Can Brit-Built Astra Make it Two Cotys in a Row for Vauxhall?

LUTON, UNITED KINGDOM – November 9, 2009: One year after collecting the 2009 European Car of the Year award for Vauxhall, the Insignia may now be handing the mantle to the all-new Astra, which is on a short list of cars to take the honour for 2010.

The Astra is one of seven cars to have been chosen from a field of 33 cars new to the market. A jury of 59 top automotive journalists from 23 countries placed the Astra on a shortlist of seven cars, and will announce this year’s winner on November 30.

“We all have our fingers crossed here at Luton,” said Andy Gilson, Vauxhall’s Marketing Director. “The Insignia‘s year as a COTY holder has been hugely successful, with it beating all our sales projections. The Astra’s place on the 2010 shortlist proves that Vauxhall can consistently hit the mark for design, comfort, safety, driving pleasure, and many other criteria the shortlisted cars will be judged on.”

In fact, the Astra has won COTY once before, in 1985 for the Mk. 2 model. Vauxhall followed up with another win two years later for the Omega, and then again in 2009 with the Insignia, which has gone on to become the UK’s biggest selling mid-size car, with sales in excess of 38,000 since its launch last January.

The Astra is produced at Ellesmere Port, the tenth Vauxhall compact-class car to be built in the Cheshire plant since 1964. The UK is General Motors’ biggest European market, and its fourth largest globally; it is also the dominant market in Europe for both the Astra and Insignia.