The Saturn Aura is about to become obsolete. GM's European wing has officially leaked photos of disguised Opel Insignias on test. Insignia replaces the Vectra, which is the Aura's donor car. The Insignia will be revealed at the London Motor Show on July 22.
Insignia is the first car on GM's new global Epsilon platform, which provides replacements for the Chevy Malibu and Pontiac G6, Saab's 9-3 and 9-5, Cadillac BLS sedan/BLT wagon in Europe, a Korean-built car sold as a Suzuki, a Holden in Australia and the next-generation Buick LaCrosse.
"All of these cars will be radically different from each other but they will all use common engineering solutions," Bob Lutz told us at Geneva. "They're going to be so different in aesthetics and driving characteristics, so it's not one car dressed up in different ways. The exception is 'lookshares' [Saturn/Opel/Vauxhall] - we save one division's worth of engineering and since they're on different continents nobody ever says 'Gee, why does my Saturn look like an Opel.
"The Opel Vectra and Saab 9-3 will share basic underpinnings. We can get vast differences by how we do the suspension. There will be different levels of suspension for every architecture: a very basic one, a medium and a super-premium suspension. And beyond that you can do a lot with tuning, and you can dial in different steering feel and brake feel, and NVH and change the ergonomics and driver-steering wheel relationship. And for Saab you can use different powertrains, especially turbos and biofuel. The new Saabs will be the most Saab-like Saabs in the past 30 to 40 years."
The Insignia/Aura is characterized by a sloping, almost coupe-like roofline. The hatchback will be the big seller in Europe, though Saturn will do best with its sedan. Drive systems will include GM's new 'next-generation hybrid' announced at Geneva. This relatively low-cost system uses a belt-driven starter-alternator, but can still perform regenerative braking and uses an advanced Li-ion battery.