For those of us living on this side of the Atlantic, we’ve only had a few months with the Saturn Astra. But for those who live in Europe, the Astra nameplate has been around for nearly 17 years. And after those 17 years of production, Opel has reached a major milestone as it has produced its 10 millionth Astra.
The first Opel Astra rolled of the assembly line in Bochum, Germany in 1991, but the hatchback is now produced in countries all across the world — including Belgium, the UK, Poland, Russia, the Ukraine and Brazil. General Motors introduced the Astra to the U.S. for the 2008 model year.
Lucky number 10,000,000 was a Silver Lightning 5-door 1.7 CDTI, equipped with a few special features to commemorate the milestone.
The UK is the Astra’s largest market — with 119,082 buyers opting for the hatchback last year — followed by Germany with 74,226 sales in 2007 and Italy with 43,128. The most popular model in Europe is the 1.6 ECOTEC, according to CarScoop.
