8.3.2004
Celebrations at Ellesmere Port as the first new Astra comes off the line

It was lights, camera, action for Vauxhall's new star as the latest generation Astra came off the line at Ellesmere Port this afternoon to cheers from plant workers.

GM Chairman Rick Wagoner was on hand to celebrate the new car and to talk to the watching media. He also met employees as he toured the plant, seeing for himself the work undertaken to prepare the plant for new Astra.

Quality inspector Maria Jump, who has seen 3 generations of Astra produced at the plant since she joined 15 years ago, had the honour of driving the car off the line. Her colleagues Steve Anderson and Martin Sadler held a special banner for her to burst through.

The first car, a silver lightning Design model, gave a taste of the forthcoming marketing campaign with the words New Astra. Go Drive written across the windscreen.

Rick Wagoner told the journalists that he was pleased to be at the plant and see "the results of all the hard work undertaken". He went on to talk with a cross section of workers from across the site in a special diagonal slice meeting.

As part of the celebrations for the Astra all employees at the plant are receiving a commemorative sports bag including a New Astra sweatshirt and a video CD of them and their colleagues at work.