Comments on: 2008 Saturn Astra revealed

By: AstraKing 330

AstraKing 330 — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 14:50:50 +0000

I own an Astra and it is one of the best drives out there in the small car market. How well G.M. will tranlate this into the Saturn line of vehicles is still to be seen. I have looked at alto of them ie. Astra G witch I also owned and loved and the Chevy Astra in South America Two Totally differant cars – Differant interior matierals, engines, suspension and transmission. So because it has thename ASTRA it just may not be the same German born OPEL ASTRA. Think about it – What makes a car? You need to drive the real thing first to know if what you got is what we’ve got and not GM tells you, you’ve got.

By: chuckles

chuckles — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 23:45:02 +0000

Japanese companies do employ 3,600 American workers in R&D, but that still
leaves the foreign competition behind in the dust staring at American rear
bumpers. 3,600 sounds like a big number until you realize that 65,000
Americans work in R&D facilities in the state of Michigan alone. In fact,
two of the top four R&D spending companies in America as reported by the
Wall Street Journal are – you guessed it – Ford and General Motors. The
other two are also American companies: Pfizer and Microsoft.

Ford has recently made headlines as the American automaker with the most
challenges to its future, but these challenges certainly are not because
they “aren’t making cars people want to buy.” Toyota did outsell Ford in
July, but since then, Ford has reclaimed the No. 2 spot and has held it ever
since. GM has the highest market share, increasing over 2 percentage points
from a year ago. So apparently they can’t be accused of not making cars
people want to buy either. Ford sales are also up in Europe, and Ford
doubled their sales in China, where GM has the highest market share of any
automaker.

General Motors also reported a 3.9% rise in August vehicle sales despite
high gas prices and a supposedly slowing economy. And even though Toyota
reported record sales that month, they couldn’t match the non-record setting
sales volume of Ford. GM’s sales rose 17% in October from the same month in
2005 and Ford sales rose 8% in the same period. Ford also sits on $23
billion in cash, so they have plenty of money to focus on and fix any
problems.

And for all the talk about the lack of fuel efficiency of American
automakers, it seems three-fourths of all automakers failed to meet Europe’s
improved fuel-efficiency standards intended to cut carbon-dioxide emissions.
Japanese and German automakers topped the list of the study’s worst
performers, but according to an environmental group’s study, GM’s Opel
division and Ford both “come out well.”

In closing, I’ll leave some encouraging numbers for those of us who actually
like to root for and support the home team. The J.D. Power 2006 Vehicle
Dependability Survey reports that Mercury, Buick and Cadillac (in that
order) grabbed the number 2, 3 and 4 spots to beat Toyota, Honda, Nissan,
BMW and everyone else (except Lexus) in having the least number of problems
per 100 vehicles.

Perhaps someday the American media will give GM and Ford the credit they
deserve. And once they do, perception among the majority of the American
public will rightfully change. GM and Ford aren’t only doing what they
should to make gains in the American market to deserve American consumer
loyalty; they’re also doing what they should to make gains in the markets of
China, Europe and across most of the rest of the globe.

Roger Simmermaker is the author of “How Americans Can Buy American: The
Power of Consumer Patriotism.” He also writes “Buy American Mention of the
Week” articles for his website http://www.howtobuyamerican.com and is a member of
the Machinists Union and National Writers Union. Roger has been a frequent
guest on the Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC and has been quoted in the USA
Today, Wall Street Journal and US News & World Report among many other
publications.

By: LamborghiniZ

LamborghiniZ — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 17:53:10 +0000

and broken cadillac is right, this really couldnt be any worse than GM’s other compact offerings, I mean since its pased on the Opel Astra i’d hope it’d be better, as the Ion/Cobalt are truly some of the worst offerings in their class

By: LamborghiniZ

LamborghiniZ — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 15:14:26 +0000

I want to see more pictures but it looks pretty good

By: Saud

Saud — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 13:42:15 +0000

It is a sweet ride so rejoice.

By: Cooper

Cooper — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 07:48:01 +0000

Kaptain, I haven’t heard anything about a sedan version, but Opel does sell a five door Astra too. So Saturn will probably be getting that also.

By: VDuv Kux Klan

VDuv Kux Klan — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:10:38 +0000

I drove the Astra in Mexico and its an awsome car, to bad they ruined it with that ugly chrome grill

By: Fromes

Fromes — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 02:47:50 +0000

I would love to see a redline version of this car, with ethier a 205hp supercharged from the cobalt SS or the 260hp turbo engine from the solstice GXP…this thing would be a blast to drive

By: Kaptain75329

Kaptain75329 — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:25:59 +0000

Now if I can just get this in a sedan version, I’d be happy.
Somebody please tell me GM knows better than to ignore the sedan market…

By: Lucifer

Lucifer — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:25:14 +0000

you can say what you want, but i’ve driven an astra in europe. and it is better then any pre-opel saturns. this will sell more then cobalts.

Ford should take note.

By: pirelli

pirelli — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:00:26 +0000

they should have kept the front lip spoiler from the Opel like on the link ^

By: murphy1

murphy1 — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 18:13:36 +0000

and yes, i know the aspen is being reborn, but i give that awful looking vehicle 2 years, tops. bad design AND name!

