Reports of the death of the overpriced/weak-selling Euro-model Saturn Astra are proving premature. Ish. Automotive News (sub) reports that the next-gen Astra will be built at the St Louis Potosi plant in Mexico, in hopes of turning a profit in the dollar zone. (The new Astra is currently in development; The General will release the next gen Astra as a 2011 model based on GM’s global Delta platform.) As currency and shipping costs doom Euro-imports to high price-points and weak profitability, producing U.S.-spec sibs in the U.S. and Mexico (e.g. the Astra and Ford’s Focus, Fiesta, Kuga and C-Max) is becoming the short-term strategy of choice for both Ford and GM. Of course, Ford is taking a more conservative route, producing already-developed models in the NA market. GM is simply adding new-world production of a brand new global platform. Either way, it’s an improvement on the desperate importation strategy currently in effect– even if GM’s choice of Mexican production eliminates yet another opportunity to qualify for retooling loans currently being pork-barreled from congress.
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Will this Astra be eventually exported to europe, where we could get them cheaper? Or is the Made in Mexico going to be a US only model where, they can say…”hey since this is being sold in the USA, why not put on a softer suspension, and cheaper parts, since no one pays premium on small”. “Great idea Ralph! You’re promoted!”
will be built at the St Louis Potosi plant in Mexico
Pass(personal experience/justified bias).
They better not pull this ‘Made in the Americas’ crap with the upcoming Euro-spec Focus. I’m actually excited about that one…
If only this car was offered with that wonderful turbo Ecotec from the cobalt, I would defiantly be in the market for one of these… (in a year or two after depreciation had its way with it…)
I am trying to recall if I have ever seen one of these on the road. I usually notice new cars, but I can’t think of a single instance.
Auto makers et al must think us pretty stupid because they keep telling us cars built outside the US and imported are domestic vehicles. The truth is that there are no truly domestics vehicles. Ya sure some are assembled in the US but they use expensive components from all over the globe. I get a chuckle when Toyota says they are an American car company, never mind that all their profits go to Japan.
InTheFlesh2525
This was definitely typical GM execution. GM has an amazing engine (the 260HP/260FT-LB DI turbo ecotec), and they have an amazing compact car with designed–and-made-in-Germany street credibility (the Astra).
Do they combine that engine and that car to create a GTI, Si, Mini Cooper S and Mazdaspeed 3 killer? A car that could be priced well enough to profit at the Euro exchange rate while still probably undercutting the European competition? No, they put a mediocre (not even fuel efficient) 130 hp engine in that amazing car and let it sit on lots while people looking for 130 HP cars buy equivalently priced Civics or much cheaper (and more fuel efficient) Cobalts.
And what do they do with the amazing engine? They stick it in the HHR and Cobalt, two cars that the GTI, Si, Cooper S and Mazdaspeed 3 buyers wouldn’t be caught dead in.
Bravo GM, Bravo.
I so wanted to like this car. It rides and handles very well, but it’s just.. not.. good.. enough!
If you want a car that’s fun to drive and can hold a lot of stuff, the Fit is your ride, and the interior, while not quite as nice, it still more than acceptable. If you want something with a nicely composed ride and some panache, there’s the 3 and Rabbit/Jetta. Or you can pay through the nose for a Mini, or ride in a decent and practical, if uninspiring, Matrix.
These are the Astra’s erstwhile competitors, and GM doesn’t give us one good reason to choose the Astra over any of them. If it were more fuel efficient, or had a less compromised passenger compartment (the Fit has more effective room) or slightly nicer materials, or more/more exotic power (diesel? hybrid? turbo? Bueller?). Anything to make it stand out.
But as it stands, it’s “meh”. Better than the bottom-feeders, but not enough to command the price premium or get people out of Jettas and 3s. And it’s a pity, because it really is a good car, fundamentally, in a way that the Focus isn’t any more, and that the the unblown Cobalt and Caliber ever will be.
no_slushbox:
“Do they combine that engine and that car to create a GTI, Si, Mini Cooper S and Mazdaspeed 3 killer?”
