Isn’t it weird when fate forces cars to have unexpectedly short production runs? From Fisker’s battery supplier for the Karma drying up to the fire at the Hebmüller plant, automotive history is dotted with cars that maybe should’ve lived a little bit longer. The Saturn Astra is one of those cars. Welcome back to GM Hit or Miss, where we reheat the leftovers of GM’s throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks pre-bankruptcy product planning strategy to see what’s still good and what will have us hunched over a toilet in three-to-six hours.
In the late 2000s, the great Saturn experiment was effectively over. Through lack of investment and growing internal resentment, GM had left Saturn to the dogs, occasionally throwing it scraps like a rebadged Chevrolet Uplander. There would be no more Saturn-specific platforms, as Roger Smith’s great experiment was absorbed into the hive mind of bureaucracy.
However, this did leave GM with a little bit of a problem — Saturn made its name on small cars, and the small cars GM was selling in America through the aughts simply weren’t good enough to tempt import buyers. So, instead of going to great expense and engineering something new, why not just take an Opel product from Europe and send it Saturn’s way?
Oh So Continental
In fact, Opel had the perfect C-segment car in the form of the Astra, a credible Golf-fighting hatchback enjoying serious popularity in Europe. Sure, it may have been launched in 2004, but it was still leagues nicer than the stuff GM was peddling to Americans at the time. Not only was the Opel Astra H unexpectedly handsome, it also offered an overwhelming array of choice.
We’re talking three-door and five-door hatchbacks, along with a station wagon, a van, a sedan, and even a convertible. You could get it with an engine as small as a 1.3-liter diesel or as brawny as a 237-horsepower two-liter turbocharged four-banger. On the inside, it was millennium modern, with more silver plastic than an Apple store and enough available toys to feel reasonably special. Want digital radio, adaptive headlights, or perhaps simply an enormous windscreen? You could have it.
However, to keep things cheap, Saturn settled on the three-door and five-door hatchback body styles and just one engine choice — a 1.8-liter U18XER four-cylinder engine making 138 horsepower at 6,300 rpm and 125 lb.-ft. of torque at 3,800 rpm. Hitched to a five-speed manual, it seemed adequate for the segment, but not outstanding. God only knows what the four-speed automatic was like. Still, fuel economy figures of 24 mpg city, 32 mpg highway, and 27 mpg combined weren’t anything to sneeze at in 2008, and the Saturn Astra still came with some great kit.
We’re talking about projector headlights when most compacts were using reflector units, an available panoramic sunroof on five-door cars, available LED ambient lighting, a standard multi-function display, and the option of sports suspension. Compared to most rivals, the Astra was borderline luxurious and had the goods to make a great showroom impression.
At the same time, Saturn pumped bulk money into marketing, playing up the Astra’s handling. There was a slot car-like minigame on the Saturn website and everything. It was all looking good, although the next big test for the Astra would be to pass the scrutiny of the American press. So, how did it fare?
Meet The Press
For the most part, especially considering the age of its design, the Saturn Astra did alright with the media. It scored a fourth-place finish in an eight-car Car And Driver comparison test, finishing behind a low-spec Toyota Corolla, a Subaru Impreza 2.5i, and a Volkswagen Rabbit S. That’s exactly mid-pack, and the publication summed the Astra up as “So German, so five-door, so almost satisfying.” Ouch. Unsurprisingly, the powertrain didn’t exactly pull the skin off a rice pudding, accelerating from zero-to-60 mph in a somewhat leisurely 9.3 seconds. That’s more than a second slower than a Scion xD, which is a car you probably haven’t thought about since the Great Recession. At the same time, Car And Driver didn’t find much to sing about in the build quality, writing that “For a German car, the Astra is surprisingly rattly-buzzy inside,” adding that “The shifter is clunky too.” However, it’s not all bad news.
