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General Motors Announces Big Plans for 2010 Astra

When Saturn announced that it would be importing the Opel Astra hatchbackat Chicago, it was another sign that General Motors' plans of globalizing its products is in full gear. Here is a car that was designed to go toe to toe with the best that Europe offers, and it's finally coming to North America. Its design is fresh and inspiring, its interior matches the quality and finish of a Volkswagen, and it's up to par in the dynamics department against the likes of the Ford Focus and Mazda3, all of which are reasons why this product was Europe's best selling car for 2006. Even though the successor to the underwhelming, plastic-bodied Ion will take half a year to arrive, GM has already announced plans for the follow-up to arrive in 2010.

Developing world-class compact cars ain't cheap. (Photo: Saturn)

In the release, General Motors outlined four places where the next Astra would be built, a few of which might be surprising. Ellesmere Port, England is on the list, which was expected as it is the current assembly locationfor the Vauxhall Astra, Britain's version of the car. Bochum, Germany is where the Opel version will be built for mainland Europe. Gliwice, Poland is scheduled to produce the new Astra for Eastern Europe, as well as the region-specific models such as the Astra Sedan. One assembly plant that has been

Good to look at, good to drive, good to sit in... Yes, is a hit in Europe, and most likely it'll be a hit here too. (Photo: Saturn)

dropped from the list is Antwerp, Belgium, which is one of the plants that produces the current Astra.

A new addition to the list is the Trollhattan, Sweden plant. If the name sounds familiar, it's because this is Saab's “home” plant, where the 9-3 and 9-5 are built. Prior to this announcement, it exclusively built Saabs and Saab-based products, but in order to turn itself around globally, GM needs to make the most of all of its facilities, even if it means changing traditions.Rumors have already started suggesting that this move could result in Saab getting its own version of the Astra, which would enable it to compete in the compact luxury class, a segment that includes the Audi A3,

We're all very excited to drive the new Astra... but GM's already planning the next one. (Photo: Saturn)

Volvo C30, and in Europe, BMW's 1-Series and Mercedes-Benz's B-Class. In addition to the announcement of the production facilities, General Motors of Europe also said that it wants to increase production of European-built Astras from 535,000 units in 2006 to 750,000 per year for the next generation. In order to meet this goal, GM specified a 30-percent increase in productivity.

So far it looks as if General Motors will continue to build all the Astras, including the Saturn version, in Europe, at least through to the next generation, as no North American plants were listed in this release. Then again it must be asked, could GM afford to tool a plant on this side of the globe to build this car? So far, the predicted investment cost for the next-gen 2010 Astra is 3.1 billion euros ($4.2 billion USD), which makes it clear that even if compact cars are cheap to purchase, world-class ones are very expensive to develop.

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