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Automotive News & Views Saturn gets Opel Astra
154 messages, Last post on Feb 21, 2008 at 2:23 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: stickguy (Jan 11, 2008 7:21 pm) Equipment wise it is a pretty close match to the Rabbit ( I own a three door ). The Astra has a lot of standard safety features ( airs bags galore ). I personally think it is a more stylish vehicle than the Rabbit and compares well with the Mazda, perhaps looking a little more up market, having a better quality interior and simply being a fresher face. The big sticking point is the Saturn branding. There seems to be a mismatch between the quality of smaller Saturn product and the pretentions and actual quality of this model. It is too good to be a Saturn. The problem for GM is that they don't have a brand synonymous with quality in a compact car. They might get customers who already would drive a Saturn to look at the car but buyers who are looking at Honda, VW, Mazda, Scion etc will hesitate to be seen in a Saturn. There's no easy solution to this so I suppose this is an attempt to elevate the Saturn brand and that will take a little time. The nail in the coffin though is going to be the engine. The VW is up to 170 horses and more importantly ( although nobody seems to ever realize it ), 177 ft-lbs of torque. The Astra is rated at 125 ft-lbs which is way off the pace. The Mazda 3 wagon is at about 150 for both HP and torque which is enough to make it not a factor when comparing to the Rabbit. I just got back from the UK and I did look at a few Astras. The interior looks very VW ( well that is all I can compare it too as the only non-luxury European brand sold in the US ) and it is a sharp vehicle. I hope they have plans to tweak the motor in the next six months. Mind you, I have owned a '96 Saturn SL2 since '99 and it is far an away the worst engine I have ever driven so the 1.8 is maintaining the tradition ( although I do have 165k miles on it so I can't complain too loudly ).
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Replying to: guss (Jan 14, 2008 9:44 am)
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Replying to: bumpy (Jan 14, 2008 10:17 am)
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Replying to: guss (Jan 14, 2008 10:54 am) |
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Replying to: helmutvonkopf (Jan 14, 2008 9:49 am) To me Saturn has been searching for its identity for the past 8-9 years. It seem like they have a plan. Unfortunately, the recent memory is the Ion, L-series, and Relay. Include a limited dealer base and little advertising, it will take a while to get Saturn where GM wants.
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At least in Santa Clarita, CA. How do I know? Well, just got mine last Saturday  The dealer only got some coupes and the 5 door. The 5 doors in XE trim only, but with several (most) of the options installed. And this is what I went for. So mine is the XE with AT (thought long and hard on manual but with the LA traffic here.. no way man  ), heated seats, dual panel moon roof, stabily trak(tm), A/C, 16-inch twin spoke alloy wheels. Hmm now that I look at it, this is the XE with *all* the options. The dealer is giving me an iPod support install for free ($299 USD where I am). I was skeptical if that would work on my iPod nano, so we tried it on a Saturn Sky, and Apple must have a nice dev protocol because the Saturn logo showed on the screen of my nano.. then the play list and song names showed on the Sky amber computer display... They are setting an appointment for me to do this and should be done this week or early next week so we'll see how that goes. That was my only deal breaker- since the XE CD player can't play MP3's, can't have 6-cd changer, and the Astra doesn't have an AUX input. They were also going to install blue-tooth for $500 (USD) - ouch.. but I decided to pass on that- for now. One reason is that my phone has no blue tooth though I am going to buy a new phone soon. - Raist
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I stooped at the saturn dealer last night just to pick up a broushure, and they got 4 Astra's in on Monday. They only had one coupe and 3 five doors. Of course all of them had ADM stickers of $499 on them. I sat in the five door they had in the showroom. These are light years ahead of the Ion. The 3 door is the prettier of the two, I thought it may just be the pictures I had seen making the 3 nicer looking. It did not have a sunroof and my hair still brushed the ceiling. Could be the deal killer for me. |
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Replying to: dtownfb (Jan 14, 2008 7:35 pm) I have been lucky with my Saturn whereas my sister-in-law ended up with a real dog and this has added to my general perception of American cars being a roll of the dice. I think Saturn could do well with a policy to bring in the Opel line from Europe. The Corsa has to be better than the Aveo and the Vectra is a decent compact sedan. The styling stodginess of the Accord/Camry/Sonata drone clones is an opportunity for anyone who can produce a viable alternative. It seems that Saturn are going to be taking the next Vectra as the new Aura. I seem to have not even noticed the current Aura at all. I live in Palm Beach County and there are so many rich and old people that I don't think I see a representative cross section of what sells in the rest of the country. It's all Town Cars and luxury brands here. |
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| I'm not going to be posting much here because I already have two late model cars and I'm not in the market. Now that the car is introduced, however, how about moving discussion over to the 2008 Astra thread (ignored since summer). "Saturn gets Opel Astra" is going to look a bit outdated in 2009. | |
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Replying to: v_d (Feb 04, 2007 9:20 pm) |
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