Once up to speed, this Astra test car seemed to do well in the bends. As per Car and Driver: “The optional Sport Handling package ($695) is surely to blame for the crisp ride, but it brings this car alive in the twisties, with quick responses and lots of kickback in the steering.” The magazine also wrote that “The Astra strikes a good compromise between frugality and fun,” and for those who just can’t get any enjoyment out of a 2009 Corolla, that meant the Astra was a reasonable option.
Come to think of it, that Sport Handling package was a steal, as Motor Trend also sang praise for it:
The setup proved very impressive over the challenging back roads of southeastern Ohio, where we had a lot of fun flinging the Astra from one corner to another. The suspension has sufficient travel, and its motions are well-damped. Understeer is present but not oppressive, and the tail can get lively, although stability control will gently step in to keep you out of trouble. We did wish for stronger brakes, however, and we experienced some torque steer on wet pavement (but none in the dry).
All in all, the Saturn Astra was a huge improvement for General Motors in North America, considering the automaker previously didn’t give a toot about small cars for the most part. Think about it — when the Astra launched, you could walk onto a Chevrolet lot and see certified pre-owned Cavaliers. That’s how far things had come in such a short period of time.
Going (for) Broke
While the Saturn Astra was an agreeable little car, it was launched for the 2008 model year, and we all know what happened starting in 2008. As soon as the subprime mortgage bubble burst, nobody had any money, and this was a problem for General Motors. It had been sinking in red ink for years, posting a $10.6 billion operating loss in 2005, and consumers drying up was the writing on the wall. On June 1, 2009, General Motors and its Saturn LLC subsidiary officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and through reorganization, it became abundantly clear that General Motors needed to downsize its bloated selection of brands.
At first, GM was trying to sell Saturn to Penske Automotive Group. Yep, that Penske. On June 5, 2009, Automotive News reported that Penske agreed to buy Saturn, with GM partnering on manufacturing to keep cars rolling into showrooms. As per the outlet:
Saturn will be wholly owned by Penske Automotive, the nation’s second-largest auto dealership group. Initially, the retailer will partner with GM to keep the Aura sedan and the the Vue and Outlook crossovers in the lineup for at least two years.
However, that lasted all of about one summer, as Automotive News reported in September that Penske was out of the deal. The problem? Renault, oddly enough. As per Automotive News:
Penske had been negotiating with France’s Renault SA to acquire autos for Saturn once a production agreement with GM had expired. Those talks collapsed, scuttling the Saturn acquisition by the dealership group and its CEO, Roger Penske.
Thus, General Motors was forced to send Saturn to a farm upstate, and the Saturn Astra was dead after just two model years. Cue the violins.
Kill Your Darlings
So, was the Saturn Astra a hit or a miss? While a middling comparison test result and somewhat scarce presence on the ground suggests the latter, I can confirm that this thing was a hit. Look, the Ion that preceded it was a certified POS, and to even be in the fight was huge for GM. The Astra was the single best thing Saturn sold leading up to its death, and that includes the Sky roadster. General Motors finally gave Americans a reasonably priced, reasonably nice hatchback, only to kill it after a short production run.
Was it perfect? Absolutely not, but it was the sort of car that Americans both wanted and needed. If you manage to find a nice one with the five-speed manual and are in need of affordable transportation, don’t hesitate to snap one up. America could use more cars like this.
(Photo credits: Saturn, Opel)
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I have a (possibly irrational) dislike of anything Vauxhall, so you’ll hear no praise for the Astra from me, but I will note that the Astra Van could be had in some really quick variants. Perfect for the boy-racer who’s also a tradie.
I had a 2006 (Vauxhall) Astra Estate 1.7 diesel for a company car for three years. Whilst the engine was torquey and economical, the rest of the car was crap.
By far the worst thing was the manual gearbox, which felt both incredibly vague and loose whilst also being impossibly stiff and notchy. The interior looked and felt like a low brand stereo, with the weird finish on the buttons rubbing off under my touch within weeks. The stereo was awful. The seats were uncomfortable and the interior very dark and gloomy. It broke down a lot.
