A lightning silver Astra Station Wagon 1.7CDTI equipped with special features rolled off the Assembly line on 14 May in Bochum, Germany to mark the 10 millionth Opel Astra produced.

Having sold over 500 000 models in Europe alone last year, the Astra is Opel's top selling car following in the footsteps of the Kadett.

The Astra's production life began in August 1991 when the first F model Kadett, a magma red station wagon, left the Bochum plant. Opel adopted the "Astra" name from its sister model in the UK after Vauxhall renamed the Kadett the Astra in 1980 with the launch of the car's fourth generation.

The first generation (1991-1998) is still the best selling Opel model ever with 4.13 million units produced. The second generation launched in 1998 also had an impressive production figure of 3.8 million units, equalling a record held by the popular Kadett E (1984–1991). The third and current generation was launched in March 2004 and with 1.9 million units already sold, it is well on its way to following in its predecessors’ steps.

In South Africa four of the seven International Astra models are available: the five door Astra, Astra GTC (Gran Tourismo Compact), Astra TwinTop and Astra OPC (Opel Performance Centre). The top of the range OPC variant produces 177kW and 320 Nm of torque making it the ultimate hot hatch in most markets globally in terms of performance, features and quality. The other variants available here also perform well above the segment standard as customary of Opel.