Thursday 15 September 2011

OPEL SENDING ASTRA GTC AND MERIVA TO JIMS 2011


Opel is bringing out some of its toughest guns to the battlefield known as the 2011 Johannesburg International Motor Show (JIMS) to be held at NASREC next month. The one, a sure fire spitter, is the Astra GTC which was first detailed in June this year. The other is a guaranteed family pleaser by the name of Meriva.


GTC is shoved forward by a 2.0-litre turbo unit shifting out measured doses of power to the tune of 213kW, which is 36kW more than the old Astra OPC. Both front wheels are encouraged by a 6-speed manual trick expected to give the car a claimed 0 – 100km/h time of just below the 6 second mark.

Meriva on the other hand, is quite the opposite. Produced for the small family, the baby MPV should be one of the most versatile cars on display at the show. The previous one certainly was. What we liked the most about General Motors’ statement though came out of marketing head Malcolm Gauld who said:

“Opel has a specific role to play in the GMSA product line-up. It gives us an extra edge that caters for buyers with a preference for a vehicle with true European fashion and flair. The Opel brand holds great appeal for many South Africans. It also provides us with the opportunity to cater for the performance-oriented buyer by offering OPC high-performance variants in all the main product lines.”

That last sentence gives us pairs and pairs of happy right feet as we look forward to JIMS and of course the highly promising year of 2012.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hot like fire! !