In late summer 2008 GMI broke news that the Saturn brand was on the chopping block. A few months later General Motors applied for government loans and confirmed that it was looking at "strategic options" for the Saturn brand. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago and GM announced that the Saturn brand will be dismantled or sold off by the end of this year. Saturn was intended on being GM's outlet for selling Opel products from Europe in North America. With Saturn gone, that leaves room for Buick to latch onto certain Opel products to expand its own lineup, and we're told the Astra is going to be one of them.
Its no surprise, rumors have been surfacing about Buick getting the Astra for some time now. GMI reported that it was under consideration several months ago. Late last week sources informed GMI, however, that the GM Product Board has approved the Astra for the North American Buick lineup. At this point the car has NOT been approved for Buick in China, that decision will be up to Shanghai GM.
Prior to Saturn's demise, the Astra had a lot of hype surrounding it as Saturn was going to get the all-new Astra in 2010 as a 2011 model. That car was going to be built in North America and was to be designed with the North American market in mind, unlike the 2008 Saturn Astra that GM imported from Belgium. GMI was told that the Buick "Astra" will either be built at GM's Lordstown, OH assembly plant or at their new San Luis Potosi, Mexico assembly plant. Production of the car will start in December 2011 as a 2012 model.
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