Too few car buyers know, or care, what General Motors's import-fighting division, Saturn, has become. Efforts to move it slightly upmarket haven't worked so well, with the midsize Aura and crossover Outlook foundering in the market even as siblings like the Chevy Malibu and the Buick Enclave/GMC Acadia succeed.
Then there's the Astra compact, a car far superior to the Ion it marginally replaced. It's also significantly more expensive to both buyers and GM (Opel builds it in Ghent, Belgium), and it's not selling, either. Plus, Opel/Vauxhall has a new Astra coming for 2010, just three model years into the Saturn version. So it's time for a new entry-level Saturn.
Enter the second-generation Meriva, a kind of tall hatchback/MPV on the Gamma small-car platform (which it shares with the Corsa hatchback). GM previewed the next Meriva, due in Europe by next year, with a concept at Geneva last winter that featured production-ready suicide doors with a solid B-pillar.
If Saturn chooses the Meriva as an Astra replacement -- and why wouldn't it? -- the car would further distance Saturn from GM's other, more conventional North American division with a model that should appeal to import car intenders, of which there apparently aren't as many as GM had thought.