2008 Saturn Astra 5-Door

The 2008 Saturn Astra is an all-new car to the American automotive landscape but has been offered for years in Europe under the Opel badge, where it's been giving the VW Golf a run for top-seller. With gas prices on the rise, Americans may have to trade in their big gas guzzlers and start looking at automobiles like the Astra. In Europe they have had $3.00/gal gasoline for a long time and have perfected the economy segment. The Astra comes in two body styles, there's a three-door version and the five-door version that I tested. This car was developed on European roadways where performance is measured more by how stable it is at high speed than how fast it accelerates away from an intersection. It further benefits from German design and engineering, where you can get small cars with the same quality as some big ones, and where finding a place to park or affording a fill-up is more important than having a large SUV.

The 1.8-liter engine in the Astra is not fast, but it is adequate for most mountain commutes and any city driving you would do, and that 4 cylinder engine is good on gas, routinely returning more than 30 mpg during my test drive. The five-speed manual I tested was perfect for coming up I-70 and the ride and cornering abilities didn't leave me wishing for more. The Astra is a front wheel drive car and with good snow tires it should do well in snowy and icy conditions in the foothills and front range. The Astra fits in the segment much like the Volkswagen Rabbit (Golf) and Mazda 3 in that it delivers in the area of fuel economy while feeling a little less like an economy car and more like premium small cars such as the Mini Cooper, BMW 1 Series or Audi A3. Pricing is very affordable with the 5-door I tested coming amply equipped and priced at $16,955.

The Astra is a good do-it-all kind of car: you can haul around a bunch of kids to the soccer game, run errands around town or cover the commute to town, and enough room to carry those home projects from Home Depot. An Astra holds four adults and has surprising cargo space hiding under that sloped rear end, and it's one of few small cars actually rated to tow something, in this case enough for a personal watercraft or two. The Saturn Astra could be the best small car ever to roll out of a Saturn dealership and is well worth considering.

Denis and his wife Jeanie live in Evergreen and own the Mountain Man Nut & Fruit store in Bergen Park.