Driving with Bob Lutz is the worst way to review Saturn's new Astra. Not because I was busy trying to effervesce with wit. Not because I was worried that my toe-scuffing driving skills would fail to impress the man who has two Cunninghams; a man who pats down his cheeks with liquefied testosterone after shaving; a man who owns not one but two cold-war fighter jets. ("He had to paint a big Air Force 'stars and bars' on 'em," says one GM rep, "because when he'd buzz the beach, people thought the Russians were attacking.") No, it was because every synapse, every neuron, every functioning bit of grey matter, pulsed the same message in syncopated rhythm — do not wreck. A trailing security detail in a Tahoe instilled the appropriate fear that if I did, what beaten remains of me there were would be sent to my wife in a FedEx box. COD.
Yet with a starting price of $15,995 for a five-door XE model — that doesn't include air conditioning — the Astra isn't exactly cheap. With the lowest horsepower and torque ratings in its class, it isn't exactly powerful. And with EPA mileage estimates of 24 city and 32 highway (30 for the automatic), it isn't the most efficient. A step up to the five-door XR, which adds A/C, foglights, and 16-inch alloy wheels, costs $17,545; the three-door, which is only available in XR trim and includes 17-inch alloys, sport seats, and stability control, costs $18,495. But with the Civic, Focus, Mazda3, and Rabbit meeting or surpassing the Astra in nearly every category, the point at which the Saturn becomes prohibitively expensive for what you get is perilously close.
Epic fail?
"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."
needin that 2.0 DI-T for a redline model. i used to really like the way these cars looked, but now i see so much cobalt in them. its got the same panel gap location and glass, kind of brings it down from its OMG!!1! ITS EURO!!!!1 pedestal. but i hope it sells well so more GM Europe stuff gets sold as Saturns here.
1988 16V Scirocco(SOLD 8-25-06)
Quote, originally posted by GTI 20v »
I want to buy a dump truck, fill it with gravel, and then drive on the highway in front of other dump trucks and break their windshields.
No isht. Guess GM wasn't paying attention to what happened to Ford with the Mistake and the Detour.
European cars are built to different pricepoints than American cars when compared in their respective size classes.
VW is managing to pull this one off by building the Rabbit in Brazil, it would have been a failure if they had tried to import it from Europe. And even then, if you compare a Rabit to a euro spec. Golf you'd notice the heavy decontentment the car had to go through.
2008 Chevrolet Chevy C2 - 1.6 liters of pure fire breathing dyno-juice burning fury! 1998 Kawasaki ER-5 - Oldie but goodie! 2005 Yamaha XT660R - The beast, and Euro-3 at that!
Sounds like it. Poor reviewer guy was trying to be nice, as bashing GM nowadays is sort of like kicking a sick dog. Hopefully more G8/Malibu/CTS stories will outnumber the negatives.
- "Ok so it was work friendly, till the huge horse **** came out."
Wasn't aware there was one. Now that would have made an impact, at least with the hot-hatch crowd it would have. And I think that would have made a difference overall.
VW is managing to pull this one off by building the Rabbit in Brazil, it would have been a failure if they had tried to import it from Europe. And even then, if you compare a Rabit to a euro spec. Golf you'd notice the heavy decontentment the car had to go through.
Uh, what?
(Rabbits ARE from Germany.)
-Matt 7,001,084 Californians don't want me to have what they have.
i think the key market would have been more satisfied with a manual only vehicle with more power. its not like they are expecting to sell a billion of them here. sad, they could have had a hit with the core customer they need to be their town crier and spread the gospel.
"is a hippopotamus a hippopotamus or just a really cool opotamus?" - Mitch Hedberg
Too bad your average prospective Saturn buyer thinks "driving dynamics" is a new-fangled branch of hip hop.
Plus why was lutz there? And why was he so worried about banging up the car? Things must be really bad at GM if a $15k write-off is going to make or break the company.
The specs honestly look worse than my old 1993 Integra LS. Same engine displacement, same HP, same # of gears, heavier weight, worse suspension architecture. Is there some hotrodded version of this car to make it interesting?
I'll say it again...bring a hot version or diesel for reasonable price, and we'll talk.
As it sits, its far better than the Ion...but pales in comparison to the competition. A small margin of buyers will pick it based on looks, and another small margin will buy it because its a great looking Saturn.
However, combined with Saturns other new models, I think it'll do okay - just not great. I doubt epic-fail is in order here. Slow to medium sales? Indeed.
The specs honestly look worse than my old 1993 Integra LS. Same engine displacement, same HP, same # of gears, heavier weight, worse suspension architecture.
X2. I am sure I could drive circles around this car in my 150,000 miles MkIII Golf, and still get better mileage.
I wonder if Bob Lutz is specifically aiming for this car to fail, so that he can go before congress with hard proof that Americans don't like small, fuel-efficient, space-efficient, fun-to-drive cars, so they should lower CAFE.
Splinter - Team Post-Killing Ninja My decantering is delicate and courageous.
I frequent, and am frequently aghast about that site...
There used to be some resemblance between what I typically get in many different cars (10 to 20% more than old EPA), and old EPA. Now, it is just a joke for some cars, and for others, a bitter truth. Simply lowering the EPA ratings by the same factor accross the board is certainly not the most intelligent way to adjust to real-world mileage, if (a) what you start out from varies by as much as 30%, real world, and (b), some cars truly use a lot more than what you thought, others actually use less...
I wonder if Bob Lutz is specifically aiming for this car to fail, so that he can go before congress with hard proof that Americans don't like small, fuel-efficient, space-efficient, fun-to-drive cars, so they should lower CAFE.
The car isn't even very fuel-efficient.
I think it's going to fail in the US market:
-Most buyers want an automatic transmission. Saturn's offering is outdated and hurts fuel economy.
-There's no input for an iPod or other MP3 player.
-There's no inexpensive 3-door model.
-The price for a well-equipped model is more than the actual transaction price for a similar Civic or Rabbit.
It's a shame, because it sounds like the car itself has a lot of potential. Hopefully it does well enough for GM to refresh it in a few years. Choice is good.
I've been learning to drive. My whole life, I've been learning.
I feel it does cost too much. Just like the article stated compared to a mazda 3, focus or a rabbit. I feel GM could have made this cheaper, but that would have meant changing a few things. I feel since the car is made in Belgium, and with the dollar being so weak compared to the euro etc, GM had to introduce a higher price. Whereas the rabbit,focus are all made and assembled on the other side of the atlantic. Maybe a European assembled Opel is better quality than a Central/South American Rabbit???
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