Sibling Rivalry: Ampera Vs. Volt

Thingsare looking up for the 2012 European Car of the year, Despite Delays theChevrolet Volt’s Sister Car the Opel Ampera is selling pretty well, themajority of current owners have traded in higher end cars like BMWs, Audis andBenzes, and this year’s Ampera orders have already come very close the numberof Volts sold in America last year, with over 7,000. And with 8 months left inthe year it seems very likely that the Ampera will at least meet the new salesgoal of 10,000 units. This could be because Europeans are more open to the Ideaof an electric car, but I think styling could play a bigger factor in thesales. The Volt and the Ampera are somewhat pricey, and rightfully so, they areboth engineering masterpieces, but the Ampera’s styling is considerably bolder,a further departure from the ICE cars, which is a very good thing in myopinion, because the people with money to spare who are looking into, say anAudi, might find the bolder look more appealing and may be more inclined topurchase an Ampera, than say a Volt, because it has the distinctive look of a car that doesn’t use gasoline. So bring on the ELR!

Just thought I’d put thatout there, It could also be that they don’t have politicians attacking it, anddestroying their own industry, but Volt sales here are slowly picking up aswell, what do you all think? Let me know in the comments.

2013 Opel Astra MCE

Recent spy shots have given us a strong hint as to what Opel has in store for us in the upcoming Astra refresh.

The Astra will get a new Corsa inspires front fascia with a larger smile, new projector style foglamps sporting chrome accents, a new grille with a slimmer chrome bar that curls up at each end. The bumper itself is much less defined, and while it looks a great deal more like the Corsa, which I think is a very smart looking subcompact, I think I actually prefer the old Astra’s muscular creases.
The new rear bumper actually looks less like the Corsa, the license plate cove is redesigned to have more harmony with the lower bodywork, and a chrome spear has been affixed to the body crease.
You don’t really notice these changes until the cars are next to eachother, and it really doesn’t make too much of a difference to me anyway. If it ever does come to the US the front end at least would most likely be completely redesigned, which brings me to the same rant I give every time I talk about the Astra, Dear GM let us buy this car! You already build a version in China, the Buick Excelle Xt, and we have the Astra’s Sedan Counterpart here already, and sales of the Verano have been great so why not capitalize on that and add variants, I would love to be able to buy one of these, give Buick a competitor to the high end golfs GTIs, it makes perfect sense, yet we still can’t get it here. Head over to World Car Fans to see the Photos!
http://www.worldcarfans.com/112031942525/2013-opel-astra-facelift-spied-undisguised/photos