Launched in March 2004 on an enlarged version of GM’s T platform, the Astra H is the only Astra generation Opel’s US arm ever sold under its own badge (briefly, and only for two model years, as the Saturn Astra).[1] That short-lived deal is the reason this generation, alone among the three in this entry, has a kerb weight and weight-distribution figure sourced from NHTSA’s Canadian Vehicle Specifications register rather than from Wikipedia’s own article, which gives none.
It is also the generation that carried the OPC (VXR in the UK, HSV VXR in Australia), a 240 PS turbocharged three-door hot hatch built on the panoramic-windscreen GTC body. The OPC was the performance flagship of the range, and by some margin its most powerful non-racing variant.
