And if you walk into dealership on East Coast you want find one with options for driving enthusiast: manual, sunroof, fog lights.

will not find

Janisse, along with other GM execs should blame not poor exchange rate, but lack of different engines and models. After all, Opel Astra in Europe has 12 (twelve!) different engines, not one, like us, and also station wagon and hard-top coupe/convertible body styles.

It might help if they actually marketed the car. I think about only 1% of the U.S. population has even heard of the Astra, much less know what it is.

This should be reminder to NMOGM to concentrate on selling his crap, not blogging here. He should be providing entertainment value in the malls and shopping centers to attract audience to the product. Our taxes at work.

The Astra is the best car in it’s calls easily beating out the Civic, the Audi A3 and the Mini Cooper. it’s better quality, longer lasting and has way more desirability than those sh1tty imports. The problem is price and limited availability. Dealers don’t carry the loaded models that Americans are looking for. The Cobalt and Aveo are hot sellers and can be had for thousands less than the Saturn so consumers are flocking to those cars instead. Once the economy picks back up, the sales of the Astra should take right off again

Buy American, Buy GM. It is your duty

Big problems with this car are:
…. 1) Non-existent marketing
…. 2) MSRP is non-negotiable at Saturn, and is high compared to competition
…. 3) No powertrain choice
…. 4) Automatic costs what – $1300? $1400 with tax? This car is after the budget minded, GM.
…. 5) Option packages suck, and there is no standard armrest.

The Astra is a good car, but no enthusiast would buy its one and only underpowered drivetrain, and most of the budget crowd is not going to go for the manual, but also cant justify the price on the auto, and add that to the BS no-haggle crap and it does not represent a good value in its segment. a bit of marketing, however, would at least pull a few people in to check it out.

I drive by a Saturn dealer everyday on my way to work. That place is packed with the same new cars everyday. I wonder when the last time they sold on was? On the other hand, my dealership is selling our imports like hotcakes. Thank you GM for building garbage.

I’ve seen exactly one Astra on the road since the model was launched. Probably NMOFGM was driving it. The Astra might as well be stashed in a hangar at Area 51 for all the marketing support it’s had. Another example of a good product torpedoed by idiotic strategy, positioning and marketing. And why can’t you get a down-trim two-door?

And is GM planning to sell 2008 models at no-dicker prices through Christmas 2009? That’ll work.

I agree with Z06. Contrary to Carbon’s comments, the Astra is not garbage. Its actually a great car. GM has done such a piss-poor job in marketing Saturn, its no wonder that there is talk of getting rid of the brand.

For the past two years, GM has used Saturn as test bed for Chevy. Saturn gets the car to get all the kinks worked out and set up a residual. As a result, customer satisfaction dies off. A trait that is or was Saturn’s highest goal.

The Astra has so much potential. Psst…at 45mph it gets around 39-43 mpg. Its a safe car. Its a dependable car.

When I was at Saturn, I was told that the Astra was an experiment in the U.S. This kind of bothered me. They took a car that was a decent seller, the ION, and pulled it off the market. Replaced it with a more expensive, but better car, and refused to market it.

Meanwhile, GM is making plans to ditch Saturn. Why? GM is acting like the government with Social Security in marketing. Buick a brand who’s demographic is dying, continues to get most of GM’s attention. I could care less what GM, or anyone else on this blog says. Why does GM need two, count ‘em, two luxury brands. Why is GMC still in existence as a retail brand? No, but Saturn needs to get the ax.

The most abused division that GM has.

Why this car wont sell is the badge. No one want that gmc/saturn on the front of there car.
Its scary for someone to buy a car and know that the company will not be there in 10 years.
not that the car will last that long.
get rid of gm and dodge. bring in opel, seat, and other fuel happy euros.

I highly doubt Canadian dealers really need the 2009 model either. They were probably just too polite to say no.

I think GM wants to keep Buick, because a) population of US is aging and b) China loves it.

