Andaluz

GM plans to replace Saturn Ion with Opel car.
- ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Rebadged Astras will come to U.S. at end of 2007.

Harald Hamprecht - Rick Kranz - Automotive News - May 8, 2006

General Motors plans to import rebadged Opel Astra compacts to replace the Ion at the bottom of Saturn's lineup.

The imports, starting at the end of next year, will sticker at about $16,000 - approximately $3,500 above that of the 2006 Saturn Ion 2 sedan, Ion's base model. Ion production is scheduled to end in December.

GM declined to comment. But sources within GM and its Opel subsidiary confirmed an outline of the plan.

Last year GM sold 100,891 Ions. That car follows the S series, which sold 200,000-plus units from 1993 through 1999, peaking at 286,003 in 1994.

The annual sales target for the Astra model will be considerably lower, ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 units.

Saturn's version of the Astra probably will be assembled in Antwerp, Belgium. The name Astra may be used on the Saturn model.

Importing Astras would fit GM's strategy of repositioning Saturn as a Europeanized brand. At the New York auto show last month, GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz said nearly all Saturn vehicles will be based on vehicles from Adam Opel AG, GM's German subsidiary.

The current Astra went on sale in Europe in 2004. The European press has praised the car, and it was western Europe's second-best seller last year with 453,000 units, just behind the Volkswagen Golf.

Jim Sanfilippo, executive vice president of the consulting firm AMCI in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., says Saturn should have no trouble selling the car if it is well equipped. "People like to buy cars from Saturn dealers," said Sanfilippo, "and that is still a franchise in General Motors' portfolio that can attract import buyers."

Since 1958, GM occasionally has sold cars from Opel in the United States. In recent years it imported the Cadillac Catera and built the Opel-based Saturn L series in Wilmington, Del. Neither sold well.

GM builds the Ion in Spring Hill, Tenn. It has not disclosed plans for a new vehicle to replace the Ion there.

GM EYES ASTRA SCALE BACK: Reuters / May 8, 2006 - 9:00 am

LONDON -- General Motors said on Monday no final decision had been made on whether to scale back production at its British carmaking plant but it was planning for an expected slowdown in sales of its Opel Astra model.

Union sources and press reports said the carmaker was considering cutting the third shift at its Astra/Vauxhall plant at Ellesmere Port in northwest England, resulting in 1,000 job losses.

A GM Europe spokesman in Zurich said no final decision had been made, and the company was looking at capacity issues at all its Astra plants.

"At this point there is no final decision, but we do need to look forward into the future," the spokesman said. "Astra production has wildly exceeded expectations in its first couple of years, and we just don't expect it to continue to be at that level of market demand as it goes through its product life cycle."

An Opel spokesman in Germany said the third shift at all Astra plants was under review. It also makes Astras in Antwerp, Belgium and Bochum, Germany.

"This is being discussed at the moment. The third shift at Astra plants is under discussion ... all Astra plants are potentially affected," the spokesman said.

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

"We are working wholeheartedly on making our western European plants so productive that they can stand up to the plants in the East and the theoretical question of transferring work does not even arise," he said.

Cutting Astra production jobs now is a separate matter than deciding which GM plants will get to build the next generation Astra to be launched in 2010. That decision is due next year.


Say Goodbye to ION and be ready to say Willkommen to the Astra.