On the flip side, we also had a top spec 2006 2.0T Zafira (the mpv version of the Astra) as our family car, which was lovely in every way the Astra wasn’t, although still had an awful gearbox, and foolishly quick (and thirsty) for a family wagon.
I remember the Astra as a nice little vehicle with an upmarket appearance, but Godsister’s experience with hers, it was impractical for a small car with notably substandard interior space utilization featuring a tiny hidden cubby in the dashboard and awkwardly placed cupholders where a center console/armrest would normally be located.
I considered one, but I was worried about parts and service going forward. Now I only ever see them as police cars in British TV shows.
We had a manual Astra with the sport package. Worlds better than the Ion we replaced with it. Was fun in a slow-car-fast kind of way, as confirmed on the same curvy SE Ohio roads the car magazines used to test on. Great brakes too, the US version got the VXR brakes to keep the dust down.
Kind of miss that car. The only issue we ever had was the center display stopped working. It was covered under our extended warranty, but since the Astra sold in small numbers it took well over a week for the Chevy dealer that had the Saturn service contract to get it figured out and order parts. It was pretty obvious our car was an orphan with limited support, and we were not in a position to del with that.
My mother-in-law had the Astra with the 4-speed automatic. Pretty much took all the fun out of it.
I had one as a dealer loaner for a day, and it was mostly good. Even with the automatic, it felt peppy, particularly in city driving. It handled well, and was comfortable. Oddly, the one thing I disliked was that the single cup holder was an awkward reach back.
The mediocre afterthought cupholder was further proof of just how genuinely European the Astra was.
The Astra is the more practical of the pair that I own and despite the non-existent feel of just about everything and the sea of grey GM parts bin plastic, it’s been perfectly adequate as a winter car and stuff hauler. The XE isn’t fast by any stretch of the imagination (especially with the AC on seesh), and the quirks are a bit of a learning curve, but I like my boring beige 5 door.
I bought one new and drove it for 9 years and 120,000 miles. It was trouble free and felt premium compared to other GM products of the time. It had lots of “quirks and features” that weren’t on competing products too. Best of all, you could get every option and still have the stick. I had a stick 5-door with everything except leather. I still had stuff like heated cloth seats, a panoramic sunroof, 17″ wheels, an in-dash 6 disc cd changer, projector halogen headlights, and a key fob that let me roll down the windows remotely. Oddly, rain-sense wipers were standard, but air conditioning was not. Even though they only sold about 12,000 in the US, there was great support for the car from the European market. The only major changes were the badging and the front and rear bumpers. After Saturn folded, I bought a used Opel grill and hatch badge and replaced the Saturn ones. Since noone knew what the car was anyway, it made it a bit more fun. I know it was a miss in sales, but it was a hit to me.
I think saturn as a whole died too early. I think the sky was the better of the two roadsters. The Other question I have is Saturn in the end was basically just Opel with a different badge. Did enough time pass for the US market to support Opel? Or is it a brand too far gone and damaged?
I grew up in Saturns and a healthy share of GM cars. Those last paragraphs are rather generous.
There is truth to the point that the Astra was a victim of poor timing. But we weren’t supposed to get it at all, it was merely a rushjob, a stopgap measure meant to hold the brand over with a small car until the model lines could be synced. Kind of like Pontiac with the GTO -> G8.
On its own, it was an improvement in comfort, handling, styling, all of that for domestic small cars for sure. It felt peppier than the numbers suggested even with the automatic. But it it wasn’t really the type of car Americans wanted…hatchbacks were still niche, and they didn’t bring a sedan that was offered in some markets like Brazil. The materials felt nicer than they looked, because the interior was not very ergonomically friendly (that multi-function display looked years old and had a clock that only came in 24 hour format). The only way to get a cupholder up front was an aftermarket accessory armrest that slid in the way of the shifter and parking brake.
