The final variation of the popular Opel Astra has been unveiled ahead of its official debut at next month’s Istanbul Motor Show. Sales of the new Astra sedan are likely to follow soon after in early 2007, and may even reach the US and Canada where it will be sold wearing Saturn badges as part of GM’s plan to integrate Saturn and Opel by 2014.
Built off GM’s Delta platform, the new sedan grows significantly over the previous model now up to 4618mm long, making it larger than the Vectra sedan that’s positioned above the Astra. Handling and the suspension tune for the entire Astra range is fine-tuned by Lotus, while several four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines ranging from 90hp to 140hp provide for lacklustre performance.
The sedan will be built alongside the wagon model at Opel’s Gliwice facility in Poland and is actually the slowest selling model in the Astra range, which does explain its late arrival.
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