2009 opel insignia
The General's German brand saw the sign it needed to replace the aged Vectra, so they opened up their eyes — and came up with this — the new
2009 Opel Insignia. It's a new name, a new car and yes, a new badge for the brand preciously misspelled from the name of a gem and it's being revealed in July at the
London Motor Show. We're guessing Opel decided to drop this load of shots and details early due to, you know, all the leakage everywhere — both
manufactured,
silly and
otherwise. This new Vectra-replacing four-door will hit the market with a pickup truck-like selection of engine options and powertrains. Buyers of the new Insignia will be able to choose from seven different engines — four gasoline engines ranging from a four-banger 115 HP unit to a V6 with an output of 260 horses and three new direct-injection diesels displacing 2.0 liters and with outputs spanning from 110 to 160 HP. And when you're done choosing your
boring engines, you'll have a choice between either front-wheel or all-wheel drive. What else would we expect from a four-door that's 7.9 inches longer than the current Vectra and is built on the General's new globe-spanning Epsilon II platform. Of course we'd expect a variety of available options — this sculpted boat's going to need to play the role of like, every car in GM's multi-brand lineup. And that's why we should care about this new Euro sedan — because everything else with an Opel badge gets sent state-wide as a Saturn, so we're under the impression we'll be seeing this as the
2011 Saturn Aura. But the platform prostitution doesn't end there — the bones underneath will hold the skin and meat of the
2011 Pontiac G6 and the
2012 Chevy Malibu. Rumor is we'll also see it as the
2010 Buick LaCrosse and the
2010 Saab 9-3. Yes, that means the
2010 LaCrosse would
actually get an AWD platform — hmm, maybe there's some life in that old brand. Yeah, right. Full press release after the jump.
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Jalopnik
In 1989, it was increasingly clear a new revolution was coming to the truck market, but what shape it would take was still a mystery. With the staggering success of large body-on-frame SUVs and light trucks just a gleam in the eyes of automakers, GMs design team continued down the path of car-based pickups with the Chevy XT-2 Concept Truck. Although we now know car-based pickups and SUVs lost the battle to large SUVs shortly thereafter, it appears the XT-2, an essentially ignored concept here in the United States, may end up winning the design war.