Gas prices were climbing, but it wasn’t rated for very good mileage at all: 24/32 for the manual wasn’t great for the size of the motor, and that dropped to only 30mpg highway for the automatic.
Ultimately it wasn’t reasonably priced, and didn’t represent a good value. The 8th gen Civic with the two-tier dash may have had love it or hate it styling but certainly wasn’t dowdy – but it was also rated for much better fuel economy, had a bigger dealer network and better reputation, and was cheaper. Plus you had a better shot at haggling that down, since Saturn was no-haggle.
If you wanted a “premium” small car a Mazda 3 was more powerful, offered more options, and the same price or cheaper. Same at VW, at least with a Jetta options-wise as the Rabbit didn’t offer as much there.
You don’t really even need to look beyond the Saturn showroom to make a comparison as it was priced very close to the midsize Aura, which offered rebates that made them virtually the same price, and had the same fuel economy.
I sound more sour on the car than I actually am; an automatic example was my grandmother’s last car and handed down to my sister, and held up well in an accident where someone turned in front of her which I am very grateful for. I have nostalgia for its place in our family, and for what could have been for the Saturn brand. For whatever steps forward it took though, it also took some backwards. Like being more maintenance intensive than most Saturns had been, using a timing belt instead of a chain. And simply didn’t seem very durable mechanically, being one of the more repair-heavy vehicles I can think of us ever having, especially for the relatively easy life it led and in ~50k miles. Brake issues, squeaky belt tensioners (“they all do it”), ignition troubles, plastic trim breaking. When it was traded in, the driver’s door mirror glass actually fell off when the dealer shut the door during a trade walkaround, which was amusingly poetic.
“When it was traded in, the driver’s door mirror glass actually fell off when the dealer shut the door during a trade walkaround, which was amusingly poetic.”
Lol, because of course it did. Of the thousands of times that car door was shut, this was its chance to fail and be remembered rather than reviled. It went without dignity; it went without honor; but no one can say it went gently or without glory.
Lol – I realized I sounded not so kind about the car over my overly long post; for the most part its issues with respect to the market here were not its fault, and I can make some allowances to age as it was 10 years old at that point. But didn’t give the “runs bad for longer” feeling that one might expect from GM. It certainly had sentimental value for us which was partly why it stuck around as long as it did, but the mirror did seem like sign to finally let it go. Probably from grandma who was a “trade it in when it needs new tires” type of car owner.
I feel like we held the same level of enthusiasm for Saturn. Were you ever a member of the saturnfans.com forum?
I was! I haven’t been on it in at least 10 years, although I went to browse it recently for some reason and found it was gone. Some other forum/Reddit posts about it being back or not don’t seem to lead anywhere.
I’ve joined some other auto forums over the years, but it wasn’t quite the same as the community on SaturnFans. Some of that could just be differences in forums in the 2000s though.
Oh, that’s a real bummer. I joined back in 2000 when it was still called Saturnalia. I have a lot of good memories of that site and community.
I remember a review of this car when it came out (may have been the aforementioned Car and Driver comparison) where they mentioned that the best 0-60 time they achieved involved revving it up to 7 grand and dumping the clutch. Never drove one but that always sort of endeared it to me.
C&D has always said they will do whatever it takes to get the best times possible, even if those methods are, um, not kind to the car.
At the point of the Astra, Saturn seemed poised to become GM’s version of Merkur, Ford’s awesome captive import brand in the ’80s.
I was excited, as it would have been a way for us Yanks to easily get slick Euro-market stuff at domestic prices. I know at the very least, Matt was likewise a fan of this back when.
But perhaps just like with Merkur, it was never going to work out. Indeed, the whole concept seems an enthusiast siren song here in the states. Sigh.
I felt exactly the same way when the Astra and Aura were introduced. It was a new role for Saturn, but an exciting one. Pity.
