Recognizing a good thing - or at least a better thing - when it has one, General Motors is tossing aside the unloved U.S.-built Saturn Ion and bringing the Belgium-built Opel Astra over from Europe. Here in the states, it's being sold as the Saturn Astra.
In many ways, it's a win-win. American car buyers get a much improved product and GM saves, by its own estimate, nearly $1 billion in vehicle development costs. By keeping the name the same, they even saved the money they would have spent stamping out new name badges.
Of course, there are trade-offs for all those saved product development dollars. The Astra may be wonderful for Europeans, but there are a few things Americans are likely to balk at that the car's performance won''t make up for them.
