are not wide, with some black tar substance that they pour into the cracks to prevent water to get in, freeze and destroy the asphalt.

On my way to work, there is a part, where they have made such a repair over a rather long stretch, and it will detect these and try to correct the steering, even though this is a rather wide road, with markings....Just the road is too wide for the car to see both sides as lane markings, so when i get to that bit, it will see the inner white line and take this black line as the outer lane marker and pull on the steering wheel as well.
 
#20 ·
The K uses a combination of Hough transform and Canny edge detection to detect the lane lines, in most cases the black tar and white lines look identical when the images are processed. It's a Bosch system too, used in many cars. It's not specific to the Astra as an F Pace I also drive has the same assist system albeit with dual cameras and it still detects the filling material in the middle of the road. Lane assist also is working before you get to the lines. You can feel it pull as you go round a corner sometimes, I find it very good and a useful feature to have.

As with the emergency braking collision thingy, it primes the brakes so as soon as you touch it applies full force which vastly reduces the chances of a collision, or mitigates the damage done.
Haven't seen it brake for me yet!!
 
#22 ·
Matt9817 said:
The K uses a combination of Hough transform and Canny edge detection to detect the lane lines, in most cases the black tar and white lines look identical when the images are processed. It's a Bosch system too, used in many cars. It's not specific to the Astra as an F Pace I also drive has the same assist system albeit with dual cameras and it still detects the filling material in the middle of the road. Lane assist also is working before you get to the lines. You can feel it pull as you go round a corner sometimes, I find it very good and a useful feature to have.

As with the emergency braking collision thingy, it primes the brakes so as soon as you touch it applies full force which vastly reduces the chances of a collision, or mitigates the damage done.
Haven't seen it brake for me yet!!
I agree about the lane assist being able to steer before you reach the lines.

If you get to a point where it detects that you are about to depart your lane in an angle steeper than the software allows the system to correct when it gets to the line, it will kick in sooner to make it possible to keep the lane witin the limits of the steering angle it is allowed to do.

I have tried provoking my anti collision and can easily have the system flash and beep, but i have never had it actually brake for me either.

In the video here, the guy who uploaded the video claims that this is a fully automated braking, done by the car itself and from the questions you can see that this is not a car with radar.

I dont know if i believe the uploader, as i feel like i have put my system through much worse without any brake intervention.

 
#23 ·
astraowner said:
Matt9817 said:
The K uses a combination of Hough transform and Canny edge detection to detect the lane lines, in most cases the black tar and white lines look identical when the images are processed. It's a Bosch system too, used in many cars. It's not specific to the Astra as an F Pace I also drive has the same assist system albeit with dual cameras and it still detects the filling material in the middle of the road. Lane assist also is working before you get to the lines. You can feel it pull as you go round a corner sometimes, I find it very good and a useful feature to have.

As with the emergency braking collision thingy, it primes the brakes so as soon as you touch it applies full force which vastly reduces the chances of a collision, or mitigates the damage done.
Haven't seen it brake for me yet!!
I agree about the lane assist being able to steer before you reach the lines.

If you get to a point where it detects that you are about to depart your lane in an angle steeper than the software allows the system to correct when it gets to the line, it will kick in sooner to make it possible to keep the lane witin the limits of the steering angle it is allowed to do.

I have tried provoking my anti collision and can easily have the system flash and beep, but i have never had it actually brake for me either.

In the video here, the guy who uploaded the video claims that this is a fully automated braking, done by the car itself and from the questions you can see that this is not a car with radar.

I dont know if i believe the uploader, as i feel like i have put my system through much worse without any brake intervention.

I can actually vouch for the collision alert. It seems to be a system you cant trick. I've had it brake when I was at a set of traffic lights and the car in front decided he was gonna be a dick and not go forward but try and get into the right hand land. Obviously I thought he went put car in 1st and about to put in 2nd and on came collision alert. Literally slams on brakes. First thing I said was... oh it does work then!
 
#24 ·
AC2019 said:
I can actually vouch for the collision alert. It seems to be a system you cant trick. I've had it brake when I was at a set of traffic lights and the car in front decided he was gonna be a dick and not go forward but try and get into the right hand land. Obviously I thought he went put car in 1st and about to put in 2nd and on came collision alert. Literally slams on brakes. First thing I said was... oh it does work then!
Yeah, its probably just me, not having the stomack to let it do it.

I Have seen a test though, where they used an inflatable "car" that the system sees as a real car, but is actually just a "balloon" and it did brake though.

I guess that the cars with the radar will be a lot better at this, but they are pretty expensive.
 
#25 ·
To be honest, I like almost all the features of the new Astra, the On-Star and WiF was amazing when it came out, the swish infotainment screen, the general ambiance of the interior and dash design, its ride handling balance and its general level of refinement (the Watt's Link does take credit for those last few!)

In fact the only parts I feel need improving are the screaming parking sensors and the steering feedback which is accurate but just a bit too light & needs to feel more like the H's electro-hydraulic weight. Be interested to see what these sports chassis settings are that were mentioned in the facelift notes, including some improved steering setup and other parts that should've been on the SRi models - day 1.
 
#26 ·
Those LED head lights are great. Front tyre wear seems good. Speed of 1.4 turbo 150 good for irritating BMW drivers. 1.6 turbo must be a hoot and really up set the bmw drivers even more! Easy access AGR seats great apart from the cooling of them! Sport Tourer great for the runs to the tip.
 
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