I agree with everybody that Astra is a great car: it was selling better then 300K units/year in Europe. Ahead of Golf and even less expensive similar French cars.
But we have to understand GM mentality at this point: small cars – small profits. Small profits – don’t spend on advertising. Yes, they will loose much more on Hummers this year, but they WILL advertise them.

dickvictory, statistics show that Saturn has one of the most loyal customer bases in the market. When Saturn started, that was planned. GM chose to move Saturn away from its customer base, by marketing $40k SUV’s and roadsters that should’ve had a Bowtie.

Before killing Saturn altogether, they should try an experiment and kill the no-haggle policy. You may loose those people who are too timid to ask for a dollar off, but you may gain a lot of people like me who want a better deal compared to the also-good competition. For me, price is the number 1 reason why I would choose a Acadia over an Outlook and a Solstice over a Sky. And a Civic over an Astra.

Ultra bad GM marketing here in the States and No More Oral for GM are the two major reasons it will struggle to gain marketplace. Yet, another bandage solution brought to you by—GM!

About the no-haggle policy – the stupid thing is timid people can get “no haggle” at any dealership. Pay the price they ask the first time and there’ll be no haggling. Saturn only loses the people like Strongbad and myself are are not timid.

If you are not selling, then that timid customer base isn’t doing any good.

YOu people are in for a huge disappointment. Saturn is not going anywhere. There is still untapped potential and GM knows this.

The Sky is already the hottest convertible sports car on the market. It absolutely kills the Miata, Boxster, SLK, 350Z and S2000 in looks, features, desirability as well as embarrasses all of them in quality, dependibility and reliability.

The Outlook is just as popular as any of the hot selling Lambdas

The Aura is just as good as the hottest midsize car in the world, the Chevy Malibu. it’s even better than the Pontiac G6

And the Vue is the top ranking CUV on the market as well. it has the looks, the reliability and drives like a dream compared to sh1t like the RAV4 and CRV.

Saturn will be a huge player in GM’s future, you morons won’t know until you see it for yourself. And for you Import sh1tlovers, sorry to say, GM won’t be cutting any of the nameplates you see today. So you’ll just have to suck it up and get used to seeing them from here on out. Toyota and Honda have less of a chance of surviving the sh1tstorm that is about to take place in this Country, Gm is the strongest in the world and will stay that way.

Buy American, Buy GM. it is your duty

^^^^ you must be sucking Rick Wagoners dyck!

Astra is a 138-hp car priced well north of $20,000 and was introduced to the U.S. when it was already half-way through its product cycle in Europe. Could it be that consumers aren’t quite as stupid as GM thinks?

Mayer, the problem with your idea, is that the car has absolutely no mark up. This is from experience.

Take the 2009 Saturn AURA XR, and the the 2009 Chevrolet Malibu LTZ. Both are great cars, both are the same cars. When I was working there an XR would sticker at 27,800 (I kinda forgot the exact number), the LTZ would sticker at 29,900.

Yes, you’re allowed to haggle at a Chevy store, but the Chevy store will not allow you to buy the car below what the XR sticker is. Of course, this example is not mentioning the incentives.

Here’s the problem. The OUTLOOK, is also a great vehicle is only available in two trim levels XE and XR. GMC Acadia received 3 with more options in each. The price point on the Acadia is more spread out than the OUTLOOK. Also GMC already has a market set up for this. Someone goes in to buy a Denali Yukon, and can’t afford it. What happens? The customer gets switched to the Acadia.

Now that all the kinks of the Lamda body are worked out, Chevy gets a great cross-over that they can use Howie Long to market the hell out of.

Like I said, GM has consistently assed-out a possibly viable contender to knock out imports. For some reason, market share isn’t a big concern for GM.

howsmydriving, have you actually seen the sticker on the Astra? Futhermore, have you seen the specs on every car in its class vs. price?

People, I’ve heard no one say anything on why the Saturn isn’t selling well, it’s the product itself! I loved the Astra in it’s European form, but it has been watered down with a lack of options for the U.S. and it is getting dated. This vehicle was not designed for this market. Look at the (lack of) cupholders.

