Saturn will be around long after Honda and Toyota

buy American. Buy GM. It is your duty

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..

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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 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.

Buy American, Buy GM. It is your duty