Saturn Astra is TSN's Motoring 2008 Car of the Year

[ChevyOptra5]

Just finished watching Motoring 2008 on TSN (The Sports network - Canada) and they awarded their car of the year to the Saturn Astra, namely because the small car market is bigger in Canada. The Saturn Aura won overall last year and the Chevrolet Malibu won in the family sedan segment and beat out the Accord. The Malibu almost won the Overall Car of the Year. There is not really any information on the TSN website so i can't post a link.

[GMusa]

I love the looks of the Astra!! I would be alot more interested in it if it had more horsepower and AWD would be awesome for a RedLine model!

My sister is actually debating between the Astra 5-door or the new Focus.

[tholland]

Bill also picked the 2008 Silverado as truck of the year over the Tundra... Ironically, the winner was announced by handing a Silverado tailgate to Bill to reveal the winner.

Kenzie picked the Malibu, but the official pick from Graham was the Astra. He said the Malibu would have won except for that he believed the Astra was in a more important segment for Canadians, who tend to buy smaller cars. The Astra easily won it's segment for bringing the car over from Europe unchanged and for the many safety features that are standard.

The CTS narrowly missed winning it's segment finishing second to the Audi S5... although they said it was very close.

The Enclave was nominated in CUV > $60k but lost out to a Mercedes uhhh... whatever the number was.

repeats on TSN (Canada):

Monday, February 18 at 1:00am
Tuesday, February 19 at 1:00pm
Sunday, February 24 at 3:30am

BTW... toyota was shutout, Honda won 1 (I think) for the Accord coupe.

They never did publish their winners on their website for last year

[Stéphane Dumas]

Originally Posted by tholland

They never did publish their winners on their website for last year

Too bad, it could be interesting to compare it with Motorweek, Motor Trend, AJAC choices, etc....I wonder if someone had archived a list of Motoring's COTY winners to post it on Wikipedia?

[ChevyOptra5]

Originally Posted by Stéphane Dumas

Too bad, it could be interesting to compare it with Motorweek, Motor Trend, AJAC choices, etc....I wonder if someone had archived a list of Motoring's COTY winners to post it on Wikipedia?

During the episode they listed all the past winners from the past twenty years. I remember a few, i think the Pontiac Bonneville won in 1988, and I also saw the Oldsmobile Aurora, and Oldsmobile Intrigue. It is kind of ironic that other then the Astra this year and Aura last year that really, it was some Oldsmobiles that were actually somewhat competent enough to win car of the year for GM and yet, they were the first to get axed, what a shame.

[NoNameDenton]

Originally Posted by GMusa

I love the looks of the Astra!! I would be alot more interested in it if it had more horsepower and AWD would be awesome for a RedLine model!

My sister is actually debating between the Astra 5-door or the new Focus.

Astar is better, especially the interior, the Focus is gawd awful

[GM lover]

I am a little surprised the Astra won, it is a nice car but it does not have standard air conditioning and without air conditioning standard is it really a good value?

[ChevyOptra5]

Originally Posted by GM lover

I am a little surprised the Astra won, it is a nice car but it does not have standard air conditioning and without air conditioning standard is it really a good value?

I am a little surprised that A/C is not standard, but in the Astra's defense, it has a lot of other standard features some do not. ABS is standard, side airbags, cruisem telescopic steering etc. There are little things the Astra has others do not.

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

Originally Posted by ChevyOptra5

Just finished watching Motoring 2008 on TSN (The Sports network - Canada) and they awarded their car of the year to the Saturn Astra, namely because the small car market is bigger in Canada. The Saturn Aura won overall last year and the Chevrolet Malibu won in the family sedan segment and beat out the Accord. The Malibu almost won the Overall Car of the Year. There is not really any information on the TSN website so i can't post a link.

Yeah the whole thing was one Audi and General Motors love fest Those journalists they interviewed at the Detroit show had serious Malibooo lust...

maybe they confused the Chevy Malibu with the TV show Alerte a Malibu? (aka Baywatch, version francaise)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alerte_%C3%A0_Malibu

[hrcslam]

Originally Posted by GM lover

I am a little surprised the Astra won, it is a nice car but it does not have standard air conditioning and without air conditioning standard is it really a good value?

Mazda 3 doesn't have it standard either.

[jmiller417]

Originally Posted by hrcslam

Mazda 3 doesn't have it standard either.

For almost $1500 less, though.

[jwrebholz]

My Cavalier from SEVEN YEARS AGO had AC standard. Why doesn't the Astra?

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

Originally Posted by jwrebholz

My Cavalier from SEVEN YEARS AGO had AC standard. Why doesn't the Astra?

Cavaliers had standard A/C on the base model?

Who wants A/C, this is Canada I would be happy to not have to pay for it + $100 A/C tax + money to fix it if it stops working... and also have the extra mass of it carried around...

[YupYupYup]

The CTS narrowly missed winning it's segment finishing second to the Audi S5... although they said it was very close.

They couldn't give everything to GM. Or some companies would have temper tantrums and run off with their advertising dollars.

[logansowner]

Originally Posted by Smaart Aas Saabr

Cavaliers had standard A/C on the base model?

Who wants A/C, this is Canada I would be happy to not have to pay for it + $100 A/C tax + money to fix it if it stops working... and also have the extra mass of it carried around...

Well I don't know about Montreal, but here in Nova Scotia, we have something called spring, summer and fall, where i am damn glad to have A/C.