Spend enough time writing about cars and a healthy cynicism descends come motor show time. Countless manufacturers will display outlandish show cars that never ultimately make it to production, with only occasionally a showstopper making it from the stands into the showrooms. It does happen though, examples including Porsche's Boxster, Audi's TT and, believe it or not, Vauxhall's Astra Sport Hatch. Dressed correctly, this car is sleek enough to have people walking into pavement furniture up and down the country.

Yes, you did read that correctly. We're talking here about a Vauxhall Astra. It marches straight to the top of the small coupe/hatch desirability stakes, especially in 'hot' VXR performance guise. You can bet that across Europe there are plenty of designers penning body kits and accessories for this car, but Vauxhall dealers will get in first with the optional 'Exterior Pack' that many customers are expected to specify on the SRi version.

Vauxhall have been granted a huge degree of liberty in their styling of the Astra by the success of the rest of their more versatile product lines. For every Meriva or Zafira the company sells to the family motorist, a potential Astra driver wants something with sleeker styling. The five-door Astra is a very neat piece of penmanship but the equivalently priced three-door Sport Hatch model knocks it into next week. Many of the design cues remain, as the two cars are, after all, built on the same platform. The broad hips, the high window line and the family-look front end are largely carried over, with the three-door merely accentuating these details.

Built alongside the five-door cars at General Motors' Antwerp plant in Belgium, the three-door, costing from £15,770, is some 39mm longer and 15mm lower, resembling the GTC concept car shown at the 2003 Geneva Show. Naturally a few of the details were toned down for production. The lights are a little more conventional and the concept car's frameless doors have been deemed too costly for series production. Vauxhall has also tweaked the latest Astra's cosmetics a little, with sharper-looking front and rear lights, a revised front bumper, more chrome splashed about the grille and the choice of piano black or matt chrome interior finishing. Sport Hatch models also get a honeycomb front grille.

"The five-door Astra is a very neat piece of penmanship but the Sport Hatch model knocks it into next week"

There's a choice of four petrol and three diesel engines. The line-up kicks off with a modest 115PS 1.6-litre unit below a 140PS 1.8-litre engine. The pokey 180PS 1.6-litre turbocharged unit is also offered although this is resoundingly trumped by the 240bhp 2.0T unit that features in the range-topping VXR performance variant. Even the entry-level 1.6-litre engine is worth considering, using as it does the Twinport technology already seen on the Corsa whereby one of the two exhaust outlets are closed down at low revs to boost torque and improve fuel economy.

The trio of diesel options is made up of a 1.7-litre 100bhp unit, plus beefy 120bhp and 150bhp 1.9-litre powerplants developed by Fiat. As would be expected, all three meet the Euro IV emissions regulations which means that business users won't have to pay the onerous three per cent 'benefit in kind' surcharge that drivers of non-compliant cars get tapped up for.

In keeping with the car's name, only the sporty SXi, SRi, Design and VXR trim levels are offered, all fitted as standard with lowered sports suspension and alloy wheels. There's also a 'Panoramic Windscreen' option, one of the year's most talked about automotive innovations, which for around £850 extra, gives you a huge section of glass stretching from the top of the bonnet over the passengers' heads. Vauxhall reckon that it will bring a whole new dimension to driving, especially on scenic roads.

The raked roofline looks as if it'll have taller rear seat passengers entering the number of their chiropractor into the speed-dial but Vauxhall claims that rear seat space is well up to par for two adults. They just didn't specify what size. The rear seat is a conventional three-abreast bench with a practical 60:40 split system offered as standard or the alternative 40:20:40 layout available as an option. Luggage room is slightly hampered by that rakish roofline but given the cavernous amount of space in the back of the five-door Astra, it's hard to see carrying capacity being a reason to grumble.

Nor, indeed, should the driving characteristics. The Astra was the first car in its class to feature Continuous Damping Control (CDC), electronically controlled shock absorbers that continuously adapt to the road surface and the driver's style. It's all part of what Vauxhall dub the Astra's 'Interactive Driving System' (IDS) that can integrate all of the electronic functions in a way that's a good deal cleverer that you might think. For example, the ESP stability control system beefs up the damper forces first before applying the brakes to the front wheels during extreme cornering manoeuvres making for a more sensitive and less intrusive intervention.

Upspec models also feature a 'Sport' button so that the suspension settings, accelerator and steering response can easily be adapted to the mood of a driver. It's something we've become used to on premium sports cars but not on a car like this. Despite all of these high tech touches, the Astra still uses a relatively simple torsion beam axle at the back instead of the sophisticated multi-link layouts used by Volkswagen and Ford. Whilst GM executives contend that this system provides good handling while transmitting less noise into the cabin, that forthcoming VXR edition will doubtless betray any flaws in this logic.

The Astra Sport Hatch can't fail. Just look at it. Even if it drove like a Polski-Fiat on its way to the knacker's yard it would still sell by the boatload. How well the styling will date is open to question but right now, Vauxhall have the sleekest, sexiest sensible money car on the market. Wanting an Astra has just become socially acceptable.

TOP 5 VAUXHALL DEALS

The results below show the top VAUXHALL deals on buyacar

	Vauxhall Astra 1.4i 16V SXi 3dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £216	Saving £4,013	Price £10,823
	Vauxhall Astra 2.0T 16V VXR 3dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £339	Saving £2,933	Price £16,637
	Vauxhall Astra 1.6i 16V SXi [115] 3dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £206	Saving £4,204	Price £11,269
	Vauxhall Astra 1.9 CDTi 16V SRi [150] 3dr [Exterior Pack] Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £270	Saving £5,420	Price £13,909
	Vauxhall Astra 1.8i VVT Design 3dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £219	Saving £4,474	Price £11,885

typical 13.51% APR

PCP finance quote over 48 months,  10,000 miles pa,  deposit of £1000