Car made in Belgium

Ruscoe · Post by **Ruscoe** » 15 Nov 2006, 10:53

My daughter just got herself a new car, a Holden Astra. Well made nice little car; when I looked under the bonnet, guess what it was made in Belgium.

What do you call them over there;itis a 4 door hatchback with 1.7L motor.

Ruscoe

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » 15 Nov 2006, 10:58

Opel Astra (Essentia) 1.7 CDTI, Gold Pack (fleet), Color: Moonland. Can't complain (company car

). One negative point: it uses a lot of Diesel.

Ruscoe · Post by **Ruscoe** » 15 Nov 2006, 11:16

Right thanks.

My daughters car does not use any diesel at all, it is petrol.

We have this crazy situation in Australia, where diesel is 20% more expensive than petrol, and petrol is bad enough at about Au$1 a litre.

Ruscoe

AlexanderM · Post by **AlexanderM** » 15 Nov 2006, 17:34

Ruscoe wrote:petrol is bad enough at about Au$1 a litre.

If you think that's a lot, you should see the prices in Europe! Here, 1 litre costs about € 1,3 which equals 2,18 Au$

MHG · Post by **MHG** » 19 Nov 2006, 21:02

Well, in most european countries that car is sold under the "OPEL" brand (german name) but solely in the U.K it is sold under the "VAUXHALL" brand. The only difference being different frontgrill and labels. Nothing else!
All these names are owned by General Motors which just make people "feel" their car is a local one ...
So, i suppose the aussie name is just selected for this purpose. In Europe nobody knows this australian brand !!!
Regarding the engines GM adapts the car´s to the local requirements/laws/etc.
E.g. the 1.7 litre petrol engine is not sold with this car in Europe! The only 1.7 litre engine that "OPEL/VAUXHALL" ever put in this car was a DIESEL-engine many years ago (it was a "grandfather engine") that couldn´t comply with european exhaust gas regulations any longer...
But nowadays they offer 1.4/1.6/1.8/2.0 litre petrol engines and (again) 1.7 plus a 2.0 litre diesel engine (direct injection turbo´s these are...)

regi · Post by **regi** » 20 Nov 2006, 16:18

Okay, I love airplanes. But when it goes about cars, I am also in the game. I have seen some weird cars - for an european. The large Holden, made in Australia in the'80 I think, was just a Opel Omega. And there was also a Holden estate car, which was a Opel Ascona estate, which did not exist in Europe at all. (or maybe in the UK as a Vauxhall Vectra estate?)
There has been a 1.7 petrol engine for Opel. It was a long time ago in the Opel Ascona, last rear wheel drive. It had a nice handling. But as said before, it consumed a lot. You just got 400 km far with a full tank.
About Belgium and cars: untill the closing of the Renault plant near Brussels, Belgium had most cars assembled pro capita in the world! Now it is Slovakia. And Belgium still on the second place. We assemble Volkswagen, Opel, Volvo , Ford. But we don't have any engine manufacturing. And besides of just 1 assembly plant for CVT transmissions at St-Truiden (ZF St Truiden) , we don't have a transmission manufacturing plant as well.
Car assembly is a major employer, directly and indirectly.