This was my hope as well. I had an XR4TI, and I absolutely loved it, so Merkur will always have a place in my heart. I thought the Astra was a great looking little car, but even if Saturn hadn’t been euthanized, I’m guessing that it wouldn’t have sold very well. The European-ness that I loved is probably the exact thing that would have made it a failure.
Waxing about long lost memories?
Did you ever drive one of these?
The American market got a rather bland engine, a sloppy clutch, and rather boring transmission ratios (or, worse, an automatic) with a chassis that felt like it could have been slightly fun (but you’d never know it)
Ultimately: the VW Golf was a vastly superior car for roughly similar money. The Mini did the fun-chassis-slow-motor better. And if you just wanted a driving appliance, the Corolla and Civic did it better for less money (and Civic offering a better chassis)
There was no compelling argument for the Astra unless they priced it against a Corolla – which they didn’t.
Ad astra per aspera.
Careful you don’t aspirate that aspirin.
There’s a long told myth about Saturn losing money every year it was in business.
That’s not true. For most of the 1990s and in 2003 Saturn really did eek out a profit.
What is almost true is that the Saturn Astra never made any revenue.
These vehicles were overpriced from day one. Not just a thousand over the competition. More like two thousand and change along with, “What the hell happened to that center stack on the dashboard!”
The Astra sat… and sat… and molderized. Then GM pulled the plug on the Astra in 2008 with the most unique and brutally honest announcement for that time.
The Astra would be cancelled for 2009 because they had over 300 days of supply of the 2008s and couldn’t find any buyers.
These were rolling leprosy before the economic meltdown, and I still have flashbacks when vast armies of unsold Astras were sent through the wholesale dealer auctions and ritualistically ignored like they were the automotive version of RC Cola (or Tab).
I have bought and sold a few. They were better than most of the GM malnutritional substitutes of that time.
The dashboard would give Dodge Caliber’s designers nightmares. I do not like that thing.
How did GM take an old Opel, streamline the production by removing all trims, body styles and options (station wagon, van, cabrio, all the possible engines etc.) and still overpriced it??
This should’ve been the most affordable car in its class and outsell all its competition in the US. I guess GM management’s incompetence really is limitless.
That was in fact confirmed when immediately after they sold Opel to PSA, the french(!!) turned it profitable after decades of it losing money under GM.
One euro was worth about $1.60 at the time, so there was really no hope of getting a competitive price out of it.
Now, one could argue for GM’s incompetence in bringing a German-made compact car over in that exchange rate climate, but once they did the writing was on the wall IMO.
The Opel Astra was always cheaper than the Golf in Europe. Wasn’t the Saturn Astra built here, rather than imported? So the exchange rate wouldn’t really matter
Nope, they were built in Belgium, it was that direct of a port over. I don’t think they intended to start a line to produce it in North America either until a new generation followed. But even when the would-be next-gen Saturn Aura, the Opel Insignia, came over as the Buick Regal, it too was first imported from Germany before production spun up in North America (Canada).
I thought they were built here, they could’ve shipped over the tooling when its run was over in EU.
Also something about that interior photo looked a bit different than what I remember the Opel’s interior looked like, but it’s been a long time and I’m an old..
I imagine they might have produced the next generation in North America, although whatever plans they originally had were likely reshuffled by the bankruptcy. Saturn’s Spring Hill TN plant started building Chevy Traverses right after the ION and gen1 VUE left production (latter moving to Mexico), so probably not there, but the Buick Verano was more or less an Astra sedan and they did build that in Michigan for example alongside the Chevy Sonic.
No, it was built alongside the Opel in Europe
When you’re building this alongside many of the other Euro-market versions, it doesn’t really matter how streamlined the Saturn offer is, it still adds complication at the assembly plant. However, by offering only the hatchbacks they could add this complication at only one plant. (All Astra vans were UK-built, for example, so adding more body styles would have meant adding the US-market adaptions to other plants).
