This Tatty Vauxhall Astra VXR Is The Sub-£3000 Hot Hatch Bargain You Didn't Consider

I was never too fussed by the old Vauxhall Astra VXR. It’s always been somewhere near the bottom of my mid-noughties hot hatch want list, way behind the likes of the Renaultsport Megane, Ford Focus ST and VW Golf GTI. In fact, I own a Golf GTI, and when buying it, the thought of getting an Astra VXR instead didn’t crop up once.

As with a lot of cars though, the Astra VXR is suddenly much more enticing, because older examples are getting very, very cheap. I’m talking sub-£3000 cheap.

Granted, you probably don’t want to buy one for under £3000. This 125,000 mile example has tatty bodywork, what sounds like some shoddy bodywork repairs (something about paintwork not matching?), and no service history. But hey, the place selling it is a “family business with strong Christian values,” if that sways you.

What this tatty example does do (other than making us wonder if it’d make for an inexpensive track car starting point), is show just how affordable these cars are now. Up the budget to a still very reasonable £4000 - £5000, and you’ll pick yourself up a much tidier example.

You’ll also end up with something very, very quick. 237bhp put the Astra VXR well ahead of its closest rivals at the time, allowing for a 0-60mph time of just 6.2 seconds. For a 12-year-old car, that’s staggering.

237bhp and 236 lb ft of torque is rather a lot to shove through a front end with a conventional suspension setup and an open differential, so it’d be wise to expect torque steer and a reasonable amount of understeer from time to time. But contemporary road tests indicate it’s probably not quite the handful a certain Top Gear test made it out to be. And hey, it’s not that expensive to get an LSD slotted in the front.

Are you tempted to add a Vauxhall-shaped slice of hot hatchery to your life? Let us know in the comments…