Flower Power Suxs !

[thedutchman]

thats old news

 

[Stokstert]

thats old news

I know that too, but it's still relevant to this thread of VW bashing.

 

[Gnome]

I know that too, but it's still relevant to this thread of VW bashing.

Who nominated the car as "World car of the year" anyway? I don't like how VW Golfs look and now that every tom, dick and harry are driving one, I want one even less.

And after the whole turbo fiasco I don't trust any of their turbo cars, now that I mention it, I don't even like cars with turbo's, they require far more maintenance and there are just so many extra components to fail, not to mention that turbo engines are FAR less forgiving than N/A motors. And looking at the N/A motors they have on offer (making less power than even a Corsa Lite engine) I think I'll rather take my business elsewhere, like Honda that actually build proper N/A engines (that outperform the Turbo counterparts from VW I might add).

 

[Rouxenator]

The world is a big place with mixed tastes.

VW is from Germany and that is European. The European car of the year is the Opel Insignia - that is the 3rd time Opel has won European COTY and while VW only managed to do it once with their gay Golf Mk3.

What you see here is what German cars are all about - good looks, reasonable performance, not too expensive :

Now that Opel is pretty much owned by Magna International perhaps we will see this model, or its successor in SA some day.

 

[Gnome]

Now that Opel is pretty much owned by Magna International perhaps we will see this model, or its successor in SA some day.

On wikipedia it says they are owned as follows: Sberbank of Russia (35%), Magna International (20%), and Opel employees (10%). GM is expected to keep a 35% minority stake.

Hopefully they can get that 35% GM stake down somehow.

 

[Stokstert]

Now Hitler will turn in his grave like a "woer woer". Sold out to the russians.

 

[d0b33]

[/CENTER]

What a sad attempt at making an audi.

 

[Rouxenator]

What a sad attempt at making an audi.

Actually Audi has been copying Opel all along - we just never had the Opels here that they copied from

 

[thedutchman]

Actually Audi has been copying Opel all along - we just never had the Opels here that they copied from

really ??

 

[Rouxenator]

really ??

Also - if this was an Audi copy then surely the "original" Audi would have won the Euro COTY award - but it did not face.

Opel is as close as you will get to a car that follows the landmarks of what a German car is all about. It is not too expensive, it has not overpriced itself due to internal brand competition, it has brought a lot of innovation to the industry and it did all of this while under increasing pressure from its holding company.

Keep in mind it is the oldest German company still making cars - that does say something about them.

 

[thedutchman]

well yah, and they are broke well opel does make a good car!

 

[2CentsWorth]

I hate hippies as much as anyone... probably more than all you hippie haters here put together.

But anyway, don't knock the beetle - it's a car that has served its purpose time and time again and it certainly was one of the most important automobiles in history. The Astra will not go down with that cred. Most people that drive an Astra wouldn't admit it right now either.

 

[Rouxenator]

Ofcourse the Astra will never be as famous as the Beetle. It might not even be as famous as the Golf, which came to the scene 12 years after the Astra.

It is one of those long term second/third place cars and for many people that is all they want. If you want something different from the mainstream but still as nice (sometimes nicer) then it is a good buy. Another often over looked car is the Hyundia Accent - it too has a pretty interesting history and they are built very good these days.

BTW, if you want to see a sweet Astra chase scene (and an awesome movie) check out Vantage Point - Astra H chasing badies in an Astra G.

 

[Stokstert]

Ofcourse the Astra will never be as famous as the Beetle. It might not even be as famous as the Golf, which came to the scene 12 years after the Astra.

Where did you get that history?

The Astra name originated with Vauxhall's 1979 model, though the car was designed and built a year earlier in Germany as an Opel Kadett.

Astra as Vauxhall

The Astra F debuted in 1991. With the Kadett E's successor, Opel adopted the Astra nameplate,

Astra as Opel

The original Holden Astra, introduced in August 1984 as the LB series was a badge engineered Nissan Pulsar.

Astra as Holden


The Volkswagen Golf is a hatchback / small family car manufactured by Volkswagen since 1974

Volkswagen Golf

 

[Gnome]

He is talking about the Opel Kadett, the name Kadett was used in some countries and the name Astra in others, the choice was then made to sell all cars as of the Kadett E as Opel Astra.

That is why the Opel Astra F is the first model, looking exactly like the Kadett E.

In 1992, GM Europe decided to standardise model names across its two brands, and Opel adopted sister company Vauxhall's name for the Kadett, Astra, for the replacement car which débuted that year, for Europe. Only in South Africa did the Kadett name continue on the first Opel Astra hatchback, until 1999, when all models took the Astra name.

The first Kadett was made in 1937: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Kadett

 

[Rouxenator]

You are forgetting that the Astra is the Vauxhall name that Opel adopted. The car is started out as the Kadett (we had them here in SA under that name also)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Kadett

Kadett A (1962–1965) Richard Hamond's Oliver from the Botswana challenge
Kadett B (1965–1973)
Kadett C (1973–1979)
Kadett D (1979–1984)
Kadett E (1984–1991) AKA as the Kadett Cub in SA and slightly modified into the Daewoo Cielo
Kadett/Astra F (1992–1998) In SA the hatchback was sold as Kadett and saloon as Astra
Astra G (1998-2004)
Astra H (2004-2009)
Astra I (2009-....) Not coming to SA under GMSA

 

[Rouxenator]

The first Kadett was made in 1937: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Kadett

Oh - yeah - I left out that one because it was not part of the current Kadett/Astra line that started back in '62.

 

[Stokstert]

So, now the Kadett becomes an Astra for convenience sake to win the argument.
Read your sentence again. "It might not even be as famous as the Golf, which came to the scene 12 years after the Astra."

 

[Rouxenator]

Well pardon me for not adding a /Kadett to that then
Still a much more humble and reliable car than the everyone-has-to-have-one Golf.

 

[Stokstert]