I test drove a Astra in early 2009, I ended up buying a manual fit sport. When I was shopping for an Astra, I noticed that the weirdest thing about the Astra was the window sticker. GM did a few price increases on the car while it was produced and the (super honest) Saturn dealer didn’t bother to change the window stickers on the older age unit’s they had in stock. So while looking at 5 speed Astra XR 3 doors, the older units had an msrp at least several hundred dollar less (maybe up to $1k difference on the latest of the latest units) than the newer units. It was a confusing car to shop for, it seemed like GM increased the msrp as the exchange rates changed.
I didn’t know the Astra was on sale long enough to change the prices on 😛
The Astra has a huge sunroof available, while the Fit wasn’t available with one until 2013
I’ll have you know I love RC Cola. It cuts the perfect balance between Coke (too fizzy) and Pepsi (too sweet).
That sunroof is reason alone to get the Astra.
In the US, the engine it had was only on the Astra at the time, though it would become more common a few years later when the Spark and Sonic came out.
Too bad they didn’t give us the Astra Redline with the 2.0T (which GM used int eh Cobalt SS and other stuff)
Too bad GM didn’t spin off Saturn, then go bankrupt, then have Saturn buy them, let Saturn run the show, and then fire the incompetent GM morons.
I had one as a rental in Germany for 3 weeks- this was an “Audi A4 or equivalent’ yeah not so much that but a decent car
Yes, in Germany Opel is kind of considered to be the car to get if you’re cheap (which Germans definitely are). Jeder Popel fährt ein Opel.
Friend who was German had some phrase about businessmen dreaming about Opels, my dad had a Rekord in France in the 50s and hated it
The dumpy motor was the only one they offered with an auto at the time, and they would only spend the money to federalize once engine, so we got pure meh
They should’ve used the 2.2/2.4 Ecotec they used on iother GM cars over here. That would’ve solved the federalization problem.
Also, the 2.0T in Europe was already sold here in the Cobalt/HHR SS and other cars, so easy to federalize.
That would have been more effort, both in engineering and cost, since the Astra didn’t offer those engines – they would have had to engineer it for those motors and still go through the motions of crash testing etc.
Similarly, I believe the 2.0T the OPC/VXR used were derived from the older Family II engine line, not the Ecotec line, so not quite the same. Not just little things either but belt vs. chain.
OK, but in that case they could’ve just used our 2.0T in the US market.
And of course, they could’ve upgraded the Euro one mid-run to coincide with the Astra’s US debut
The Family II –> Ecotec is kind of like the old SBC vs the LS1. They share no parts, but you can swap the whole engine with not too much difficulty.
Still more effort than they were looking to do for what amounted to a stopgap model, heck the clock was still in 24 hour format! lol. They weren’t really committed to big sales figures especially for a volume segment, their target was like 30k which was far below the ION or VUE or even the Aura. Plus this generation of Astra was nearing the end of its run, so even Opel wasn’t trying to do much of anything to the model.
Sigh, yeah, GM giving 90% is the theme here 🙁
My last ‘modern’ car (to exclude the fleet of old italian cars) I’ve owned in Europe before I moved over the pond was the previous gen Astra SW with the 1.7 tdci (diesel) engine. Not much in terms of HP, but enough torque that I never had any issues passing on 2-lane mountain roads or autobahn speeds. Manual trans helped too, a slushbox would’ve been considerably worse.
The fuel mileage was amazing.
I’m a GM apologist, but I think the Astra was a miss. In that time, there just wasn’t enough market segmentation between Chevy, Pontiac, and Saturn. Even if the Astra had it’s plusses, it was up against the Cobalt and GM was never going to let Saturn compete.
If they’d leaned into the quirk factor and given the Astra more styling and some cheap, but fun features, it could have found a reason to exist.
I still lament that Saturn, Hummer, and Pontiac died but they kept Buick and GMC?
Buick is HUGE in China, so there’s that.
Plus, there’s more margin in a Buick or GMC. A Saturn/Pontiac model was just going to cannibalize sales from the equivalent Chevy.
