GM May Build Astra in America– Probably Won't
What's with Bloomberg (and The Detroit News for carrying this story)? As GM prepares to unleash the imported Saturn Astra on the American hinterland [see: TTAC review], the financial news organization suggests that the model could be built stateside. Ostensibly, this is not new news. Unlike the case of the Australian Pontiac G8, GM has not backed away from its plan to test the American waters with the Astra, and then decide if sales volumes justify re-planting production in an American (Mexican?) plant. And in fact, it's not new news either. "We have to look at the volume and what prices are realistic," said Hans Demant, who heads GM's Adam Opel division, at a Handelsblatt automotive conference Tuesday in Frankfurt." So, is Bloomberg/Detroit News shilling for GM? (Perish the thought.) If there's anything else to be gleaned from this "news" report, it's that Demant put a number to the "let's do it stateside!" threshold: 250k U.S. Astras per annum. That would be 4807 per week, or 119 per day (with no time off for holidays). What are the chances?
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I give it 2 years and a lot of cash on the hood before they cancel this experiment. They will be lucky to sell a quarter of that target unless they are giving the cars away at an even bigger loss. Does anything in the Saturn line up sell that many units a year?
Hey, what's up with the hate on this car? Here in europe the C-segment cars are top sellers and are a reasonable compromise on size and utility. When I lived in the USA, to me, there was a complete lack of choice of small (for usa standards) cars. 5 door hatches with 5 speeds models can still be counted on your fingertips (Mazda3, Impreza...) Any extra choice is welcome! The only worry that I would have in building Astra models in the USA is what happened to the Ford Focus. Europe is a full cycle ahead, and the US gets the cheapified version.
Who is willing to bet a 6-pack that Astra will sell 250K per year?