R.I.P. Saturn

a while back i started a "R.I.P. Pontiac" thread to lament the passing of a historic GM brand. my family drove a few pontiacs while i was growing up, and i drove one of the family pontiacs throughout college (and sold it for $500 at the end).

now, the car i drove throughout law school and a bit of time after, saturn, is folding up shop. :-(

i remain firmly convinced that the brand retains a decent amount of equity, and i am sad to see it go.

R.I.P. Saturn.

for ford owners concerned about future resale values, note that i've also driven fords, so it looks like ford's the next one to go.... :smile:

Saturns another great example of GM messing up a good idea.

"We should start a company that does things differently from how we do so we can see what works and learn from it."

"Hey, the comapny that does things differently is making money, and we're broke. We should bring them more in house so we can make more money off it."

"Hey, look! When we made the company that was doing things differently and making money start doing things our way, it stopped making money. Guess we should close it down."

"We need a bailout."

Brilliant.

speaking of doing things differently, the no-haggle pricing was a great thing (for me), and, whily corny as hell, the whole dealership showing up to sing a song thanking me for my purchase was fun/funny (it still makes me smile).

yeah, the car wasn't the best in the world, but it put a smile on my face.

My mother bought a Saturn SL2 in their 2nd or 3rd year of production (1993), and after my first car died, I inherited it and drove it for 6 years until I was able to sell it for $500 in 2005. I'll tell you this, that thing was an absolute tank in the snow. Driving from home in NH, to school in Ithaca, NY, to my girlfriend's school in Middlebury, VT and I only got stuck once (next to the Middlebury Snow Bowl), and that one time was more of a tire issue than a car issue.

We even went to one of the Saturn retreats when I was a kid (probably 94 or 95).

It's sad, but ctenidae is right, GM had a great vehicle brand and did their best to eff it up.

It is amazing that GM screwed up with this deal. The brand loyalty amongst many Saturn owners is very strong (my mother in-law is on her 4th one - a Hybrid Vue - since the early 90's). Who knows maybe with the deal falling through Penske (or some other group/firm) will buy up it's assets at an even further discount in the coming months and continue the brand (maybe under a different name).

Too bad about this, as Saturn (as well as a strong majority of GM models) are some well built and atleast to my eyes, quite stylistically appealing vehicles.

A couple of months ago Newsweek had an article about Saturn and it was titled, 'How Saturn was created to save GM, and how GM destroyed it'. And yes, that is exactly what happened! I've owned two and have not really had a problem. My 2004 VUE that I have has 115K.

After my BMW ownership nightmare on a 3 series I decided to try a domestic and bought my first new Saturn in 1995. I have owned 4 of them up until this year. They were quite dependable and rugged. I thought for sure I would be driving a 2009 VUE instead of the Subaru - as I was waiting in 2007 for the redesigned VUE to come out and get the kinks worked out of it. It never happened. In May of 2009 the closest Saturn dealers for me was Danbury, CT or Worcester, MA. If I wanted that type of drive I would have leased a Land Rover LR2, because they at least pick the car up from you and leave you a loaner when you need service under warranty / maintenance.

Good thing Subaru isn't going under. My legacy is the best! Best car i'v driven in snow

Screw Saturn, you won't be hearing me say R.I.P. about this once great division that got screwed. My family was one of those loyal Saturn families you always heard about. My folks got a 97 sedan and I learned in that car. I graduated college and got a 94 sedan used and drove it to 204k before the trany went and traded it up for a 99 coupe that is up to 155k and still kicking with barely any maintenance. My brother inherited my folks car and they got a new Ion which is when Saturn started to head south.

After being loyal to Saturn all their lives, my folks started taking the car to other mechanics because they did not trust their service department. That happened to me long before my folks but it was a shocker when it happened. Kind of like realizing a family member was screwing you. Then they changed the way they made their cars. Their best MPG car barely got 30 MPG recently, my 99 Coupe gets 35 sticker and 40+ in real life when I push it for low MPG. They went away from small economy cars with good MPG and became just another car, bigger is better mentality, and lost the plastic exterior. GM also axed their electronic car (see the DVD Who Killed the Electric Car for more on that issue) that was way ahead of its time.