It’s just not a good American type car, like the numerous failures of other European cars badged as American before it (Merkur XR’s/Catera/04-06 GTO/Chrysler TC come to mind).

I like the Astra, and it’s one of my favorites, but I like European cars, and not alot of people do, honestly, not badged as American at least. It was a failure the day it landed here. I think the next Astra (or whatever they will call it) will be better since from the start of design it will be more American friendly.

Jake, you’re right about the translation of the car. The Astra just needs some Americanized features. Also, it’d be nice to see the Astra with the Redline variant (Like in Eur and AUS). The 2.0L Turbo. Another motor pilfered from Saturn by GM. Cobalt SS? HHR SS?

As the owner of a 2008 Astra XE 5MT (purchased on 12/17/08., I feel the need to step in here.

My car came standard with 6 airbags, ABS, power windows and locks, cruise control, rain-sensing wipers, auto headlights, 16″ wheels, remote keyless entry, and a huge driver info center. The only option I added was a/c. My car stickered at $17.5k, including accessory pinstriping, etc. With the incentives GM was offering a month-and-a-half ago, I got my car for less than $15k.

Price out any other C-segment car with those features (if it even offers some of them), and I guarantee you it’ll cost at or near $17.5k. I got a great deal.

I consider myself an enthusiast. And while I agree that the line might benefit from a Federalized version of the OPC/VXR models offered in Europe, my 138bhp is plenty. I’m never wanting for more power (I should also note that the Focus comes with only 1 basic engine, with only 2 more hp and 3 more lb-ft). The cupholder issue is a quirk. But cupholder placement probably isn’t a deciding factor in a vehicle purchase.

The car is solidly built, a hoot to drive, comes with a great warranty, and gets competitive fuel economy. I agree that its lack of success has 100% to do with the lack of marketing of the car. Having 12 engine options doesn’t make sense, but the line could be improved by adding a more powerful version.

If GM offered the sedan, wagon, and convertible models and marketed them all effectively, they’d probably go much further in the sales figures. But the Astra has a problem with marketing. It just isn’t supported by GM’s ad budget. Their margin is probably small enough as it is, they don’t want to add additional cost-per-unit in advertizing. Which makes for quite the Catch-22.

I’m not sure how I feel about there being no ‘09 model. Autoline reports that they’re canning the model entirely. As long as I continue to see dealer support and resale values don’t drop, I’m not too concerned, I guess. As it stands now, I like the exclusivity.

Thank you, inline6.

This is a super nice little car, but one thing that hurt it, I think, is that it #$^^!’n gets 25 mpg! That’s absolutely ridiculous for such a small car. Out full-sized all-wheel drive Legacy Outback gets more than this little thing gets. Not to continually harp on the horrible mileage that new vehicles get, but come on, this thing should get 35 with the automatic, 40 with a stick, then it would sell.

The Aveo is a worst example – a 1.5L 4cyl w/ 5 spd should get at elast 30 in town andwhat does it get, 23 mpg. The same as the larger and much nicer Astra.

That being said, one reason most new small cars get poor mileage is they’re so laden down with the gadgets no one seems to be able to live without as well as the apparent need for 48 standard airbags, etc.

Keep em simple and less complex, I say..

Buy american, buy GM that is your duty? um…sounds like Need more oil for GM should do advertising for GM. and the astra is a german opel so technically it is not american just a rebadge opel vehicle that is americanized and the aveo isnt even american it is korean. so out of the three the cobolt is the true american car. someone needs to update their logs on which cars are made in american and which cars are imported, get this not from amnerica, from other parts of the world. and the sky may have power but it cannot match the simplicity of the miata. that is why GM said it isnt making money from that platform cause it is too expensive to make. but seriously the aura, g6 and the malibu are the same platform, all suspension setups are different as for the VUE, um it is a ton in weight and not as light or a ‘trend setter’ in the class. and from reading the news on here GM sold Saturn to the gov’t and it said that it might stop producing saturn cars by 2012 or 2013.

^Your in for a dissappointment^

Saturn will be around long after Honda and Toyota

buy American. Buy GM. It is your duty