By: murphy1

murphy1 — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 18:11:31 +0000

the name is not going to work. any car that starts with “ass” is in for trouble. the astro was a harmless van, but i just cant see the normal people wanting to show their as-tra to the neighbors by name. come look at my as-tra. and who could ever forget the great 70′s line “hows your as-pen wagon?” the aspen name didn’t last that long, and neither will this. back to your focus groups saturn for a better name…..

By: rey323

rey323 — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 17:28:57 +0000

With the new saturns coming out, it would be really interesting to see the upcoming sales figures…

By: roadrage

roadrage — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 17:25:50 +0000

did they do the same thing they did to GTIs? the car looks raised up and now has SUV ground clearance and stance…

By: OilInvestor

OilInvestor — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:20:25 +0000

Piddly liettle compact.. meh. Does nothing for my bottom line.

At least GM is making up for this disappointment by offering a few more V8′s to the lineup! Figure after this year there will be 11 V8 GMT-900 SUV’s, two full lines of full size pickups, and V8′s offered in GMT-360′s, the new V8 Lambda monsters, and a full line of Hummers.

GM, your dedication and devotion to consuming as much fuel as possible is commendable… and profitable

Thank you

By: alfa_Romeo

alfa_Romeo — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:10:30 +0000

i might actually buy a saturn…wow!!!!!!

By: theshadow

theshadow — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:56:12 +0000

Wow good move…now let’s wait and see if hey bring the 260hp VXR over….Astra Redline

By: Lateralus

Lateralus — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:44:44 +0000

Wow. The Astra really does have a sleek, sporty look to it. Definitely more refined and aggressive looking than the current Focus, and the next one as well if the spy shots are any indication.

This will definitely be on my list of cars to look at.

By: Uncle B

Uncle B — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:21:30 +0000

Maybe this will come the US as well. Astra Twin Top:

http://www.opel.com.pl/site/images/showroom/gallery/astra_twintop/astra_twintop_gal_03_b.jpg

By: Uncle B

Uncle B — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:19:07 +0000

I might need to take that back. It’s hard to tell from these pics but maybe it is just the logo that’s changed on this one…

http://www.opel.com.pl/site/showroom/astra/gallery1.html

By: Uncle B

Uncle B — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:16:36 +0000

Kenny W, it’s not just the badge on the nose. Saturn is changing the whole grill on these cars and it looks worse than the Opel grill.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 14:52:46 +0000

GM of Europe is mediocre “over the pond” but over here this would absolutely be a segment-beater (with the exception of VW products)

By: leviathan18

leviathan18 — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 14:27:58 +0000

we have the astra as chevy here in venezuela pos car…..

By: BrokenCadillac...

BrokenCadillac... — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 14:20:30 +0000

Can’t be any worse than the Ion or Cobalt.

By: MyGodBeatsYourGod

MyGodBeatsYourGod — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 14:13:35 +0000

Kenny W

Don’t worry, A4 knows he’s still a Passat!!!

By: Kenny W

Kenny W — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 13:51:39 +0000

“i love opels but saturn really screws up the grille with their logo”
Comment by A4

This is the perfect example of why GM faces an uphill battle with consumers. Even when they bring out a kick ass car like the Astra (That new 1.6L turbo 4 sounds real nice) people can’t get past the stupid badge on the nose. I hope this does very well for Saturn and GM.

By: 90Z

90Z — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 12:55:15 +0000

^^No doubt. I had one as a rental car recently, and it was a total POS. The one I had didn’t even have a dome light. Instead it had lights on the bottom of the rearview mirror. That’s great as long as you don’t need to see anything in the back seat at night. To add insult to injury, it was that new metallic purple color that GM is putting on everything. Looks like a faded bruise.

By: Carnut4ever

Carnut4ever — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 11:35:18 +0000

With a nice compact car like this, who needs the boring Chevy Cobalt?

By: megator

megator — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 11:05:18 +0000

Its wierd that it will take saturn that long to compete with the yaris and similar cars. Opel has just gotten a brand spanking new Corsa that is in that size range si why not introduce it simultaniously?

By: Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 09:31:17 +0000

Its called the Astra, it will be here soon.

By: Cooper

Cooper — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 08:06:58 +0000

Brendino, the car that will take some years to get here is a subcompact for the Saturn brand to compete with the Yaris, Versa, Fit, and various others. While the Astra is a compact car to replace the Ion.

By: century24

century24 — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 07:54:10 +0000

What an improvement over the Ion! In Europe some models have this huge panoramic windshield that rakes right up into the roof, occupying at least 1/3 of said roof. Google “Astra panorama windshield” if you haven’t seen it. I doubt it will be available in the US, but a guy can dream!

By: gumby

gumby — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 07:00:33 +0000

nice look, broadening the market for Saturn, nice hatchback/coupe look

By: Brendino

Brendino — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 06:51:34 +0000

Wow…good for you, GM! Cause just a month or two ago there was a post which said you said this would take 5 years, right?

By: A4

A4 — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 06:39:28 +0000

i love opels but saturn really screws up the grille with their logo

By: bun_a_gm

bun_a_gm — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 06:00:19 +0000

I See VW GTI in the foglight assembly. Go compare.

By: bneshev

bneshev — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 05:45:26 +0000

*this side of the ocean…

By: bneshev

bneshev — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 05:43:32 +0000

I lived to see the Opel Astra (under the Saturn brand) in the US!

Its a nice car over there, lets see what’s gonna happen on this of the ocean…