General Motors has publicly stated it plans to align its Saturn brand in the United States with Opel in Germany. The Saturn Sky and Opel GT are already virtually identical, as are the Saturn PreVue Concept (the next Vue) and the Opel Antara GTC concept, and the Saturn Aura and Opel Vectra. Recent rumors have even indicated that the Saturn Ion replacement will be the Opel Astra. At a press event this week, GM’s Bob Lutz told Automotive News Europe that more Opel products could come stateside. “Once we get the Saturn product completely aligned with the Opel product and they are fundamentally the same,” Lutz said, “then we absolutely have the possibility of doing some models in the US and shipping them to Europe and doing other models in Europe and shipping them to the US.” Will GM bring over the Astra hardtop convertible and other Opels? It’s now looking increasingly possible…
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04/19, 12:46 PM
posted by:
Frank
Finally!!!
It’s about time GM uses its good european models against imports. Why spend all that money creating “import fighters” when the company already has many interesting models that could be “converted”
04/19, 1:21 PM
posted by:
JK
Europe Rules
04/19, 1:27 PM
posted by:
Northeasterner
Poor brand management on GM’s part. They did not manage to find an “identity” for Saturn, and now planning to basically scrap Saturn as a brand and start it from scratch with Opel products. We’ll see if America responds to the new vehicles with a Saturn badge. I am sure there will be a lot of confused customers.
04/19, 1:50 PM
posted by:
Tommy
I think they might have finally gotten it right. They imported the Holden Monaro as a Pontiac GTO and that didn’t work because GTO was too important of a name so they dropped the ball on that one. However, importing Opel as Saturn could work because people don’t think much of Saturn anyways so starting from scratch might make sense.
04/19, 2:57 PM
posted by:
manny
im with tommy… saturn sucks. they always have. replacing it with good cars from opel is a good move for gm…
04/19, 4:12 PM
posted by:
damion
hmm this is good news, will definitely raise my opinion of Saturn
04/19, 4:37 PM
posted by:
Anonymous
but are they going to still be made if plastic?
04/19, 8:41 PM
posted by:
Angelo
yeah, plastic! The only cool thing about Saturn was that you could kick your car all the time and see it bounce back out.
04/19, 11:52 PM
posted by:
TT
We went to the NY autoshow with high hopes for the Saturn Sky since we’re somewhat in the market for a small, cheapish convertible. I have to say that I really like the styling, but it felt uber cheap inside.
When we closed the door, the door panel rattled. I found that interior door trim had come off the door. SO sad that they managed to make it so crappy.
04/20, 6:55 AM
posted by:
Anonymous
Lutz said, “then we absolutely have the possibility of doing some models in the US and shipping them to Europe and doing other models in Europe and shipping them to the US.�
Duh?! Hey Lutz – it’s 2006 when did this idea come to you? As soon as GM gets rid of this old loud mouth the better.
…and Lutz; GM had Opel over here; they were cheap crap. Opel is the KIA of Germany selling to the lower blue collar class … never made a dent even on VW, not to mention BMW or Merc. ..as if GM needs more cheap crap. Jeez’us!
j i m
04/20, 7:29 AM
posted by:
canut4ever
Just fire the ones responsible for crappy GM sedans like the Malibu and Impala. Let the European studio be responsible for GM designs for the mass market. Just retain a smaller studio for “heritage designs” for halo cars.
04/20, 10:26 AM
posted by:
mattigan
j i m, I thought the Opel Speedster was pretty sweet, no? I’ve never driven one, but from video games it seemed pretty awesome.