Top Gear 'Reasonably' Priced Astra raises £17,800 in charity auction

Photo Will Smith Margot Robbie Top Gear Star in a reasonably priced car

Will Smith & Margot Robbie (pictured with Jeremy Clarkson) both drove the Top Gear Astra

The Top Gear Vauxhall Astra which featured as the show’s ‘Reasonably Priced Car’ has raised £17,800 in an eBay auction, with proceeds to the BEN charity.

When Jeremy Clarkson had his ‘fracas’ with a BBC producer, the chain of events which unfolded saw Top Gear as we know it come to an end – and that meant the BBC had no further use for their ‘Reasonably Priced’ Vauxhall Astra as they no longer had stars to let loose round the Top Gear track at Dunsfold.

So the 2013 Astra Tech Line – with a 1.6 litre petrol engine – was returned to Vauxhall to dispose of, and they decided an eBay auction – with proceeds going to the motoring charity BEN was the way to go.

The auction has now ended, and the Top Gear Astra fetched a noble £17,800, which may not seem a big amount in terms of ‘celebrity’ cars, but it’s probably twice what the Astra is worth without the dubious privilege of being thrashed by the world’s petrolhead celebs.

Driven by as diverse a bunch as Will Smith, Olly Murs, Warwick Davis, Hugh Jackman and Margot Robbie, the new owner of the Astra will have to spend a few bob if they actually want the TG Astra back on the road, rather than putting it on display somewhere.

Top Gear Reasonably Priced Vauxhall Astra with Clarkson & Hammond

In order to fit the roll cage in to the Astra, the airbags have been disabled, so the new owner will need to have the roll cage removed and the airbags re-instated to make it legal to use on the road. But Vauxhall has offered to make sure the new owner knows what needs doing.

The Top Gear Astra may not be the most famous reasonably priced car, but it is the last to date – and if the format changes with Chris Evans, it could be the last ever – so it’s a probably safe home for someone’s money.