Four millionth Brit-built Astra | Industry - Car News Sep 2017

16:53 Monday 11 Sep 2017

A milestone occasion has been marked at Ellesmere Port, where Vauxhall has been building the Astra since 1981.

The 4 millionth Astra has now rolled off the production line, and to celebrate staff at the plant spelled out the figure in a choreographed assembly of 236 Vauxhall Astra Sport Tourers that took 12 hours to complete.

The Cheshire factory has produced seven generations of the Astra, exporting over two million vehicles to 25 European markets. Almost 2,000 people work at the plant where approximately 680 Astras a day are produced.

Vauxhall released some more impressive figures to coincide with the event; It is estimated that a quarter of Brits have owned or driven a Vauxhall Astra at some point, and collectively we’ve driven 216 billion miles behind the wheel of an Astra – enough to drive to the sun and back 1,161 times. If you stacked all 4 million Astras produced at Ellesmere Port on top of each other the stack would be equivalent to 62,500 Big Bens, while lining them up end-to-end would create a line of Astras stretching to China and back.

Denis Chick, Director of Communications at Vauxhall Motors said: “The Vauxhall Astra has been one of Britain’s best-selling and loved cars for almost four decades, and we’re proud to manufacture it here in the UK at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire. We felt the production of our 4 millionth Astra was worth celebrating and, as always, the team at Ellesmere Port has stepped up to the challenge by creating this stunning image.”