IDRIVEACLASSIC reviews: MK1 Astra - Opel Kadett D 

I know UDG51X very well.. it belonged to a good friend of mine the late John Brown of Charlton Kings Cheltenham who always loved, cherished and garaged it after buying it from new. I bought it from him in about 2006 as he struggled with the lack of power steering. He would be very pleased to know it's still going and looking as good as the day he bought.. Rest in peace John, we miss you.. Alan

These were awesome cars and really paved the way to make Vauxhall so successful in the 80s and 90s.

I love this. The 3 door is tidy, the yellow is cool and you just don't see them any more. A nice mix of 70s into 80s. A "Video killed the radio star" of the car world

I remember the telly advert for the GTE. 115 break horsepower 115 miles per hour Built to make your heart to beat faster !

So much great Vauxhall content on youtube recently! Hub nut done an Astra mk3, fd done a Corsa B and Matty's Cars done a Cavalier SRI

I was born in 1980 and just love cars from this era. I love how simple they are and I love how you don’t feel as isolated and disconnected from the road and the outside as you do in modern cars. Cars seem obsessed with providing as much silence and comfort as possible now and I remember I time when those where only qualities that old people looked for in motoring. What’s that song lyric? “Your dad’s black Honda was a Maybach”

Don't know what it was like in the UK but here in Ireland joyriders absolutely loved Opels and Vauxhalls of this generation. They were very easy to steal and quite fast.

Feels like only yesterday...they were everywhere. I had the Cavalier equivalent. Great car.

That rorty exhaust note takes me right back to when I worked at my local Opel/Vauxhall dealership. If you think that felt punchy you would have loved our 1.6 Astra part vans, it went like a rocket 😀

I bought an Astra Celebrity brand new in 1984.....I wish I had it now. It was a stunning car and extremely rare now. A great video Steph......very enjoyable.

I had a second hand one in the early 90s. It handled really well, good little engine. You're looking well Steph

Neat car! Being Canadian, I love sing a bunch of the unique classics you have across the pond that we don't here

This is really taking me back to being a kid in my dad's polar white mk1 astra 1300. I remember it felt very quick for a 1300 and I'll never forget that engine sound.

I think once a car gets to 40-years old, even if it is an everyday working-class vehicle like this, it should be considered classic status just as much as all the GTs and sports cars. After all, there is nothing remotely like it made today, and it's probably a damned sight rarer that a lot of 'classic' classics too. Yes, still getting to grips with the 80s being 40-years ago... Excellent review - thank you Steph :-)

Nice review Steph. That internal light function was a well hidden feature - to me at least. Back in the day, I was on my fourth Vauxhall before I found out. I had kept opening the doors to get the light on. Trip down memory lane and thanks for making me laugh at myself again!

Steph, I love your reviews! Thanks for your very unique presentation! Big smile from Berlin

Really great to see this, thank you. This is just like my dad's first ever company car in the early 80s. It was an Opel Kadett in orange, but UK registered and RHD.

My dear old dad bought one of these brand new in 1983. Curiously, it was very VERY difficult to warm start. It started fine when cold - or hot - but not when only warm. We started planning journeys accordingly!

These were so cool. I was a VW snob back then but now I tend to like all old school motors in my older age. I still want to modify them though, tastefully and subtly.

Always watch your videos. You're really good at reviewing and keeping these classics alive. I envy you getting to drive them 😜 reminds me a lot of my first car, a K reg vauxhall nova SX. Was black and I miss it a lot.

I remember the first of these could be had with a seperate boot with no tailgate,like the Allegro. When Vauxhall-Opel really turned itself around after years in the doldrums!

Back in the early 80s my father had one of these except it was the Opal Kadett Version. It was also bright yellow. Thank you for sharing the great memories and experience.

Wow Steph, I don’t believe it. I owned an identical 1981 Vauxhall Astra L 1.3, same colour inside and out. I loved it so much and boy could it move. I had an alarm fitted ‘cos they were one of the cars the joyriders loved in 1980s. Vauxhalls and Opels were sold in Ireland along side each other. The Kadett wasn’t as nicely finished as the Astra. I also owned a 1977 Chevette Estate in white with red vinyl interior. It was terrific. My brother owned a 1978 Chevette Hatch in GL trim in a sort of peach colour and my dad owned a white 1978 Chevette E 2 door saloon. In 1981 he bought a red Vauxhall Astra E. we were all great fans. Love your videos 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

My mate’s mum had a terracotta-coloured 1300S back in the ‘90s! It was absolutely spotless. Loved going for drives in that. Great video Steph!

Thank you for reviewing the mark 1 it took me right back to my Grandads mark 1 Astra (which was yellow) he had the Astra and my dad had the mark 2 Cavalier which I loved just as much as the Astra. Funny thing is I never inherited their love for Vauxhalls. I developed my own love of Skodas which they both kind of got. Enjoy the videos keep them coming.

