GM’s The Saturn brand spent the first part of the 2000s transitioning to vehicles on global corporate platforms, then spent the second half of the decade increasingly failing for relevance as The General himself had to Struggling to stay grounded. By 2008, prospects for Saturn– and US economy in general– doesn’t look great, but it’s the first model year for Saturn with badges Opel Astra in North America. Notice that the ax will fall on Saturn coming next year, right after that GM declares Chapter 11 bankruptcyand so 2009 became the last year of Saturn Astra. Several MY2010 Saturns were sold ( SkyOutlook and Halo), but Astra share the dubious honor of the shortest Saturn sale with a long-forgotten track Saturn Relay mini truck. For this reason, I keep my trash eyes open to the scrapped Astras, and finally found this very clean ’08 three-door in a self-catering courtyard in Denver last week.
The Astra can be purchased with three or five doors, in two very similar trim levels. This is a three-door car, which is only available in the semi-premium XR version.
I’m not sure if Opel Astra has these GM . “Mark of Excellence” fender badgebut all 2005-2009 GM vehicles in the US market have them (excluding those that carry the GM . codec) Suzuki armorial). I’ve got dozens of these badges taped to my garage wall, because why not?
There is only one tool available in Saturn Astra: a 1.8-liter Ecotec 4 with a capacity of 138 hp. The Ecotec has proven to be an unusually reliable engine, but I suspect this one is dead expensive in some way (as the rest of the car looks nice) and that’s why. the car is here again now.
The transmission facility in Astra is a five-tier manual, and that’s what this car is all about. The four-speed automatic costs an extra $1,325 for an $18,375 vehicle (that’s about $1,765 for a $24,475 car in 2022 dollars), so the original buyer of this car prefers to ride a tripod or just a cheap guy.
I haven’t seen enough Astras dumps to know if manual transmissions are rare in these cars; five doors that I found a few years ago already have automatic. Perhaps a car buyer in the US is looking for a European driving experience of a Opel may like the manual.
Built in Antwerp, Belgium!
Since this is just an improved Opel, the Astra doesn’t have the standard GM radio mask found in everything from Chevrolet Equinox arrive Saab 9-3. They’re a bit odd, since the buttons in the middle of the screen control stack are small, tinted yellow above.
The Astra XR already comes with a pretty decent seven-speaker sound system with MP3 playback. Remember playing data discs loaded with MP3 files in the car? Seems like just yesterday.
American car buyers never cared much about Improved Opel Omega Band the improved Opel Astra doesn’t get much better in a decade because of that.
Maybe Saturn? think again about Americans hard enough.
Yes, there was one Vauxhall version.
And when there’s a Vauxhall version of Opel, you know Holden version must exist.
In Brazil, this car was Chevrolet Vectra badges (and available as sedans).
The ad for this left-hand drive Opel Astra features English music and street signs, along with American landscapes. I guess it is intended for Low Countries.
