A somewhat European flavor has been added to the 2008 Saturn Astra as it has been equipped with a lot of safety features and standard equipment, coupled with a notable fuel economy and sporty performance. This model comes in three-door and five-door versions, both supported by a European-bred suspension that offers drivers with great handling ability because of it being sharp and responsive.

The powertrain propelling the 2008 Saturn Astra is a 1.8-liter Ecotec four-cylinder engine. This is quite a notable engine as it is energetic and economical as well. It also delivers an impressive maximum power output of 140 horsepower.

Saturn’s General Manager, Jill Lajdziak, said, “In Europe, the Astra’s combination of style, performance, safety technology and fuel efficiency have made it a hit with owners and auto critics alike. Now, Saturn brings the newly restyled Astra to North America and marries it with our celebrated customer experience.”

The standard engine of the 2008 Saturn Astra makes use of valve timing in order to optimize both economy and power with its impressive 10 horsepower and 126 pound-feet of torque.

There are a lot of notable and innovative features making up the beauty and performance of the Saturn Astra. These goodies include two continuously variable camshafts, a map-controlled thermostat, and a highly effective oil/water heat exchanger. Aside from that, one can also find a deep-drawn exhaust manifold which fits in a catalytic converter and a two-step intake manifold. This intake manifold makes use of rotary sleeve rather than the conventional flaps to activate the transition between low revolutions per minute (rpm) and high-rpm airflow. This allows the reduction of the flow loss for optimal performance.

The standard gearbox connected to the 1.8-liter Ecotec engine is a five-speed manual transmission which assists the Astra in achieving a great fuel economy. But there’s also an Aisin electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission available. This type of gearbox is well-known for allowing the smooth shifting of gears and having low noise and high durability.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 8:11 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.