http://www.cheersandgears.com/forums...howtopic=12998

 

But will we be getting turbo-diesel models?

 

Cant be a bad thing??? Opel does not have that great a rep in Europe.

 

They sure have a better rap than Saturn

 

Now just bring us the Opel Astra HPC!

 

I honestly think that this is one of those situations where blatant badge engineering is justifiable. IE: When both products are independent of each other in their market.

I also think that GM should just retire Pontiac's lineup outright, and bring Holden here as Pontiac. (Assuming that unholy alliance had some fresh cars, and not the somewhat dated ones that are out now)

 

That reminds me a little bit of the Cobalt SS, especially the headlights.

 

Actually, Opel (called Vauxhall in the Britain) is pretty much at the "bottom rung" of public perception in Europe.

Ironically, there was a rumor that Opel was going to lose its entire engineering capacity, but keep its production capacity, while Saab was going to lose its production and keep engineering. Things have changed, but will it be for the better?

Perhaps the Saturn tie-up will (temporarily?) save the jobs of hundreds of German engineers, but I doubt that it will turn around either Opel or Saturn. Between the serious introduction of Cadillac to Europe and the continuation (for now) of the Saab brand at the higher end - not to mention the Chevolet-badged Daewoos at the lower end - I'm not sure about the future for Opel/Vauxhall. GM's European subsidiary hasn't made a profit since 1999, has it?

 

Pontiac is GM's 3rd highest selling brand, behind only Chevrolet and GMC, and has very good buzz about it from the G6 variants and the Solstice. This fall, the oldest cars in its lineup will be the Grand Prix, with was 80% new for 04, and the Vibe, the perennial top seller in its class.

 

Vauxhall has better rep then Opel.

 

I'll agree that Pontiac has GREAT styling, improved quality, and great sales, but their performence is lacking(except the GTO).

The new G6 didn't come orginally with the 3.9 V6 to compete in the horsepower wars. Combined with fuzzy steering and a ride tuned suspesion, I think Pontiac is selling a sporty look with no substance to back it up. Hopefully the GXP version(that should have came at the orginal launch along with the coupe) will change my mind.

The Grand Prix with the S/C 3800 is a hot looking piece that is pretty quick too. The main beef I have with the car is the tranny and torque managment. The tranny isn't strong enough to handle the extra horsepower(now at 260), so torque managment kills the power to save the tranny. It ends up not being any faster than the old 240 hp version Why don't they offer a stick?

The Vibe is a great car, but needs more HP. 130 hp is no longer cutting it, and the 1.8L Toyota motor doesn't make any power until you rev the p!ss out of it.

If Pontiac wants to be taken seriously as the sport division, they need to sell all of their cars with a stiff suspension and best in class handling STANDARD. If people want something that rides nice, they should go get a Chevy or Buick.

 

If anything, Vauxhall's reputation is worse than Opel's. For far too many years, the majority of Vauxhall sales were to fleets. The heritage of fleet sales left Vauxhall with a "Rep-mobile" image and low residual values.

Of course, Vauxhall's history is a sad story. Back in the '70s, Vauxhall was an independent GM subsidiary much like Holden. Poor quality, even worse reliability and a near-death sales decline pretty much reduced Vauxhall to an importer of rebadged Opels - without any real independent engineering capacity. If the Commodore had failed, Holden would have faced the same fate in Australia.

 

Last time I was there...I saw heaps on the road...

I like the Astra, best small car thats made by GM... IMO.

 

First...duh, didnt pick that up when they showed us the Aura and Sky
second, good its about time we got some of the better cars here. This is what Saturn should have morphed too over time, and not where it is now.
Please bring the Astra here! So much nicer then ANY compact car on the road.

 

That's a fantastic idea IMO. It makes alot of sense.