Lmao, yeah, Saturn rebadged the Opel Astra, brought it up to US-spec and promptly totally ruined the car, lmao. Softening the suspension for those fat Yankee bellies didn't help the handling. Hilarity.
Rebadging is super-gay anyway, and it serves them right to get bit in the ass for it.
While I've never seen an American-rebadged version of an import
looking better than the original, a lot of the products they rebadge end up being better than anything they could've made at the time. Just think back:
Eagle Talon = Mitsubishi Eclipse
Dodge Stealth = Mitsubishi 3000GT
Pontiac GTO = Holden Monaro
Pontiac G8 = Holden Commodore
etc.
I'd rather see those than any of the craptastic "efforts" of most of those companies in the same price range. The U.S. makes a few decent cars, but for the most part, their products are embarrassing from an enthusiast's perspective. Rebadging is one of the smarter options that U.S. companies have... that is, when they're not rebadging their own shit over and over again (i.e., Dodge Caravan = Chrysler Minivan = Plymouth Voyager, Ford Explorer = Mercury Mountaineer, Chevy Avalanche = Cadillac Escalade, etc.).