Well maybe you liked it but we could not give them away. Nine out of Ten guests that looked at the car bought something else. Thats saying alot from a Saturn retaiIer that stayed in the top three for new car sales in the region the entire time it was open. It has no power, no armrest, no console, no cupholds. It does have right hand drive hvac placement. They do tend to grind coffee going into reverse. The dic looks like ms.dos. The 14to1 steering rack is real nice seeing most compact cars are in the 16 to 1 range. Gas mileage is nothing to write home about with that 1.8L engine, nor is a hatchback that the opening is to small to get anything into. Yep it’s a great looking little car that would be fun to run on an auto cross but most buyers were looking for a daily commuter that would haul large items home from SEARS. Base price for the Astra XR 3dr was $19,115 in 2008 while the base price for the 2007 ION-3 quad coupe was $16,000 and people could buy the ION-2 quad coupe starting at $13,300. The ION sedans were cheaper yet. A supercharged 2.0L ION Redline started at $19,900. GM knew Saturn was going away long before the Astra got here so they didn’t ready it for the US market and the sales prove it.
http://autos.nytimes.com/2007/Saturn/Ion/281/3252/282645/researchOverview.aspx
PS: A good used car it may be.
