The Sports Tourer 2.0 CDTI achieved the best-ever endurance test result in the compact car class carried out by road testers on the German motoring magazine, Auto Motor und Sport.

The endurance test lasted for 22 months and during that time the Sports Tourer notched up 104,800km on a wide variety of routes under a differing array of driving conditions.

In that time, it saw off a number of rivals including the VW Golf, the Mercedes A-Class and the Toyota Prius, and was the only car included in the endurance test that did not need to make an unscheduled garage stop.

‘This the best result for an Opel in the history of Auto Motor und Sport. This means that a 2011 Opel Astra Sports Tourer is the most reliable Opel in decades,’ said Thomas F Simon, vice president GM Europe and Opel/Vauxhall Quality.

Mr Simon said that the result was a testimony to the quality offensive Opel had launched in 2007 and which was now being witnessed in its current generation of vehicles.

‘As an important part of our holistic DRIVE!2022 strategy, we have created the QUALITY!2022 plan. Our goal is to take the quality leadership in the automotive area over the next nine years.

‘This is ambitious, but necessary to improve our brand’s loyalty level, which is currently in the upper-middle sector, when we want to be at the top.’

He added: ‘We are already on the right track with the quality offensive we launched in 2007 – as the result of in Auto Motor und Sport very impressively confirms. And our own numbers also confirm a dramatic decrease in warranty claims of more than 50% since 2000.
 
‘Now we want to go a step further. Our recently presented brand values include the concept “German” with the virtues precision, efficiency and reliability.

‘This compels us to develop and build all new vehicle generations, all new products, bodies and powertrains to the best-possible quality. So that we can announce, at the latest in 2022, it is mission accomplished, Opel models are now the quality benchmark in the automotive industry,’ he said.