A new car for an almost-new company, the 2010 Opel Astra, will go on sale in late 2009.
Think of the 2010 Opel Astra as a new car for a new company. Well, almost, but the German maker’s 10th-generation compact car will make its debut just as General Motors sells off a controlling stake in its once-formidable European subsidiary,
The sale, which will transfer a 65% stake in Opel to the Canadian supplier, Magna, and Opel’s union workers, dominated the maker’s news conference at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, but for those who looked a little closer, there was other news to be found at the Frankfurt Messe.
The Astra would be a critical product, no matter who owned Opel, considering the compact line accounts for a third of the German maker’s sales volume. Opel is betting that the updated hatchback, shown in Frankfurt, will help pull the company out of its worsening financial situation.
Like a number of other new models debuting in Frankfurt, Opel designers opted for a coupe-like roofline for the hatchback Astra. It gives the vehicle both a more dynamic, and more sensual appearance, and adds a family resemblance to Opel’s new, top-line model, the Insignia.
“In many ways, it’s a smaller Insignia,” suggested Opel CEO Carl-Peter Forster.
The 2010 Opel Astra will be loaded with an array of what Forster calls :high-tech features with a practical use.” That includes the new Flex-Ride Mechatronic suspension, which can quickly be switched between sport and tour modes. The novel Adaptive Front Lights can switch – at times automatically – between nine different lighting modes, including cornering lighting.
And the new Opel Eye is a camera-based system that watches for both lane markers and highway warning signs. Drift out of your lane and it will nudge you back. It also will advise a motorist in a no-passing zone and spot other warnings, such as reduced speed limits.
The 2010 Opel Astra will debut later this year and carry a European base price equivalent to around $22,500.
Additional versions, starting with a “Sport Tourer” wagon, and later, a 3-door, “are in the works,” hinted Forster.