Saturn has developed a car that is built in Antwerp, Belgium and brought to market in America to replace the Ion as the GM Division’s smallest compact – the Astra. It is an international vehicle – a Euro-car filled with safety features and sportiness with econo-car performance.
Marketed in the United States and Canada as the Saturn Astra, and available in three- and five-door hatchback versions, the car is sold in Europe, the Republic of Ireland, Africa and the Middle East under the Opel badge; it is known as Vauxhall in England, as Holden in Australia and runs under the Chevrolet badge in South America. The Astra has also made it to Russia as both a Chevy and an Opel.
Designed by the Opel arm of GM, the Astra may be promoted here as a family compact, but after seeing a tuner version of it at the auto industry’s SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show in Las Vegas, testing this car takes on a new perspective and we can see that this car has great possibilities as a performance and style car, a compact tuner or a vehicle to be personalized, customized, modified, tricked out, souped up, pimped, flipped, dubbed and ICEd.
A blank canvass to be airbrushed, accessorized, upgraded, stroked, turbo’d, supercharged or nitroused, the Astra hatchback has its own value as an under-$20,000 family car or high school-to-college student vehicle just as it is, but a quotient of trendy audio improvements, video add-ons, leather embellishments, chrome additions, increased engine power and larger shiny or spinning wheels would turn the Astra into a hip street-machine for the young and status-conscious.
A true sub-compact, the Astra five-door measures 170.5 inches long, 69 inches wide and 57.4 inches long, designed with clean lines, a bold, bright grille bar with prominent Saturn logo, large wraparound taillamps and clear lenses. Looking bold for a hatchback, the wheels are pushed to the corners while subtle fender flares wrapped tightly around the tires provide a rakish stance.
In America, the Astra is available with only one engine choice, an Ecotec 1.8-liter engine mated to either a 5-speed manual transmission, as was my test car, or a 4-speed automatic. The variable valve timing set-up only putters out 138hp and 125 lbs.-ft. of torque, and while it is economically EPA rated at 22mpg in city driving and 28mpg on the highway, the 2921-lb. hatchback crawls from zero to 60mph in 8.4 seconds and provides little passing power. At speed, you really have to strategize your movements, and must let that speeding vehicle behind you pass before you enter the freeway or avoid trying to pass a slower-moving vehicle until you are certain you are clear. Clearly, if performance is an issue to you, an engine upgrade is in order. In international markets, the Astra is sold with turbodiesels under hood, and some come with the same powerful 260-hp turbocharged Ecotec that helps jet propel the Sky Redline. This engine swap would turn the mild-mannered Astra into an extreme hatch-rocket.
But, as marketed in the U.S., the Astra 5-door, and its 1.8-liter do just fine in keeping weight, fuel-consumption, maintenance and insurance costs down.
On the road, my test Astra averaged 24mpg, and exhibited a surprisingly confident ride, with a stiff strut-type front suspension utilizing control arms, stabilizer bar and steering rack all mounted to the subframe. Tight quick turns will induce understeer, and brisk winds will cause some waver in your ride, but the rear suspension, which features a semi-independent torsion-link axle design, irons out road contours and vibrations, and while the cabin is not quiet, the amount of road noise and engine noise experienced is less than expected in a sub-$20-K sub-compact.
Astra lives up to Saturn’s credo of safety-first with a unitized body structure designed with a safety cage around the passenger compartment. Built with high-strength steel Saturn has created a rigid body structure with front and rear crush zones that absorb energy and help maintain the structural integrity of the cabin. The Astra is comes with six standard air bags – dual-stage frontal, seat-mounted thorax/pelvic and head curtain side air bags; active head restraints, pedal release system; StabiliTrak stability control system and traction control; four-wheel ABS; electro-hydraulic rack-and-pinion steering; tire pressure monitoring system and OnStar with one year of Safe & Sound service.
The cabin is surprisingly roomy with seating capacity for five. Headroom is good for sub-six-footers at 38.9 inches in front and 38.3 in row two. Legroom is certainly good-for-class at 42 inches up front and 35.3 behind, while shoulder room measures a comfortable 53.9 inches in row one and 52.8 in row two.
Spartan, but ready to be personalized, the cabin is built around a V-shaped center stack, three-spoke steering wheel and a large, three-dimensional gauge cluster that includes oversized speedometer and tachometer dials. Interior highlights include a two-panel sunroof, auxiliary 12-volt power outlet and six-speaker AM/FM/CD radio. It is ripe to be flipped, pimped and customized.
The 2008 Saturn Astra fits the niche as a five-door family subcompact hatchback and it could be so much more with a little imagination.
Visit www.CarlisleEvents.com for more on the automotive hobby.
Mike Blake, former editor of KIT CAR magazine, joined Carlisle Events as senior automotive journalist in 2004. He's been a "car guy" since the 1960s and has been writing professionally for about 30 years.
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