What's the news?
We thought the new Astra was pretty darned good when we drove it, and it seems that the rest of Europe's motoring writers agree with us - the Opel Astra has just been granted to coveted European Car of the Year trophy on the eve of the Geneva Motor Show.
The Astra narrowly beat out the Volvo XC90 into second place, and a strongly-performing Mazda MX-5 into third. The other nominees were the Audi A4, Jaguar XE, Skoda Superb and BMW 7 Series - which pretty much officially makes it one of the strongest competitive fields ever for the award.
The "Car of the Year 2016" trophy was presented to Opel CEO Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann by COTY president Hakan Matson. "The new Astra represents the start of a new era at Opel and victory in this year's 'Car of the Year' competition shows that we are on the right track," said Dr. Neumann. "It is an honor for us to receive such a prestigious award from leading automotive journalists."
The European Car of the Year award was founded in 1964. This year's victory takes Opel's total "Car of the Year" tally to five. The Opel Kadett E was the first car from Rüsselsheim to win the award in 1985. Two years later, the Omega A once again took the pan-European accolade. In recent years, Opel has come out on top twice - with the Insignia in 2009 and the Ampera in 2012.