WAS huge in China. They’re not even in the top ten manufacturers in China anymore and sales have been declining in a hugely growing market for a few years now.
Hummer gave a bad look in the late 2000s because it was conspicuous consumption personified. Pontiac and Saturn offerings were too similar to Chevy and didn’t offer any additional margin. Buick and GMC are marketed as entry-level luxury so they can come at a slight premium and generate more profit.
Losing Pontiac was a crime, but what’s interesting is GM has kept all the trade dress for Pontiac. As a multiple Pontiac owner I’m forever hopeful that Pontiac will someday make a rebirth on some sort of special offering, a la Hummer.
I’m also hopeful I’ll win the lottery, so make of that what you will.
Chevy is covering somehow the Pontiac line with RS trim levels of a lot of vehicles. I know its not apples to apples when we had fun Pontiacs but at the end, they were just mere badge swaps and little touches here and there.
It absolutely stuns me every time I see an article about a car that is wildly common here in Aus, but mostly unfamiliar and forgotten in the States because everyone seems to be under the impression they were *okay* or *good* or *better than X*
We had several generations of the Astra under the Holden badge and I can tell you now, they are one of the most loathed cars to land on our shores. They were plastic fantastic, rattly, joyless piles with a list of flaws and reliability issues longer than the boat ride that brought them here.
The engines are horrid, the interiors lasted a handful of years before collapsing in on themselves and even though they were subpar compared to almost any other hatch we had on offer and wore the badge of our beloved local manufacturer, the parts were still cost more than normal and lasted half as long.
The Astra was not a good car and I’m sorry to hear that it can be deemed to be better than what else y’all had on offer.
Gotta agree they were not a good car and they’ve disappeared from Aussie roads very quickly. Same with the Vectra.
It’s a shame because, as a new car, they looked and felt quite nice. I had a 2004 Astra Elite in the UK and it was a nice place to be, even if it was the least reliable car I’ve ever owned. The local Vauxhall service team recognised me by sight, that’s how bad it was.
Autopian writers often seem to look back at awful cars with rose-colored glasses. I wonder sometimes if they are just too young to remember them clearly.
It’s always cheap cars too. This quote is crazy, the Astra was neither wanted nor needed. That’s why it went away and why its market segment is on life support!
My wife had an AH Astra (a 2004) from brand new, which was 6 months old when we started dating. They were new on our roads and quite a striking design compared to other contemporary hatches on sale in Aus at the time. The interior certainly looked light years ahead of say, a Corolla, all soft touch plastics and a cohesive design.
“Looked” is the operative word, that interior was falling apart from the time she picked it up. The seats were replaced about 3 months in, they were deteriorating so badly. The steering wheel buttons for cruise control and audio worked on their own terms.
The bumper cover literally fell off while I was driving it, causing quite a tense moment – I was the dickhead boyfriend wrecking her new car. The engine developed a top end rattle at 2 years old making the thing sound like a diesel, Holden assured us it was all normal… bullshit, Holden. The shifter broke while I was driving home from work one night meaning I could only select gears 3 through to 5. That was a fun trip home.
We actually kept it for 9 years. The critical mistake we made was trading it for a new Holden Cruze. We must have had Stockholm Syndrome.
The SL2 that launched in 1991 did 0-60 in 8.6 seconds.
How are we gonna get this whole article and no mention of the blimp?
haha I remember that.
I had a friend who moved up from an Ion to an Astra back in 2009. As noted at the end of the article, it was huge leap in quality, refinement, and dependability. The Ion was quirky, but I thought the Astra was actually kind of fun to drive, and I didn’t think the shifter was clunky at all (though, I was used to agrarian truck shifters). It was a shame Saturn died when it did, because this seemed like the huge improvement that Saturn needed at the time.
The big windscreen (only for the three door version) was great. The rest meh. The interior was terrible and the seating position awkward, never really fitting