Saturn has been a lame duck for a while. It is really sad what GM did to this company. I remember hearing about this new company when I was in the seventh grade, long before I was even thinking about getting my license, and thinking "wow, that is cool!" Now, I wouldn't touch a Saturn made in this century (I wouldn't be opposed to picking up a dirt cheap 90s model with low mileage in a pinch if I had too though).

Sorry if I sound bitter. It is a really sad story. They really had something special there for a while. But now? No one is going to miss Saturn as the company currently exists.

As I understand it, some joint venture is looking to bring in euro model Japanese cars and sell them through Saturn dealerships. Don't think that deal went through, but that was the game plan last I heard.

I think the new 2 door hatchback from them is a good design as is the sports car; what is it the sky?

deadheadskier said:

I think the new 2 door hatchback from them is a good design as is the sports car; what is it the sky?

Click to expand...

The Sky was their two passenger sports car. It was actually very well received and sold well and was critically praised. Probably the only thing Saturn got right this century and it was a limited quantity expensive sports car rather than their former staple and bread and butter. Nice touch but not enough to sustain a struggling division.

I actually think the L series is what started the downward spiral. It was the first Saturn that had steel panels - the front fenders, doors were polymer but the rear quarters were steel. The next disaster would be the CVT transmission that was the only automatic available for the 4 cylinder Saturn VUE. That was 2002. Look at forums about this gem of a tranny. It is nicknamed the self destructing transmission. The ION was blessed with this horrible transmission for a while. Oh, I forgot to mention the 3.0L V6 that was used in the 2002 -2004 and the 2000 and up to whenever they killed the L series off. This engine was known for head gasket issues and other items. It was an engine built in England and also used in the Cadillac Cratrera.

I think one wise thing GM did was to have Honda supply the 3.5 liter V6 / 5 speed automatic for the 2004 to 2007 Saturn VUE. You get the best of both worlds. A decent powertrain and a polymer paneled crossover!

The Sky was the same car as the Pontiac Solstice. Cool car, but apparently not enough to save either company.

Good call skijay regarding the L series. I thought of the L series as a needed addition to Saturn's line up when it came out but it was definitely the beginning of the end. The steel panels is such a silly thing for me to hold onto as a beef with the direction change of Saturn, but that ultimately was the beginning of the end of a "different kind of company and a different kind of car".

deadheadskier said:

I think the new 2 door hatchback from them is a good design as is the sports car; what is it the sky?

Click to expand...

The 2 door hatchback (the Astra) is actually a re-badged Opel.

And from all I've heard, not a bad car...

Opel is actually owned by GM's European division (for now anyway, but probably not for long).

-w

WJenness said:

Opel is actually owned by GM's European division (for now anyway, but probably not for long).

Click to expand...

exactly. with GM most likely ditching opel (which it has owned since 1929, btw), saturn will be out of product, so GM would need to start over with saturn (again). so, i can see why they'd shut it down at this point (but, as has been said many times in this thread, it never should have gotten to this point).

some saturn highlights (what's interesting to me is how many of the "highlights", in my mind, are the recent models....which came too late to save the brand after GM had screwed it up):


SL:



SC2:



S (the model (not the actual car) that i owned, from 1999):



Aura:



Sky:



Vue:



Astra:

What a relief.


By the title, I thought there was something wrong with the planet.

Marc said:

What a relief.


By the title, I thought there was something wrong with the planet.

Click to expand...

:uranus:

Bummer that this division went under. They had a really unique business model when they first started. I want to say even their assembly lines were run differently. But eventually, they were "absorbed" by the more traiditional ways of GM. Maybe things would have been different had Saturn been a completely stand alone company.

I used to own a red SC2. Bummer. Fun car. I drove that suker into the ground.

Nice to see Saturn getting some love. Never a Saturn fan myself, too many fit and finish issues for me, but a really great concept that kinda got forgotton about.