I think the real problem is that they don’t even have a Rabbit, Fit, Mazda3 competitor on their hands. The hopped-up versions are fun, for sure, but you also need the bread-and-butter mainstream version to be just as competitive, since it’s the volume seller. It skimps on the features that shouldn’t be skimped, and really fails to offer a reason to buy it over the (stiff) competition.
I actually hadn’t seen any of them out on the road, until I test drove a four door last week. I did rather enjoy it, with its tossable handling and high-quality (and very european) interior. And I would love to own a hatch. But I’ll likely wait for the next gen. The current doesn’t even have an aux-in much less any sort of iPod control (not that that’s a deal breaker). Plus I’m still in the middle of college. :) By the time I’m out, I might be in the mood for something more along the lines of an A3.
Oddly enough though, two days after I drove one, I actually saw one on the road. It was very shiny – as if it was just driven out of the dealer.
Why GM is spending ANY money on another Saturn is mystifying. Make the Cobalt a best-in-class contender and sell it at the bazillion Chevrolet dealers across the land, including in many ‘merican car buyin’ towns in da’ heartland where der ain’t no Saturn dealers. If that means that the next generation Cobalt is that same car as Europe’s next generation Astra … great.
Ford seems to have gotten that message. GM, not really. Imagine if all the money which has been poured down the Saturn rat hole had gone into designing and marketing a full line up of compelling Chevrolets ….
Macca
The Rabbit is hecho en Mexico while even the base Astra is made in Germany, and there is not as much imbalance between the dollar and yen as there is between the dollar and euro, so GM can’t compete on price against those base cars.
Since this car is German made they have to sell it as high performance, like the German made GTI; they can’t compete against the base cars on price, so they shouldn’t bother.
GM has the Cobalt for volume and has enough of a bad history of cannabalization.
If you want to talk volume I can guarantee that we would be seeing more of these on the street if GM put in the turbo ecotec and charged a bit more instead of trying to compete against the base compacts at too high a price.
Interestingly enough, it’s actually manufactured in Belgium, with nearly half of the parts being German, if I recall the sticker correctly. Only 3% of the parts came from the states…
…the badges?
So GM wants to build this vehicle in Mexico and then sell it here in the US? WoW! Where is the patriotism? How about creating jobs for Americans? What’s with all the Patriotic B.S. and claims that they need bailout money because car manufacturing is vital to national security? So let me get this straight: They want to use tax payer money to invest in Mexico? No thank you!
Ah, but the Astra with the strong (well, strong-er) engine some are talking about IS available…just not in the US.
It’s called the Opel Astra OPC/Vauxhall Astra VXR and it comes with the 240PS/230N-m (236hp/236lb-ft) version of the turbo 2.0L four.
Hell, it’s even sold here in Hong Kong, although I’ve yet to actually see one on the road.
How about offering an Astra that gets better listed mileage than my Malibu? And its close to the same price?
Actually, if Chevy would put the 6 speed in the ls and LT models it would get better mileage and cost with in 2k.
THINK GM!!
“reports that the next-gen Astra will be built at the St Louis Potosi plant in Mexico”
Is that anywhere near San Luis, Missouri?
no_slushbox:
Re: “The Rabbit is hecho en Mexico”
The Rabbit is made in Germany – at least the one sold in Canada. IIRC, the recent Golfs were made in Brazil, not Mexico (the Jetta’s a different story).
I don’t think their marketing team knows how to sell this car. I mean watch…
If they had gone more like the Opel version…
People might have actually noticed.
I think I have seen an Astra on the road exactly one time (and I drive about 300 miles a week on I-5 near Portland Oregon). It’s amazing that these things can’t, don’t or won’t sell when Focii and such are flying off the shelves.
For the record, I have seen nine locally. No, they were not on the dealer’s lot…
Tyler: So, where in Europe are you from? :)
Yeah, after reading the features list and actually driving the car, I actually asked the salesman “WHY don’t I see these things EVERYWHERE?” Esp. for the 17K and a song they’re going for now.
I reeeeallly hope the next-gen “americanized” version isn’t as crapped out as certain other economy cars (cough ahem Scion xB).