Astra G

The Astra G was launched in Europe in 1998. It was available as a 3 and 5-door liftback, 4-door saloon, 5-door station wagon and two special versions from 2000: the Astra Coupé and the Astra Cabrio, both of them designed and built by Bertone. The Astra G saw the introduction of a natural gas-powered engine. Its chassis was tuned by Lotus and formed the base of a seven-seater compact MPV, the Opel Zafira. Approximately 90,000 coupes were produced, of which 7000 were cabriolets.

The manufacturing of Astra G continued at Opel's Gliwice plant in Poland after the debut of the next-generation Astra H, with the older model being branded as Astra Classic in a similar fashion to its predecessor, catering to the lower end of the market. This car was offered in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Turkey with the name Astra Classic II from 2004 to the end 2009. Apart from European markets, these models were sold in Australia and New Zealand as Holden Astra Classic, until they were replaced by the Holden Viva in 2006.

The Astra G continues as the locally built Chevrolet Astra in Brazil. It was facelifted in 2003, and is sold in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and other Latin American markets. In Brazil, the Astra G/B remains as the leader of its segment in sales since 1999. The GM Brazilian 2.0 8V I4 engine which equips the Astra has the "flexpower" technology, that allows the car to run on both petrol/alcohol fuels, providing 128/140 hp (G/A) at 5200 rpm.

A taxi version of the Brazilian sourced model, powered with gasoline 2.0 engine was sold in Chile as the Chevy Urban.

In 2004, GM's Russian joint venture, GM-AvtoVAZ, launched the GM-AvtoVAZ Chevrolet Viva, a four-door version of the Astra G/B. It was sold through Chevrolet dealers in Russia, while Opel dealers were (and are, as of July 2008) selling the newer Opel Astra H/C. Sales were poor from the start due to high pricing: the only version launched was equipped with a 1.8L engine with an above-average trim level, placing the Viva's price above the Toyota Corolla. A project costing $340 million was selling less than a thousand cars annually (801 cars in 2007); rumours of shutting down Chevy Viva production circulated as early as summer of 2005. GM-AvtoVAZ shut down small-scale production of the Viva in March 2008.