CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Rules of Retirement Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts

Saturn Astra: Lost in translation

GM's new imported Saturn compact fails to make up in performance what it lacks in practicality.

In-convenience factors
In-convenience factors
Europeans don't believe in cupholders because they think drivers should be concentrating on the road, not their Diet Pepsi. Actually, Americans think the same thing, which is why we want someplace to put our Diet Pepsi while we're driving.

So GM spent a little cash on shoe-horning in those Yankee must-haves.

Up front, you get one cupholder. That's fine if you and your passenger are willing to share a beverage and one of you has fingers coming out of your elbow. That's because the lone cupholder is situated right between the seatbacks.

The angle of that seatback is adjusted using a huge, hard-to-reach knob situated on the outside of the seat. You have to squish your hand back there and twist... and twist... and twist to adjust the seat. It's more than awkward. It actually hurts a little.

Beyond cupholders and seat adjustments, the Astra lacks in the highly competitive "places to put things" department, a big bragging point for cars these days. If you're the sort who likes to stash stuff around the cabin, you'll find yourself reaching down to the floor a lot.

Last updated January 25 2008: 11:54 AM ET

Outline

Convenience

Controls

Drive

Run-down
First look: Dodge Challenger SRT8 Pictures of the 2008 Dodge Challenger are released early ahead of the car's official Chicago unveiling next month. (more)
Fast and high: First 'Vette ZR1 sells for $1 million Results from Barrett-Jackson's collector car auction include the first new Dodge Challenger, the first new Shelby GT500 KR and a giant car-eating robot dinosaur. (more)
New Malibu a game changer The redesigned 2008 Chevrolet Malibu is an American mid-sized sedan that can compete with the best. (more)
© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. Advertising Practices.
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.