Use to see loads around in a 'terracotta' brown - bit of a daring colour for VX to launch with the Astra (at the aftermath of late 70s rebellion against brown ,bronze and beige) but the public must have liked that rather different shade..

I had 2 MK1 Astra's, first one was a A reg 3 door 1300s in red. I remember it having the clock though. My second was a Y reg 1600 SR in metallic blue, 6 dial dash and recaro seats. Watching this video has made me hark back to simpler times. Great vid thank you.

Great to see this video. Buddy of mine back in the late 80s had one. Great memories! 👍

And a clutch could be replaced without separating the engine and gearbox

Wonderful review Steph

Now that's great looking car . Another great test drive , like the yellow dress goes well with the car. Had a brown and gold auto about ten years ago. Good reliable car

This was my first car, in red on an A registration. Absolutely loved it, and the exhaust sound? I always equated it to that of a VW Beetle. No other car had a sound like it. A great video.

I will add unless confirmed by the owner it's more than likely 146000 miles. Could never tell if these cars were around the clock because of the lack of digits.

Great review Steph, take care out in the hot sun.

That Astra GTE 'digital dash'; what a time to be alive!

A guy I worked for had one, and I used to belt down to Tonbridge from Suffolk in it on alternate Sundays! I didn't mind the looks of it, but I preferred his Chevette estate! :-) Good video, thank you Steph! And good to see you looking so happy! :-)

🙂 Fond memories of my first ever car when I was 17 in 1991,.....a 1981 X reg Snot Green 5-door 1.3S GL, with 99k on the clock. I adored the shape of the rear end,....much meaner looking than the Escort etc. The GL had the stuff of dreams, like crushed velour upholstery, a clock, carpet on the lower doors, and proper grab-handle things on the inner door-pulls. My mate then bought an A reg GL in terracotta, but that swine had factory tints on his, as well as a 6-clock dash, a cassette player, headlights on a warning buzzer,....and TWO rear fog lights!! I always understood them to be 70 bhp, and the 1.6 to be 90 bhp. A few cars later, I managed to get my dream MK1 GTE in Polar White 🙂

Wow. Lovely looking car. Especially the colour combo! Amazing condition too 😀

Absolutely Brilliant Review Steph, Love the Colour, Proper 80s!

Excellent video -- thank you! 🚗

Hi Stéphanie ! We visited yesterday the British car museum in Ambergate, Derbyshire. So nice a place ! A very intersting and tidy car collection. Friendly lads !!!!

Great survivor this MK 1 Astra the start of their 80's range of cars

Such a long time since I've seen one of these I'm the wild. I remember the MK2 and MK3 being current and the MK1 being the old model that could be had for peanuts. In the 90's as a teenager I knew someone a few years older than me who owned a pretty basic 1.3 5dr MK1 which he had repainted black and aftermarket alloy wheels. It's nice to see a survivor in such origional condition.

Great review Steph 👏 I'm going to have to pay this place a visit.

I learned to drive in a brown Opel Kadett D with round headlights. Wonderful little car!

I inherited an old Chevette from my dad that I learnt to drive in. It was on its last legs by the time I had it but was good to drive. The first car I bought with my own money was a brown and gold Mk 1 Astra 1.3 EXP limited edition. It was basically a GTE without the GTE engine ! Was a great little car. Good memories

lovely review steph i have always liked mk1 astra and have been in many including the celebrity special edition which are extremely rare now my dad missed the mk1 astra due to having a succession of early Novas and chevettes including one of the last dad had one of the mk2 (a very early base model) when it launched and they moved the game on again and as you said things moved on incrementally from the chevette and i would agree with that lovely hearing those sounds of the vauxhall 8 valve engines which i grew up with! Funnily enough my dad kept with the chevette due to familiarity and preferred them to the nova!

I still own a Kadett GT (similar to a MK2 Astra) but with the 16v two liter engine and it is almost done rebuilding. I already had a little test drive in it and it put a right grin on my face. I too am very used to driving modern cars, and it is quite different both in the good and the bad sense, but if I had to choose, I'd take the Astra all day long. It is just such an involved drive and it is still quite fast. When it is ready I would welcome you to come and review it.

ahhh memories, grandpa had a kadett D /astra estate, loved driving with him, a lovely car. har myself a kadett E 1,3s - loved hooning that car around, the engine is brilliant.

My folks had one. It was a great car. A real step-change for Vauxhall.

