Opel Astra SRi Estate

Another week and another hatchback. We're beginning to hanker for the family saloon and find ourselves ogling big off-roaders at traffic lights. Oh, to have that sort of presence on the road. For all our anti-SUV ranting, you do need a bit of bulk in your motoring diet every now and then.

Thankfully this week we've got something a little different - a hatchback estate. Agreed, it's not the two words that set the heart aflutter. But this one had the added twist, it's the sports version of Opel's updated hatch, the Astra SRi. What we lack in presence we make up for in punch.

It means, in layman's terms, that we've got a regular looking Astra estate, common fare of tradesmen and families with a penchant for camping. However, beneath the bonnet is a 2-litre turbocharged engine offering 125 bhp.

The lack of swirling stripes, giant chrome exhausts, lowered suspension or even the odd spoiler or fin protruding from the back results in some interesting encounters. Only hours after we picked up the car we found ourselves on the M50, crawling along at 40 mph behind a taxi driver. Behind us a typical fat cat in his mobile German wallet was rubbing our bumper.

When the taxi pulled in, our trailing friend no doubt expected us to follow suit at the earliest opportunity and let his mobile ego sweep past.

Nothing doing squire. We simply tipped the sports button on the dash, and like a quick taste of the whip to a Derby winner felt the horses up their beat. With a flick of the right foot we took off, the glaring lights of our rear-ender becoming twinkling stars in the mirror.

He did catch up to us eventually of course - for we slowed when we reached the legal limit, your honour - but this time as we cruised in the inside lane he kept a respectable distance. How sweet the feeling. Respect for an Astra estate is hard earned but all the more rewarding.

We previously got an opportunity to try the regular hatchback version of the SRi some time ago, wending its way across the Yorkshire dales and over the Pennines of northern England.

So what's the difference between SRi and the regular model to the uninitiated? Well, apart from some fancy lettering, the odd alloy wheel and standard car alarm, there's a little non-descript button on the sheer central console. Situated beside the door locks, its one of the few "Sports" buttons that actually offers up a noticeable return on depression.

In technical terms it offers a sharper throttle response and more responsive steering. Both SRi and SXi versions have lowered sports chassis, but they never intrude on the ride quality as, say, sports models of the Ford Focus might.

Undoubtedly those that opt for SRi will spend the first five minutes as we did, traversing long straight stretches of road switching the button on and off, feeling the kick in the back from what is the first "power" button in this class that actually makes a noticeable difference. It may not possess Knight Rider G-forces but you get a noticeable kick as it takes off.

It's quick off the mark, faster than the a 0-62 mph time of 8.9 seconds would suggest and the handling is sharp and precise, even with the extra-long tail of an estate version in tow.

The downside of the power surges available from the turbocharged 2-litre is that, with front-wheel-drive, when put to the test it suffers from torque steer. This was best explained by a colleague recently who described the sensation as being like "holding a rottweiler on a lead in a sausage factory". On bumpy back roads with uneven surfacing, the effect is a feeling of disconnection with the road at times.

For all that, it brings a sense of fun to a car that we've come to admire more and more, and there's always the opportunity to put the odd fat-cat in his place.

So to the second element of this week's test drive, the new estate format. This Astra variant takes the form of a traditional estate: a stylish front end giving way to a rear box. While the premium sector favours stylising the back-ends to make them more amenable to image-conscious consumers - admittedly to the detriment of storage - in the family hatch class, the main concern is maximising load space.

All fine and well, but we are left wondering about the potential customers. Sure, the trade will lap it up, panelling out the windows and getting a cut on their Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT).

But for families, the deluge of high-roofed mini, midi and mainstream MPVs, or people carriers, means that the estate has effectively become obsolete. Families loyal to the Opel brand don't even have to go very far to find a more than adequate people carrier in the Zafira model, a new version of which is due out next year.

Yet there's no mistaking the estate's load-carrying abilities. The estate is a DIY-fan's favoured chariot. With a maximum of 1,590 litres on offer and a load length of 2.7 metres, you could get in a set of front doors and still have room for the 15kg bucket of Polyfilla.

In fact the Astra's 1,590 litres max limit beats all but the Megane Sport Tourer, with its 1,600 litres maximum payload.

It's also far in excess of the average capacity of the people carriers when their seats are either removed or hidden beneath the floor.

We've been increasingly taken by the quality of the new Astra range, its sharp design a world apart from its predecessor. Despite the influx of updated competitors in this segment, it's still worthy of strong consideration by anyone shopping for a family hatch. It's a pity that utilitarianism got the better of design, but then again one only has to look at the old Astra to realise how far Opel has come of late.

Admittedly the 2-litre SRi at €30,695 is probably too pricey for most in the Astra market, but the 1.8 16-valve version at €25,845 would be more of a competitor. As for the combination of power and space, there's probably only a market for it with emergency plumbers, but its 'wolf in sheep's clothing' approach is good fun.