FAMILY CAR REVIEW: 2017 HOLDEN ASTRA LTZ SEDAN

There are two cup holders in the front of the Astra, positioned in the central console between the two front seats. One is thinner and shallower than the other but they were both well sized for disposable coffee cups and would hold my reusable Cheeki travel mug.

The front cup holder will hold a 600ml water bottle but it wobbles around a little and neither will hold my enormous Décor reusable water bottle.

The door pockets are not lined and are not particularly large in terms of storage. The bottle holding area will hold my large reusable Décor water bottle but a 600ml bottle is too small and rattles around.

I could just get my wallet into the door pocket standing up but it would not fit lying down. The iPad would just fit into the door pockets if sticking out at an angle.

There are little wells in all the doors near the window controls which I find great little storage areas when putting bub in and out of the car, they can be a great place for popping the keys or anything little they have in their hands.

Storage in the central console is limited; there is no glasses case in the ceiling so you have to find a place for your phone, keys and sunglasses and there are no perfectly sized positions for any of these items.

In front of the gear lever is a little well with 12V USB and AUX sockets, which you'd have thought is the ideal spot for your mobile phone because it can charge from the USB port. However, the wire then hangs down into the footwell and I found my phone slid around and even fell out because the space is shallow and steeply angled.

Behind the two cup holders is a rectangular storage space that is too small for a mobile phone or glasses, so I would put the keys in there but really it's unnecessary and could be more practical.

The central console storage box has a padded lid, which slides forward to be the driver’s armrest and covers the rectangular well so again renders it pretty useless.

The central storage box is a small space it does have some felt on the bottom, which would prevent things rattling around in there whilst driving along.

The glove box of the Astra is also small. I could get my wallet and the small manual in there but there was not room for the iPad as it is not deep enough.

In the back there are map pockets on the back of both front seats. They are very small, fitting flush and tight to the back of the seats following their curve so they are quite impractical and hard to use. The iPad just fitted but stuck out the top so it would not be a safe place to leave it. You would perhaps get a small picture book in there but not much else.

The door pockets in the back are the same size as in the front.

The cup holders in the back come down from the back of the central seat and there are two moulded plastic holders. They have rubber nodules inside them for gripping the drinks vessels, which make them work better. I found they were really well sized to hold a Pigeon baby bottle, a coffee cup, my Cheeki travel mug and even my large Décor water bottle so quite versatile really. They are positioned well so a rear-facing infant could reach their own drinks bottle or cup easily.

There is a 12V socket in the back of the central console box that is well positioned for rear passengers to charge portable DVD players etc. There were no USB sockets in the back though.

The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.

Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.

I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.

The boot of the Astra is surprisingly large. It would take 12 shopping bags; four across the back of the seats, five across the middle of the boot and three across the boot opening.

The Astra’s boot is so deep you could have the double stroller in the boot with three bags to the side of it and put more bags on top of the stroller. There was even room in front of the stroller for a small nappy bag or change bag etc.

With our Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle pram in the boot I can get four shopping bags alongside it and there is room on top of the pram for other bags nappy bags etc.

With the basic stroller in the boot I can get eight shopping bags easily in there also. The stroller will only fit across the first part of the boot and will not fit against the back of the seats because of the wheel arches.

Putting things in an out of the boot is relatively easy. It is a very large boot, both deep and wide. You do need to bend down to put things in and it doesn’t sit high and flush like an SUV but the mouth of it is quite open so you don't get snagged on anything.

Baby can lie down in the boot for a nappy change and the carpeted boot floor is deep so baby cannot roll out, but you do have to bend down a lot. The boot is basic; there are no sockets or lights, just one plastic hook on the left-hand side.

The Astra was very vocal in warning me that my fuel level was low! It chimed and displayed on the media screen and dash a warning. The warning on the media screen told me the fuel was low and when I pressed for more information it showed me on the satnav where the nearest fuel stations were. This was very clever! However I could not for the life of me find how much fuel I had left and how many km I had left to empty.

I really like knowing my KM to empty as a mum. It is not always easy to fill up with bub on board, so if I know I have enough fuel to get home and back out to the petrol station later I will normally wait.

I find it easier to go and fill up with fuel once she is asleep in bed at night (and her Dad’s at home!) to avoid the…Do I leave her in the car while I pay if I can see her? Or do I disturb her and take her out? Will I get her back in her seat again without a big drama? Or we’ve only just set off and if I get her out she’ll think we’re there already. Or she’s gone to sleep if I stop the engine she’ll wake up! So many dilemmas to what used to be a simple fuel fill up!!

The reversing camera visual is shown on the touch screen but the sensor alert visual is shown on the digital display in front of your steering wheel. I found this awkward because when you are reversing and the sensor sounds you have to stop and fully move your head to look around the steering wheel, and your arms and hands, in order to see the digital screen, I found this one of the most annoying things whilst I had the Astra. You can turn off the sensors with a button in front of the gear lever this disables them fully though not just the volume of the beeping.

The lane keep assist control is situated on the steering wheel by your left thumb. This helps to keep the car within the lines of the road, I actually found this quite a useful tool over the week I drove the Astra, as I think now I'm a mum I am probably more of a distracted driver than ever before, so its little corrections were good. However sometimes I think it was too sensitive and over corrected a little. I didn't hear a warning sound, the steering wheel just centralises you in the lane.

There is Apple CarPlay in this Astra but I found the media system and the CarPlay to not be fully integrated. Sometimes it was as if the car computer system would crash and forget what the CarPlay was doing. For example I was using the sat-nav on the car's system and when I did something on my phone handset the sat-nav forgot the destination I had set and I had to input it all again.

Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!

That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.

If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?

It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?

A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.

Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!

I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.

The windows are quite quiet to open and close and the doors, so they would not disturb a sleeping baby.

The Astra does have a lot of beeps and chimes for things like not having a seatbelt done up when you start the engine, not having the key with you when you exit the vehicle and when the fuel level was low it wouldn’t stop vocally reminding me!! It is a noisy vehicle; a lot of noisy things are safety features however they can be harassing and annoying to an already busy mum and especially if they wake a sleeping baby.

The Astra Sedan is a five seater; I could very easily fit two rear facing child seats in the back seat with a large space between them. It's not large enough for third seat although there is a top tether for the central seat.

The ISOFix in the two rear outer seats is hidden behind leather flaps that make it a bit tricky to access the anchor points. You need to hold back the leather flap and dig in around the seat foam to find the ISOFix anchor points.

The ISOFix are positioned on an angled seat section between the base and the back. I rarely see this position in car seats and thought at first that it might make the child seats be strangely angled but I was wrong! The ISOFix in this position creates a really solid connection with the child seats, which feels really secure.

I worry with the anchor points being hidden behind the flaps of leather that over time the leather would become damaged and bent because it had to curve around the ISOFix connectors. Also that crumbs and dirt would get into the crevice where the whole is cut out.

The top tether points are conveniently located in the parcel shelf just behind the headrests. They are very easy to access and connect to however I found disconnecting them not so simple as you have to lift the hook in an awkward angle to undo it.

The rear seat base is rather angled so fitting a rear-facing capsule into the back seats is tricky as the capsule base must sit horizontally. I found I needed to use a wedge to ensure it was at the correct angle. There is room to breastfeed in the back seat if you only have one child seat installed.

With one rear facing and one booster seat in the back there is a lot of foot space for storage and ample room for the legs of the booster seat passenger.

The legroom in the Astra is very good. My Dad is 179cm and could sit in front of both rear facing child seats and could sit behind his own driving position. For the front passenger sitting in front of the rear-facing child seat there was 20cm of knee room between the edge of their seat and the glove box.

When posting bub into their rear facing seat in the Astra the door opening had quite a sharp angle at the top corner making it a bit of a squeeze, but from inside there was enough head room to do ‘the post' easily.

Australia being a country of weather extremes blazing sun and torrential rain means you may find it easier to put bub into their seat from inside the car. If it’s hot you can get the aircon going, cool the car down and not stand out in the heat with the door open while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether bub can be easily installed from either direction.

The seats in the front are all quite comfortable in terms of padding and shape but give little support. The driver's seat adjusts manually and the controls feel very flimsy and cheap. Plastic handles at the side of the seats adjust the base height, while handle to pump the height up and down feels like it might break if you pull it too hard. Behind that is another lever to adjust the backrest, which awkwardly positioned behind the seatbelt.

The Astra is low and getting in and out you have to be careful not to hit your head on the door frame.

I can actually have a comfortable ponytail in this car!

I had spent hours styling my hair this morning to get it just right too… said no new mum ever!!!

The steering wheel does easily adjust in/out and up/down with a handle by your knees.

The cruise control in the Astra is very easy to use. It is easily adjustable using the controls by your left thumb. It works well on motorways but I found it not particularly accurate at lower speeds and on undulating roads.

There are no air conditioning vents in the back of the Astra and our little girl complained about the heat in the back.

There are four vents in the front; two vertical ones in the centre of the dashboard and two horizontal ones, one at either end of the dashboard.

The air-conditioning is controlled by two round dials on the dashboard, which are well-positioned and easy to access and use whilst driving. Between them are eight buttons to control the direction of flow etc. The seats in the front are heated but not cooled.

Visibility for the driver is quite good and I haven't found at any time with the Astra that I felt my vision was impaired, even with the rear facing child seats in the back. The windows do get small and narrower towards the back, making vision for the back passengers not the best and the car feel darker.

I found the Astra good to park. It has excellent visibility using the side mirrors and reversing camera and I found it a good car to gauge the size and position easily.

One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Tulsi has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful.

The vanity mirrors are both lit but they didn't always come on and I had to play with the lights in the central ceiling to get my vanity mirror to light up on a few occasions. There are three lights in the front ceiling, which you turn on with buttons, and in the rear ceiling there is a light that can only be turned on from the button in the front ceiling. It forces you to have both the front and back lights on at the same time, so if you are driving at night and wanted to put that rear light on so your child isn't in the dark the front ceiling lights also have to be on, which is distracting when driving.

There are handles in the ceiling on both sides in the back. Because the ceiling slopes so far down in the back a toy hung from a handle is rather in the baby's face though. There is a 12V socket in the front and back for running a plug-in Esky, portable DVD player breast pump etc.

In terms of general aesthetics there is a rather pleasant mountain shape detail on the dashboard that I rather like and the air conditioning vents take the same shape. I find this a nice feature and it's almost like two raised eyebrows with the media screen in the middle.

The plastic used in the Astra for the doors, pillars and central console feels very cheap and marks so easily that in just a week I think we marked this car enormously. The door surface near the handles marks very easily and in the car I tested was covered in fingerprints from the natural oils of other peoples' skin that had touched it. Imagine if the car was getting heavy use with a family and kids' sticky or dirty fingers all over it!

There are no floor mats in this vehicle although there are rubber pegs in the floor in the front foot wells where I presume floor mats attach however as there were none throughout our car it feelt very basic.

There is keyless entry and the car beeps to let you know if you get out of the car and leave the key in the vehicle.

The Astra we drove does have a power tailgate and you press the button on the key fob twice for it to open.