1.6 may not look like a nice round figure, but in cars that number has been ideal for quite some time.  For car manufacturers, the 1.6 has been the best-selling class of passenger car and its ticket to ever-increasing sales records.  For us drivers, the 1.6 has been a good compromise: we spend a little more on monthly payments and gas bills than we would on a base 1.3, but we do get to have more fun behind the wheel.

Now as far back as we can remember, the 1.6 liter has been lorded over by the Japanese car companies.  From the 1.6 DX boxy Corolla of the early 80s to the first 16-valver Corolla GL to today's 160-bhp Civic SiR, the 1.6 has been increasingly interesting but still resolutely Japanese.  Even value-leader Ford Lynx can traces its roots to a Japanese ancestor in the Mazda 323.

If anyone would want to change that, it would be the car company with the blitz logo.  Just two years ago, Opel propelled its Vectra to the top of the 2 liter class, where it reigned briefly before being toppled by the Accord and Cefiro.  Can it accomplish the same feat in the 1.6 liter class but this time for good?

The Astra beckoned us to drive it with its friendly face and tightly-chiseled body.  The side view in particular is distinctive, with a crease running from the hood section, below the windows, to the taillights.  Combined with the chunky C-pillar, the car looks stable and solid, unlike others in the 1.6 category—for example, the Corolla, which has thin pillars and few character lines.  Sharply defined wheel arches were an Astra styling cue months before the Ford Focus wore them around its wheels.  If there's a disadvantage to the chunky look, it's that the standard 15-inch wheels look too small.