Thank you for this. My dad had a red mk1 5 door estate until from the early 90s until about 1999/2000, reg A182 TOU, though the details at DVLA aren't quite right. I loved that car and we used to go camping in it. It had two wing mirrors though, a clock, washer on the stalk and a Philips cassette radio. Neither me nor my dad knew that pulling the headlight knob out turned on the interior light, damn!! It had the same interior only in black and the tweed seats were black and grey. The interior had a wonderful smell of engine oil, sawdust and earth, but I'm sure the materials also had something to do with it. Unfortunately, I must say that the materials and switchgear were not very durable. The speedo, fuel gauge, heater blower, door lock catches, some of the door handles all broke. It was freezing in the winter. The tape player could start to smoke after a while. The trim in the boot deteriorated and I remember the side of the driver's seat wore down, and I'm sure it was stuffed with straw from the factory! I remember reading that GM's approach with the mk1 was to make a car that was an affordable disposal item but that could be fixed easily and cheaply and for which parts were inexpensive. This was as opposed to an expensive durable car that would last longer, but harder and expensive to fix. This might be why so few of them are left on the roads today. I compare this with my first car, a 1989 mk4 Escort F162 RHM on which all the equipment inside was tough as hell - nothing broke - but the body and sills rusted around it, so those efforts in interior longevity were kind of a false economy. My Volvo 740 GL estate later on was the opposite: reliable, the body is still perfectly intact, but the interior, like the mk1 Astra, is brittle and breaks. I love anything GM though, and I really like the styling. All over the world, every division used the same design language. Specifically including the crease down the centre of the bonnet and usually to a chevron-shaped grille, or a split grille if a Pontiac or HC Viva etc. I must book up to drive this lovely yellow Astra. Really good observation about the gradual changes in fashion between the decades. I love those transitional eras, and 78-82 is my favourite - the best of both worlds, like Adidas pumps. I reckon there's a big exception to this: 50s into the 60s. Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and the Big Bopper died in a short space of time and Elvis joined the army. American cars (which led the way style-wise) reached the peak of chrome and fin excess in 1959. In 1960, those fins were chopped back to a 3 box sedan trend as a reaction to criticism that Detroit had gone too far. Pinks, canary yellows, surf greens and baby blues were also out, replaced by black, navy and burgundy. Soon you had the Beatles in black suits. It seems as though the bubblebum colour had instantly been drained out of popular culture temporarily, only to be gradually re-coloured as the summer of love drew closer. That's my take on things anyway.

Friend of mine had a red 1300S as his first car. Very surprised by it as it went like stink and left a good impression. Nice to see one being reviewed. :)

The Astra was a big deal in it's day. The GTE was a real working class hero too. I had a 1.6SR for a while and it was a real fun car. Very nice work as usual Steph. You keep bringing back some real good memories for me.

Fantastic video I love old Vauxhall/ Opel

Can see where the nova got its looks from, I must say that this was a very nice presentation of this car will watch all your other one’s

I’m not joking at all here but this review changed my mind on the mk1 Astra. Seems really peppy and usable, thank you for the video

Awsome video Steph

Good Video Steph Again something different car Nice Dress I love your variety of vehicles you drive

You're great. And so are your videos.

My cousin had one with a saloon back end, it was brown and on a v plate, I’ve not seen one on the road in years, my mum had a Astra mk2 saloon, Belmont I remember Daewoo brought it back with the Nexia.

I had one of these (in green) for about 5 years. It was an excellent car and everything you said about the performance is correct. I would have loved a 5-speed gearbox on it. Sadly, the wings rusted very badly but it was one of my favourites of all the cars I have owned.

Oh, the memories!.

So many old Astras on RU-vid at the moment, I wonder if it was planned? Anyway, great video, this Astra looks so good

I had 2 of these (1300 Celebrity and 1600) in the 80s and an Astra diesel work van. I miss the simplicity of working on these.

Lovely car. I had a mk1 1300 S for my 2nd car, loved that car!

A very good and fair review. We never saw these Astras in Aus, but I noted the power plant was used up until the 90’s with the N13 Pulsar / Holden Astra (albeit updated with EFI and 1.6L). I think I’d still probably look at something Euro for an entry level car. For a “few” quid extra the Renault 18 of the same year came with comfier seats, power windows, central locking, 2 more doors and a boot. 🤣

Thanks for video. Briefly drove a Mk1 Astra and remember it was very nice to drive. Very unusually, it was a diesel. I think engine was from a Bedford Astra Van. Fuel economy was amazing! Not only did it do about 50mpg, diesel was cheaper than petrol back then.

I'd love that as a base for a project. 😍

I had a Mk 1 Astra GTE briefly in 1989 when I was 21. Loved that car but was written off sadly when another young guy in a Golf lost control of his car on a narrow country road. Subsequently had a MK 2 GTe16V which was just about the fastest hot hatch of the time which a brilliant engine though the chassis was a bit overwhelmed by the power. Had many hot hatches and the most fun was a Pug 205GTI 1.9 was so much fun to drive but build quality was crap. Enjoy your videos by the way, keep them coming. .

