Astra F

The Opel Astra F debuted in October 1991. With the Kadett E's successor, Opel adopted the Astra nameplate, which was already used by Vauxhall for the Kadett D and E (see Vauxhall Astra). It was offered as a three or five-door hatchback, a saloon (sedan), and a estate (wagon) known as the Caravan and available with five doors only, bringing Opel's run of three-door wagons to an end at long last. A cabriolet was also offered, designed and built by Bertone in Italy. While the Astra F finished production in Germany in 1998, Polish-built Astras remained on offer in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Turkey, with the name Astra Classic from 1998 to 2002.

The Opel Astra F consisted of two main revisions and was revised in 1995, with the launch of Opel's new Ecotec engine. For a short period, a submodel which consisted of parts from both revisions was produced. The submodel used all the new Ecotec running gear, but many parts from the previous revision were used in order to use up leftover parts. Other main changes included mildly altered exterior styling, and availability of new specification models.

Aside from the South Africa-only Opel Astra 200t S, the lead model was the GSi — a 2.0 L I4 16V petrol injected model with 151 hp (110 kW), available as a 3-door only. It also featured sports bodykit and widened front seats in the interior. However, this was substituted in 1995 and was renamed as SPORT, although only a limited number were produced and the bodykit was removed also and it could be selected with the lower-powered, but more modern 'Ecotec' version, the X20XEV (136 hp, 100 kW) parallel with the C20XE. In Europe from 1994 all Astra models were offered with the 2.0 L 16V ECOTEC X20XEV parallel with the 2.0 L 8V (C20NE) engine, but the 3-door and station wagon models could be selected with the 151 hp (110 kW) C20XE engine.

After the Astra F was replaced by the new generation Astra G in 1998, the so called "REDTOP" C20XE engine was also taken out of production.