Well seeing as someone else got there before me, I've been looking again... and by complete chance, I came across a car that I hadn't yet considered. It's another Vauxhall, it's got the same engine, but it's called the Signum.
In Europe, Vauxhall & Opel used to make a saloon car called the Vectra, which has since been replaced by the Insignia. Alongside the Vectra, they made another car which had pretty much the same front... it shared the same chassis as the estate version of the Vectra... and it has the same interior as the Vectra... but they call it a Signum. It's Vectra at the front, Astra in the middle... and sort of... something at the back... not sure what, but it's neither. It's a hatchback still, but a bigger hatchback than the Astra, which is generally classed as a big hatchback anyway. It's the cross between an estate and a hatchback. It's not as long as an estate, but it's bigger than a hatch... It's pretty cool I personally think...
And then Irmscher turned up and made it better...
I've now decided, I think I want one of these instead. They're not very common on the roads either, as they were quite expensive to buy from the factory, but second hand, they're pretty cheap, and for some reason... the insurance is cheaper than on the Astra... same engine, bigger car, cheaper insurance. Logic doesn't make sense, which is proof that the British car insurance companies do in fact pull prices out of their arses.
It's cheaper than the Astras I've been looking at by about £500... and the insurance is cheaper by about £500... and I was going to up my budget by about £1000.... so that is a saving of £2000, which will get me lots of Irmscher goodies to make it look like the above. I can't wait
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