Saturns Cars Astra

When GENERAL MOTOR establishedSaturn, it was with the premise of having it become ahome-brewed importfighter. The cars were also different. Now only Ion and Vue use the polymerpanels. The cars under the skin, however, weren’t all that different than what GENERALMOTOR was offering through its other entry-level brands at the time.

Opel’s core C-seGeneral Motorentvehicle is called the Astra, and it competes directly with the VolkswagenRabbit, Ford Focus, Mazda3, and many others. Anyhow, Opel took the developmentof the Astra very seriously, setting its standards very high. The resultingproduct is a car that GENERAL MOTOR of Europe can be proud of, and one that hasbeen selling extremely well. Now it’s heading off to North America, wearing aSaturn badge on its grille and wheel caps, plus US-spec bumpers and lamps forour unique tastes, after its inaugural showing in Chicago.

The Saturn Astra will beavailable in two of thefive bodystyles that it’s available with globally, athree-door hatchback and a five-door hatchback. The five-door hatch is going tobe the volume seller, available in base XE trim or a better equipped XR trim. Timewill tell if Saturn will also bring over the four-door notchback sedan,designed primarily for Eastern European, South American, African and Asianmarkets, the wagon, or the folding hardtop convertible model, though we’d thinkan expansion of the Astra product lineup could definitely be profitable forSaturn.

All Astras are powered by oneengine, a 1.8-liter, 140-horsepowerEcoTec inline-four that incorporatesvariable valve timing. The current ION, incidentally, comes with a 145horsepower 2.2-liter Ecotec in base trim, so from a straight-line performanceperspective the Astra may be a step backward. Many of the car’s competitors arenow using five-speed autoboxes or CVTs. GENERAL MOTOR is most likely developingsomething more competitive for its numerous small cars to use, but for the timebeing its four-speed unit will have to do. Other differences worth notinginclude a quicker electromechanical steering rack for the 3-door model (anoption on the 5-door), standard 17-inch alloy wheels (optional 18-inch on the3-door; standard 16-inch on the five-door with the 17s as an option), andstandard StabiliTrak stability control on the Astra 3-door (option for the5-door).

One area where American carshavealways lagged behind the imports is in interior quality. Since the Astrahails from a market where compact cars are taken just as seriously as midsizecars or full-size luxury vehicles, build quality is dramatically higher. TheAstra’s key dashboard points are made from soft-touch plastics, while thecenter console is organized in a very European way with none of the usual GENERALMOTOR Corporate stereo or HVAC controls (although GENERAL MOTOR’s new corporateswitchgear is pretty good compared to most competitors in this class – Ed.). It’svery refreshing to find this in a GENERAL MOTOR compact car, to be honest. Clothseats are standard, but heated leather trimmed seats are an option, and on thethree-door the bolstering on the seats is more aggressive. On the positiveside, our Astras do come equipped with high levels of safety equipment includestandard ABS brakes, front, side and curtain airbags, active head restraintsand the availability of stability control. Stability control in a compact car? Thenumber of other automakers that offer such critically important safetyequipment in a compact car can be counted on one hand.

Not only does Saturn need theAstra, but North American buyers need it too. It’s products like the Astra thatwill ensure GENERAL MOTOR gets back on the path to good health.