We didn’t go to Germany’s Black Forest to road test the 2008 Saturn Astra 5-door XR but it would have made perfect sense. The Saturn Astra is an Opel Astra imported and fitted with a Saturn badge.
It’s legitimate, as such things go. Opel is General Motor’s European subsidiary…has been since the ‘30s actually…and going the other way, Opel gets its own version of the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky, dubbed the Opel GT (which should stir a few automotive enthusiasts who were around in the early seventies).

But the Astra is an interesting combination, a true automotive polyglot. The car’s final assembly in Belgium, its engine is made in Hungary and the automatic transmission in our tester made in Japan. As Walt Disney said, it’s a small world after all.

Is it a big enough place, however, for this automobile that made its visit to the melting pot before, as Neil Diamond might say, comging to America?

See what we have to say by reading our review of the 2008 Saturn Astra 5-door XR, and don’t forget the carbuzzard.com RoadSkill Report from our new and evolving video department.