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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday December 5, 2007 - 29 Will one of Europe's best selling compact be out of this world for Saturn? By Jim Robinson OAKVILLE BEAVER Astra is a not a car name familiar to most North Americans. In Europe and Australia/New Zealand Astra has been used for generations of cars from GM's Opel division in Germany, Vauxhall division in England and Holden "down under". In fact the Opel Astra is the second most popular car in Europe just after the Volkswagen Golf. A few years ago, GM began standardizing its engines and platforms around the world. Common platforms, drivelines and systems means any GM employee can walk into a plant in Australia, Belgium or Oshawa and see the same parts in the same place. In terms of economy of scale alone it makes sense. But making everything the same can lead to what is known "badge engineering" where the same car is sold by different divisions with little more then the grille, badging and rear treatment different. It was and is a false economy and one of the worst offenders was GM in the 1980s and that was a contributing factor to the downward slide that the General is only just crawling out of now. In bringing the Astra to North American, the first decision was not to try and "Americanize" it as other car companies previously had done to their misfortune. The Astra, like the Saturn Aura, retains its Euro DNA intact. About the only changes you'll find is bumpers and headlights to meet our safety regulations and minor trim changes. Now that can be a plus or a minus. On the Astra sold here, some of the interior controls are marked differently. The remote door entry fob has two straight lines for locked and a straight line and another on an angle for open instead of an icon of a lock we are all used to. The interior is a mix of charcoals and blacks so loved by the Europeans, the Germans in particular. On the other hand, the ride and handling of the Astra are a cut above what you might expect in the economy compact car segment. The seats are firm but supportive and placed so the shifter and secondary controls are just a hand movement away from the steering wheel. The 2008 Astra will be replacing the Ion, the last of the polymer bodied Saturns that were an original signature of the Saturn division. That appeal to the chino pants and desert boot gang went away starting four years ago when GM went through a complete makeover and made Saturn one of its global brands along with Hummer, Cadillac and Chevrolet. Instead of the three models you'd find in a Saturn shop three years ago, there are now seven models and the oldest is the Sky roadster, making Saturn the youngest division within GM. Equipped with a DOHC 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine (138 hp, 126 lb/ft of torque) and a five-speed manual transmission, the 2008 Saturn Astra five-door XE starts at $17,900.The uplevel Astra five-door XR will start at $20,490 and the sporty Astra three-door XR will be priced from $21,225.A four-speed automatic transmission is a option. Standard features on all 2008 Saturn Astra's include: four-wheel disc brakes with ABS and traction control; six standard air bags; active head restraints; Pedal Release Long a favourite in Europe, General Motors is bringing the Astra to North America as the newest member of the Saturn model lineup. It is available in three models including the topline XR three-door shown. System (detaches pedals in a crash, to reduce risk of leg or ankle injuries); OnStar with one year of Safe & Sound service; tire pressure monitoring; rain sensing wiper system; remote keyless entry; power door locks; cruise control; express-down power windows; Driver Information Centre; steering wheel controls and an oil pan heater for Canada because GM engineers found it helped start up during cold weather testing. I spent a lot of time in the Astra in both XE and XR models putting on something like 1,400 kms. Part of my drive included a 90-mile round trip from San Jose up to Napa Valley to visit Bruce Cakebread, the president of Cakebread Cellars, and the maker of one of the finest, if not the finest (in my humble opinion) Chardonnay wines on this continent. On the way up in a XE five-door and in driving rain part of the time, California Highway 680 is a place where the locals normally travel at 80-90 mph in a 55 mph zone and with no highway discipline whatsoever. Like a World War Two fighter pilot you have to keep you head and eyes swiveling constantly to see where the threats are coming from. Saturn officials were not 100 per cent certain, but it seems the Astra is the first car in North America to come with rain sensing wipers instead of the traditional manual intermittent system. The wiper stalk lets you select rain sensing, normal speed and high speed. Instead of setting the intermittent at what you want, the Astra's system starts wiping away and increases depending on the amount of water in the windshield. If the rain suddenly stops as it did several times during my drive, the blades keep swinging away to the point I just turned it off and started it up again. My wife uses nothing but rain sensing on our family car, but I still like the old-fashioned way of setting it by hand. California highways tend to be mostly concrete and slippery in the wet especially with all the oil and rubber that gets laid down by the millions of cars there. Here you really need to "feel" the road. The wide track of the Astra helps the way the suspension and chassis work together to (a) handle the very uneven road surfaces and (b) communicate back to the driver. In this, the Astra was exemplary. Oddly, the five-door, instead of four grab handles for driver and passengers, has four sunglasses holders while the three-door has a grab handle for the front seat passenger and sunglasses holder for the driver. I was told there is some safety regulation where they fire a dummy head into the passenger compartment and let it rattle around to gauge possible head injuries. Apparently, the three-door was safe, but in the five-door, there were "injuries" on the plastic head so the grab handles were out and the sunglasses holders (they have Continued on Page 31 CREDIT PROBLEMS? · Bankrupt (Discharged or Un-discharged?) · In credit counselling or proposal? · New Immigrant/Refugee? · Too Young/Too Old? · No established credit? 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