PurdueGuy

^I agree - give Saturn the NG Corsa, give Saab & Buick this car.

I wouldn't take the NG Cobalt down to a 3cyl option only, but I could see developing a really nice 3cyl for use in smaller than Cobalt cars, and offering it as an option or base (depending on how it compared to the 4cyl) in the NG Cobalt.

What's that? 40 mile electric range from existing battery tech in an SUV? Gee... think maybe the Volt has a better chance than some people seem to think?

Ion is also in the back (not surprising since it's a plastic Cobalt) Friend of mine had one of those old subaru's with the tire under the hood. Weird. Looked pretty much like this, but it was a FWD sedan: *edit* found a pic of the underhood spare tire!

How much money does GM save by making no Saturn concepts, but just rebadging the Opel ones? lol An interesting concept, but we've already seen it, of course.

from: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/13/wrong-w...chery-platform/ Summary: Demon will be built... on Chery FWD platform.

I like the new lancer styling. *shrug*

Guess I'll be weird & say it doesn't look that bad.

looks pretty good, though I have to chuckle a little at how close the headlight is to reaching the door. Headlights just keep swooping back further and further and further...

ok, the 2nd set of pictures make it look more classy. Still not particularly exciting, but classy.

It's not hard to kill HIV. It's just hard to completely kill all the HIV in a person without killing them.

+1, though I do admit to being a little jealous of some of the features the euro Astra gets (panoramic windshield is awesome).

BOOORING!

Last I knew GM reported making a small profit on the Cobalt, and that was before the new union deal (is the Cobalt assembled in the US? I was thinking it is.) As far as new panels for the Ion... I like the Ion ok, and I think it gets an unfair amount of bashing... but let's face it - it's not near the car the Astra is in driving dynamics, safety, or refinement, and it had a pretty tainted image with the media and much of the public. New panels wouldn't have changed that. Total cost of either direction... who knows. Maybe they would have been ahead financially to reskin the Ion. I think the true emphasis, though, is on the next gen Astra. GM is now justified in putting that much more emphasis on making it an awesome vehicle, and you can bet they'll be making it far more US-friendly. I hope to see it assembled stateside to a) make Saturn owners proud that it's made on their continent - an original hallmark of Saturn, and b) avoid exchange rate issues. It should be ready to sell in higher volumes and at a profit, even if that means the price tag moves upward a little more over the current Astra if need be. And that's a big deal - people are having a little sticker shock going from the Ion to current Astra... how much worse would that be if the next gen has to be priced a little higher still, and they went from an Ion to an even more expensive Astra?

sweet

what is "USP"? At one point, I thought they talked like they would make a small profit on the imported Astras... granted, that depends a LOT on the exchange rate, and that may have turned small profit into small loss since the plan to bring them over first came up... I guess what I'm seeing is those looking at it from a "this was a cheap good product to give Saturn for a couple years, GM is tight on funds, they can't afford to spend a lot more", while you're saying "they can't afford NOT to make even better product than this." Personally, I think it would have been a waste to spend a lot more on developing a car that will only be around two, maybe three years until it's replaced. More could have been spent - on the radio, for example. And I agree about the cupholders - we'll be hearing people complain about that for years. I still hear people complain about no cupholders in the first gen s-series. What I do hear overwhelmingly, though, is people LOVING the Astra as-is. I'm not sure we can cry too much about this car being a mistake when most of what's being said about the car is very positive.

dur. What a dumb tagline. Sounds like a failed attempt at a simple sentence.

looks pretty good to me. I'd still buy a Chevy/GMC based on family experiences, but if I were buying a truck on looks, that would be at or near the top of the list.

There are just short of 100 applications for new nuclear power construction permits being prepared to be filed with the NRC. How well those go through, get approved, and becoming real, working power plants will tell a lot about our energy future. Personally, I'm sitting pretty here in SE Idaho @ 5 cents per kw/hr. The new nuclear plant rated "most likely to succeed" in the bunch will be in SW Idaho. We don't really need all that electricity - a lot of it will be sold to Cali and others that can't keep up with themselves. :wink: Despite being a pretty good situation energy-wise, I am still looking at ways to conserve. Burnt out light bulbs are generally being replaced in my house with compact fluorescents (though the warm-up period bugs me). I'm insulating the garage (it's about half done as of 15 minutes ago). I'm all for the gov't pushing conservation in the right ways such as incentives to upgrade to higher efficiency appliances and such (though those incentives usually come from the power companies - a win-win situation). I am not in favor of the gov't controlling how my house runs. At least let me pretend I own it, even if not paying my taxes would prove otherwise.

I don't think auto reviewers should even post what mpgs they got. The driving habits of a reviewer are irrelevant to the real world.

looks great.

well of course there would need to be other upgrades. A roll cage would be prudent, too. lol

post it on craigslist for free for $1,000, sell it to a stranger that you'll never see again.

I've heard the future... and it hums.

engine swap to push closer to 100hp and the tata would be crazy. lol