All Cars, All the Time

PreVue To A Kill

Remember the Opel Antara GTC concept?

Here it is with a Saturn badge.


GM hints at the Saturn concept on its FastLane Blog:

First up is the new Saturn concept car – extremely cool. I can’t say any more until we unveil it tomorrow, Wednesday, April 12th.

I found this press release over at GM Inside News:

The Saturn PreVue crossover concept – revealed today at the New York International Auto Show – continues Saturn’s ongoing product revitalization and provides a glimpse of future Saturn vehicle designs. The three-door, four-wheel drive crossover offers a sporty interpretation of Saturn’s new design language and illustrates how it could be applied to a future version of Saturn’s highly successful Vue compact SUV. The PreVue was collaboratively developed with GM’s Opel brand and was seen as the Opel Antara GTC concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2005. The vehicle is part of the ongoing cooperation between the Saturn and Opel brands. "There is significant synergy between Opel and Saturn," said Jill Lajdziak, Saturn general manager. "Both brands play in similar market segments, have similar competitors and target similar customers in their respective regions."

Let's not forget that Saab version that we saw earlier ago over at Trollhattan Saab.

This is a sharp design no matter the badge. You can read AutoExpress' impressions of the concept by clicking here.

Badge engineering, you say? Here's what Bob Lutz wrote to Autoweek when they popped off about it:

The Opel GT (“Swiss Spotlight,” March 13) is not supposed to be different from the Saturn Sky. Far from being an emergency, last minute badge-job, as you imply, this is merely the first manifestation of our announced strategy of design and engineering sharing between Opel and Saturn. Going forward, Saturns and Opels will differ only in badge and perhaps some invisible regulatory compliance parts. The GT’s design was initiated in General Motors Europe (Vauxhall Lightning concept), refined for production feasibility in General Motors North America and intended from the outset to serve on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s an early example of the complementary, non-duplicative global product development strategy at work. Sadly, your writer could not resist the “sausage machine” cheap shot--Bob Lutz