Basically yes, the developmemt story of the original Astra is here: http://vauxpedianet.uk2sitebuilder.com/vauxhall-t80---astra-mk1-a and you can see from that that UK efforts were focussed on a restyling attempt that didn't make production. The Astra was probably the first major Vauxhall not to be restyled for the UK market (if you read the article the design studio was switched to commercials design after that), and wasn't even built here for the first two years of sales. UK input probably regressed from there, bear in mind that later cars and platforms had input from US/Japan/Korea/Holden/god knows who and where else.

Ford did a lot more engineering in the UK than GM, and still do, and there are Fords that probably should be Origin UK more than Vauxhalls. (The Orion, for example, was initiated by Ford UK as they were concerned Cortina buyers wouldn't buy the Sierra due to the hatchback bodystyle).

Vauxhalls default to origin UK and even where people change the origin to D some people think that everything with a Vauxhall badge is built in the UK, rather than a more flexible approach where UK-built Opels are exported whilst D and B built Vauxhalls are imported, hence our listings are so inconsistent.

This is one of those never-likely-to-be-really-solved-and-keep-everyone-happy things. 1980s onwards Vauxhall/Opel twins such as Astra/Kadett (and most of their other models. And most Fords...) were churned out in both GB and D in great numbers, and often supplying each others markets. So for instance when I had a tour of Luton in early 90s, there were RHD and LHD Vauxhall Cavaliers and RHD and LHD Opel Vectra twins all coming off the line (there's a page on the main site here with longer discussion, and others dotted around). Plus there were factories in Belgium and Spain which sometimes diverted supplies into the mix, according to whatever production directive was passed down the line for that month .....

Most of these projects were jointly shared GB-D design projects in the early Marks, but gradually became increasingly D designs with tokenistic GB input, but this was a gradual osmosis, not a defined before/after threshold.

Some particular versions were only ever built on one site, so for instance all estate/sportwagon Astras and Kadetts in newer Marks this century (I haven't checked dates while writing this) were only made at Ellesmere Port, and maybe all GTE/GSi sporty things were built in D, and most vans from GB (again haven't checked). But there isn't much else solid to go on.

So - yes it's a bit of a mess. But not an easy one to mop up neatly ....

Edit - this comment sums it up from the linked page above

i think ( but not sure , i might be just scoring in my own goal right now ) the Opel Astra is the original one with Vauxhall being the copy sold by GM in UK . i'd go for origin Germany but its only my opinion


but its not impossible that some ( if not all ) Vauxhall were built in UK

Since these were only sent to the US for one year as a Saturn, I'm not quite familiar with them. But someone submitted one and it had a mishmash of info, so I went to look it up to correct, and came up with a mess. Some are listed as Origin: UK, some Origin: Germany, for all generations. Some are listed as Built in: UK; others Made For: UK. So I just want to know, is there a reason for this, or just laziness? Are there differences with generations? Can anyone direct me to the proper way to list these? Thanks!

http://imcdb.org/search.php?resultsStyle=asList&sortBy=0&make=Vauxhall&model=Ast- ra