These are the first official shots of Opel and Vauxhall’s next-generation Astra Sports Tourer shown ahead of a world premiere in Frankfurt next week.

It’s not the sexiest estate model out there, but it does look elegant and has a little more character than the outgoing Astra Sports Tourer with added visual drama on both ends of the car as well as on the profile with the floating chrome trim on the upper side of the window line.

However, Opel’s primary goal with the Astra Sports Tourer series has never been to impress buyers with its looks, but with its load-lugging capability, and in this field, the new model should be on par, if not better than its predecessor that offers a more than decent 500 liters of space behind the rear seats and up to 1,550 liters when folded down.

It shouldn’t be long before Opel tells us exactly how much space it has to offer, as well as which engines it will share with the hatchback version of the new Astra series.

Update: According to preliminary specs released by Opel’s German arm, the new Astra Tourer retains the same footprint as before, but thanks to interior improvements, it gains an extra 80 liters of space in total at 1,630 liters with the rear seats down, while it’s also 200kg or 440 pounds lighter than the model it replaces.

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