German Car Zone

General Motors may sell Opels as Saturn in US
Reuters, Monday May 8, 5:19 am ET SOURCE

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - General Motors (NYSE:GM - News) is considering whether to import European-made Opel Astras and sell them under the Saturn brand in the United States, the world's biggest carmaker by volume said on Monday.

"The Saturn and Opel brands are becoming more closely aligned and it obviously makes sense -- we are sharing design language and things like that -- to consider such options but no decision has been made," a GM Europe spokesman said.

He was responding to a report in the Automotive News industry paper that said GM planned to start selling the Astra compact as a replacement for the Saturn Ion model from the end of next year and priced at around $16,000.

Production of the Ion at a GM plant in Tennessee is set to end this year as the factory retools to make other vehicles.

Automotive News said GM sold 100,891 Ions last year but that the U.S. sales target for the Astra was only 20,000 to 40,000 units.

Sold as a Vauxhall in Britain, the Astra is GM's best-selling vehicle in Europe with around 534,000 units sold last year, GM says.

Importing cars from Europe at a time when GM is slashing thousands of North American manufacturing jobs could rile labor unions and could pose financial challenges for GM, but would mark a further step in exploiting synergies among brands.

Opel will sell a U.S.-made Saturn roadster in Europe as the new Opel GT starting next year.


Mr. Saturn meets Herr Opel.

$16,000 is much cheaper than the list price for the car in the UK!

I hate it how America gets cars so cheap!

Do you think they will need to put a V6 in this car, for it to sell in the American market?