Nice looking sedan. If the price is right, it will be successful.

So we are going to have a Cobalt, the G5 and now the Ion, all exactly the same car duking it out for dollars?

Where is the GMC, Buick and Cadillac versions? Are they coming next?

Three iterations are okay…I mean, the Fusion/Milan/MKZ, though hated by some, it’s been working pretty well. To have an upscale Cobalt wouldn’t be a bad thing.

I’d like to see more differentiation though. The changes to the rear and front ends for the Astra really improve the look of the car. If they could maybe smooth out the profile just a bit, they’re golden.

Okay.. this is NOT the same type of badge engineering that is negative to a market. This vehicle, as an Opel, will NOT be available in the states thus as a Saturn won’t be direct competition.

Great, they get rid of Oldsmobile to turn Saturn into upmarket Chevy clones. Why did they start up a Saturn to begin with? They could have slapped Cutlass Ciera badges on it just as easily and save millions of dollars in new dealership costs.

Fiat linea is going to eat this car alive.

Couple things here, a) it looks better than the ion, b) it is on a different chassis that the current ion and cobalt! The cobalt already shares its chassis w/ the current ion, as does the g5, this new astra will not.

A point to remember here is that Opel is sold as Chevrolet in Mexico and other Latin countries. In the USA, Open will be sold as Saturn only, Holden as Pontiac. Not sure what’s going to happen with USA Chevy, but it looks like GM will take that division on it’s own direction - no foriegn rebadges/designed in the USA for the USA.

I like it.

Good direction for Saturn. Just keep the dealership experience high, while offering slick sedans based on Opels, and Saturn will survive.

Also beats the hugely-gapped, wavy-paneled, polymer putzes previously sold.

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The Cadillac CTS, SRX, and STS are all on the same platform. Sharing a platform means certain similarities, but most of the time, many differences. There are few recent exceptions to this rule, but, on the whole, these cars end up fairly different and unique.

And brokencadillac, before you say anything, just keep it in. We’ve all heard about your caddy a million times, and nobody wants to hear it anymore. Go suck your thumb and buy a foreign car so you can become their nagging problem, you’re exactly the type of customer that no automaker deserves to have to deal with.

Amen.

youngm7 - Ditto and a half. Finally someone said it.

Not enough style coming from the headlights and taillights.

Gee - if GM can figure out a way to bring Opels to the US, why can’t Ford figure out how to bring European Fords to the US???

It looks okay. Nothing to write home about. Kinda resembles the Cobalt.

As for Saturn, they’re going to have to do some work on their dealers. Their parts are expensive and rare, the dealership charges outrageous rates and the no haggle sticker makes teh cars mre expensive.

The dealership experience isn’t wht it used to be and and the cars are better but not great.

Opel’s are awesome, definatly GM’s best brand all around. I’m sure some aftermarket company will start making Opel conversion kits for the Saturns, i know id rather have the Opel logo. Just like the conversion kits for the Dodge Sprinter to the Mercedes version.

So we are going to have a Cobalt, the G5 and now the Ion, all exactly the same car duking it out for dollars?

Where is the GMC, Buick and Cadillac versions? Are they coming next?

Doubt it. GM covers all 3 dealer set ups.
Chevrolet
Saturn
GMC/Pontiac/Buick

Cadillacs vehicle will be RWD.

We finally got it all sorted out and Chris2 has to mess it up again! Just because the cars look about the same size does not mean they are going to appeal to the same person. I would never drive an Impala, but that new Aura looks really good! About the same size, price, etc. but two very different approaches. This Astra/Ion will drive nothing like a Cobalt or G5. GM is doing badge engineering right, now it’s Ford turn (please send the Mondeo).

That article is wrong, the astra is called vectra in some latinamerican countries because of its price and is rebadged as a chevrolet, in some other countries like mexico the car is sell as astra and the european vectra is sell as well.
The astra shown in the pics was made for sale in latinamerican countries where the sedans are more popular than the hatch back version and theres a huge diference between a cobalt and a astra, the only thing they share is the plataform

Yes, because all we are supposed to talk about here is how great General Motors is… I’d be pissed off too if I spent that much dough on a pile of crap. BC has every right to behateful of the General. He has joined the ranks of so many other burned (former) customers.

And he IS right. Same platform or not, the Cobalt, G5 and Ion are all going to be priced around the same, carry the same damn powertrain and off nothing to differentiate. This is not “GM dong badge engineering right”, this is GM adding more of the same damn thing so they can post more lies like having the most cars with 30mpg. ****, if Kia rebadged the Accent 15 different times, they’d take the title as well.

Gotta love the brainwashed apologists here. GM sucks, deal with it.

The risk with all this shuffling of Brands and Model names is confusing customers. What is with the badges on those cars. It’s some Opel/Chevy hybrid. I have no idea why GM think its a good idea to sell Daewoos rebadged as Chevys in Europe but if they further confuse their european customers and blur the lines between Chevy/Daewoo and Opel/Vauxhall they are screwed.

GM has stated that the Ion replacement will be based on the NEXT GENERATION Astra, not this current model.. probably because it looks too much like the current Cobalt/G5. Saturn would be wise to keep its new more upscale lineup as is (Aura, Outlook, Sky and Vue) until a suitably differentiated Ion replacement is ready.

Its not a bad looker but it looks sick from the rear. but at least you know its got good dyamics being European and all.

not a bad car at all!

Bottom feeder. Discounted rental rot of the future.