Why do we need all this equipment? I swear most people who buy one of these will use it like they use 99% of all their other technology. They will use 5% of the features it comes with and never ever use the rest.

Features I need on a car interior include: steering wheel, 3 pedal arrangement, 4 seats, temp controls, manual transmission, wipers, lights, instrument cluster, cd player, radio, volume adjustment and an e-brake. And maaaaaybe buttons on the steering for volume control, if only for safety. The end.

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Understand that I am not yet in the market for ANY vehicle, as I am just too damn broke right now, but, were it in the same price range as a used GTO, it would be potential alternative.

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Read the archives at www.autoextremist.com and you'll see what I mean - it was all about the marketing dollars, or lack thereof, that GM had to spend on new products.

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The European Focus has indeed done well, but say what you will, it, like the Cruze, is not here in the US. Erego, it is a mute argument. Also, the US market is very much different from the US market. A fully-specced European Ford Focus can scrape the $30k mark. Historically, Americans have not demonstrated a whole lot of inclination to spend that kind of money on a compact, when they can get an equivalently equipped midsize for about the same amount of money. The Mini is the one outlier, and then only because it is perceived as a premium brand. Ford is not.

Additionally, you fail to take into account a number of economic factors that come into play as well, not the least of which is the unfavorable exchange rate that the US dollar has against the Euro, making it more expensive to import cars built in Europe, and that added cost generally gets passed directly to the consumer. Then there is apparently also this little "recession" that we are dealing with, too, which has a huge effect on whether or not people are even willing to buy cars.

The end point is that there is a lot more to the context of the situation than you are not taking into account.

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Thus, I am planning my future move to Europe as we speak. . .

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Don't ask why, as no one really has a satisfactory answer.

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Now, tell me that an Astra as a Cobalt replacement, and whatever else they have replacing whatever crap Chevy is selling wouldn't go well head-to-head with the Fiesta/Focus whatever else Ford brings?

Don't get me wrong, as a life-long Blue Oval fanatic, I'm happy to see GM go down in a mess...

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Correct about the L-Series and the Catera.

The current Astra is already here. So is the Vue, which is also an Opel product. Both are excellent vehicles, and there is no denying it. The problem with the Astra is that it is too expensive for its class as a result of the poor economic conversion from importing it. As a result, it isn't a strong seller, given that you can have an equally good Golf or Mazda3 for less money.

The current Vue is also known as the Opel Antara. While it does not suffer from the same cost issue per se that the Astra does as a result of the poor economic conversion, it does, quite simply, suffer from being badged as a Saturn. The current Saturn lineup is full of great vehicles, but the problem is that Saturns are historically known for somewhat crappy vehicles, including the SL/SW/SC, Ion, first-gen Vue, and the L-Series being exemplary of that reputation.

Saturn simply could not overcome that reputation quickly enough, no matter how good their new lineup is. In addition to their reputation, they also began to abandon their target audience and their original operational philosophy in favor of slowly pricing the brand into Acura territory, which directly competed with Buick.

The end result is that the new Saturn lineup sold poorly, and could not justify its continued existence as a result of the attempt to move away from their original target audience and their original operational philosophy. The financiapocalypse and the resulting carpocalypse also played a significant role.

Thusly, Saturn is dead.

It had nothing to do with their current lineup of vehicles brought over from Europe (specifically Opel), which is excellent, and everything to do with poor economic conditions, poor historic reputation, and poor brand identity management.

And, as an aside, I say this as a Saturn owner: Saturn is dead. Time to let it go.

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But I say that there is a lot of life left in re-badged Opel products as mainstream Chevy's.

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Clearly you only read the last sentence of my previous comment, so allow me to paraphrase it for you: given (among many other things) the unfavorable exchange rate against the Euro that the Dollar is currently experiencing, it costs a lot more money to import vehicles that are made in Europe to the US. That cost gets passed to the consumer, which would price the cars outside of their target market.

So, no, at present, there isn't a whole lot of life left in Opel products as far as US importing is concerned.

If production is set up in North America to begin with, there might be a chance, like Ford with its Fiesta, but otherwise, no.

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I wanted one, until I drove it and priced out the competition.

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I could take-or-leave the Cobalt name, but I think they have room to improve whatever they offer in this segment.

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