In an effort to revitalize the Saturn brand, General Motors looked in the direction of the continent of Europe. With the help of its Opel brand, General Motors has so far successfully reinvented Saturn. The Outlook and the Aura are just the early offering from Saturn with European influence. Come fall of this year, General Motors will introduce a rebadged Opel Astra as the Saturn Astra in the United States auto market.

According to General Motors, in order for the European Astra to be accepted in the United States, it has to be both attractive in appearance and very driver-friendly. The first criterion, of course, is to ensure that the Saturn Astra can attract the younger generation of car buyers. The second attribute is to makes sure that upon test driving the Astra, potential car buyers would have a hard time walking away from the car.

The hatchback is designed with European styling cues. The trapezoidal headlight configuration and the wide open air intake grill accentuate the front end of the Astra. Sporting the Saturn emblem on its narrow grille accents the gentle slope of its hood. According to General Motors, the Astra will be available as a three-door hatchback, a five-door hatch and yet another three-door hatch but given the Sport Hatch classification.

According to the manufacturer of the Astra, these are built at General Motors’ assembly facility in Antwerp, Belgium. Both the three-door and the five-door hatch versions of the Astra share the same platform with a 102.9-inch wheelbase. Oddly though, the three-door hatch is longer than the five-door version by 1.5 inches. There is also a difference in ride height as the three-door hatchback is 0.6 inches lower than its sibling says General Motors.

Powering the Astra in Europe and possibly in its introduction in North America is a 1.8-liter Ecotec in-line four-cylinder engine. Fitted with Saturn head gaskets and other engine parts, it can produce as much as 140 horsepower. Torque output is rated at 129 lb-ft at 3,800 revs per minute.

The engine can power the Astra to 60 miles per hour from a standstill in just 9.5 seconds. Top speed according to General Motors is 129 miles per hour. As far as gas mileage rating, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is yet to test the Saturn Astra. In Europe though, the Opel Astra is given a gas mileage rating of 38.7 mpg on combined city and highway driving. For pure city driving, the Opel Astra gets 28.5 miles from a gallon of gasoline.

Since Saturn is sure to produce a Red Line trim for the Astra when it hits North American dealerships, it is expected that a more powerful engine will be made available for the Astra. It is speculated that the Saturn Astra Red Line will be equipped with a 1.6-liter gasoline engine with an output of 178 hp. Another candidate for the Red Line trim is the engine used on the Vauxhall VXR and the Opel OPC versions of the Astra. The powerplant is a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine with a power output of 237 hp.

According to General Motors, the Saturn Astra will replace the Saturn ION in Saturn’s lineup. The Astra will join the redesigned Aura, the Vue, the all-new Outlook and the convertible Saturn Sky in Saturn’s 2008 model year lineup.

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