Opel Insignia Wins 2009 European Car of the Year

In Europe the General Motors devision Opel has won the 2009 European Car of the Year with the new Insignia.  We'll be seeing this car in a few years in the states as the Saturn Aura and Chevy Malibu.  Why the wait?  Well GM is strapped for cash so they have decided to save some money by delaying the refresh of the American siblings.  GM is also doing this with the Chevy Cruise.  Delaying the Cruise which will replace the Cobalt made a bit of sense as a few months ago the Cobalt was selling like hot cakes.  Of course gas was at a all time high and financing was easy.  Then came the credit crunch and those who'd be in the market for an economy car usually don't have the best credit or any credit history making buying a car almost impossible.  So now GM had to halt production on the Cobalt and give it's factory workers a vacation.  You'd think GM would use this time off to retool the factories for the Cruise but I've yet to read anything like that.  So when credit eases and the economy starts to recover GM won't be any closer to releasing new cars like the Cruise and new versions of the Aura and Malibu.  On the other side Ford is moving full steam ahead introducing new versions of the Focus, Fusion and Taurus and is also retooling a few European Fords for the Mercury brand.  At least one car company will be ready when the economy tide shifts yet again.