Lovely little car

In my part of the world it was badged as Opel Astra. It was a very popular. Strong, reliant and drove well. Looking at your summery appearance, it seemes like the the heat has reached the UK.

I owned a 1984 red Astra GTE from 1990-1993 & enjoyed it very much.

Great review, the family DNA of the Astra was evident in the MK3 Cavalier. I remember being impressed with the power & crispness to drive of a 1982? 'Y' reg VX Cavalier a real revelation compared to the old Calalier & Cortinas of that era.

Love it ! Had a 1.3 gl as my 2nd car ,felt so zippy and the 6 dial dash is just sooo cool 😊😊, ur looking well too steph 😊x

Here in the US, the Chevette was treated to a facelift that made it LOOK like this car, but it was the same ol' thing underneath. I do think that "Chevette" would be less of a dirty word these days if our Chevette had been replaced by this in 1980. This is a lovely example of an appliance grade car, which is often rare as time moves on. Thanks for the review.

Love how your cute dress matches its colour. The astra may of moved on but the new astra does not have the same amount of space inside as early one. Have a good week ahead. 🙂🙂🌞🌞

Nice one Steph.

I had 2 Mk1's in the early 90's, both 1.2's, 1 had a boot (very early model) and 1 had a hatch. I loved both of those cars, decent to drive and very good on fuel but they were throw away at the time I had them.

Looking lovely in yellow, so does the Astra 😁, always liked the MK1 Astra especially as a GTE

Great video! Make some videos showing the car on the outside while you're driving!

My mate bought a red one brand new just after launch - poverty spec but that was bog standard for 1980. The minute the MK2 came out he traded in and got one of them - not long after that Steph I seem to recall that all the MK1's seemed to just vaporise - I don't recall there being a long tail of survivors like there can be with some cars. I also recall a few folk I knew that once had a MK2 bought that Daewoo rehash in the mid/late 90's as they so liked the dash and shape

A great example of a great car

I had opel Kadett D 13SR,very cool car

Thanks Steph great review, almost the same as my dads company car ( TEF 173X ) a revelation compared to his previous Avenger.

Aww thanks Steph, I love yellow on a classic car more then a modern car it just suits it better.

Great video. Clean car

My friends mum had one back in the early 80's. Nice car. Hers had round headlamps though.

Nice,always liked tha mk1 shape astra....the gte was a head turner...a friend used to own a mk1 astra sr ( ultra rare) with the recaros as standard...

Don't you love when cars were made in color??!!!! I always liked yellow cars, but people would often knock them as a "taxi"....oh well, I don't try to please other people! I still haven't had a yellow car in my life, though. Nice that Steph has access to the Great British Car Journey to report on and not only profile these historic motorcars, but increase even more familiarization with some of these gems. THANKS, STEPH!!!! (Best I could ever do in aquiring one of these was the red Corgi Juniors model I bought here in the States in 1982.)

I had a 1984 1.6 sr model Of this car in gold and black with The recaro seats, was a brilliant little car which handled well back in the day

I had the Kadett variant of the MK1 and that was a 1.2 in 1985 white with a red interior a 3 door, that car and my Hillman Avenger are the only cars I miss and I've had some nice cars over the years.

Ahh I had a white one with bright orange velour interior, it was fantastic 👍

Kadett D was my first car, and the GTE version is a real dream car of mine. It's remarkable how well mine held up in the modern day. The interior is comfortable and roomy, the engine was very reliable, but not very good on fuel with the 3 speed auto, but the boxy looks really date it to the early 80's. Still love that aesthetic though, and opel did too appareantly because in the 00's their retro design style really bears a lot of resemblance to their cars from this era. It's a shame you don't see them more, because they're genuinely better than the golfs and such of that era.

I owned a 1600s estate MK1 I would prefer the engine in that one to a modern vauxhall engine it was truly reliable

Lovely yellow colour, still very reminiscent of that Chevette dash and interior.

Most of the cars back in the 1980s had seats which were made out of hard rough tweed. From what I can remember as a child my fathers Kadett had cloth type seats which were like a checked green. My mother and stepfather had a mark two Vauxhall Astra in the very early 90s which was green and on the inside it had the tweed seats and everything inside was also beige interior.

My granddad had one of those in that shade of colour, it was a 1.2 litre as far as I remember.

We had 1.2 ohv engine, basic economy version,with round head lights ,2 door(no third door on a back!),when I was little…happy days!

I loved the mk1 Astra back in the day. Wanted one as my first car but opted for a mk3 escort instead.

I had a 1300 GL and later a GTE Mk1. Both terrific cars, especially coming from the HC range beforehand. The GTE in particular was (for me at the time) an almost "perfect" car -- super practical, good looking, great handling, quite fast. Wish I'd hung on to it, but I didn't of course.