I'm just back from my first drive of Saturn's new Astra hatchback. I'll be posting my complete test drive report on Monday, but in the meantime I've updated the photo gallery with the pictures I took, and figured you might want to have a gander. As always -- well, as almost always -- you'll find more information about the car in the photo captions. Check back Monday for my full review; until then, gander away.
Some thoughts on the styling: I for one am stuck in the middle -- I like the shape; the 5-door is a bit frumpy but the 3-door is really gorgeous. Still, I just can't get used to the goggle-eye headlights and big chrome grille that afflicts adorns the Astra and other Saturn models. Got an opinion on the Astra's duds? Click the "comments" link below and share it with us. -- Aaron Gold
Photo © Aaron Gold
Can’t do much with the headlights, but the chrome grill bar would be easy to tone down by painting the chrome bar the same color as the darker bars.
I saw quite a few Astras on the road in Europe last October. Overall, they look good in person. Unfortunately the Euro version has the same tacky chrome bar except with an Opel emblem instead of the Saturn emblem.
Got a chance to test them here in Detroit during their customer preview tour. Was pleased to see it. Hope it does well for them. It would be nice if it were built here.
Could be a nice conquest vehicle for them. We didn’t get a lot of seat time and were limited to a large parking lot, but the feel was still like the European version.
I like the grill, headlights, and the look of most new Saturns. That said, at least now the debate is about subjectives rather than noisy engines, mismatched materials, and irrelevance to buyers with much better options like it was just two years ago.