Saturn Demise Might Be Saddest Of All

April 30, 2009

The demise of Pontiac has grabbed auto industry headlines over the past few days, but little has been said about GM’s abrupt change in plans for its Saturn Corp. Yesterday, the giant automaker said it no longer plans to build Saturns through the end of 2011. Instead, it will phase out Saturn at the end of the 2009 model year.

That’s sad. Those who recall the history of Saturn know that it grew out of GM’s desire to prove that an American automaker could produce small, reliable, affordable vehicles that could compete with those of foreign automakers. Early on, GM did its best to make that happen. It searched the world for the best ideas, poured money into advanced technology, built gigantic new manufacturing facilities, changed the sales experience, adopted new management practices, and essentially built a wall between Saturn and the rest of the company. In its commercials, Saturn called itself, “a different kind of car company.”

And in the beginning, Saturn really was different. In the 1992 J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Surveys, its vehicles ranked only behind luxury carmakers Lexus and Infiniti. The Saturn brand name quickly developed a reputation for reliability.

But if you’ve watched Consumer Reports’ ratings over the past few years, you’ve probably noticed a steady decline in the perceived reliability of Saturns. This year, the Saturn Vue, Sky and Outlook had “worse than average” ratings. Now, we hear the company’s vehicles will be phased out after this model year.

Obviously, Saturn now has the misfortune of being part of a company with monumental financial problems. But not long ago, many experts would have expected Saturn to be the last of GM’s divisions to fail.

I don’t know how or why that all changed, but the unfortunate bottom line is that America’s biggest automaker made its best attempt to build a so-called “import buster,” and ended up throwing in the towel within 20 years.

Posted by Charles Murray on April 30, 2009 | Comments (6)

July 22, 2009

In response to: Saturn Demise Might Be Saddest Of All
Tazman commented:

I think the death of Saturn is the fault of GM and the impact the UAW has on them. Spring Hill was the place to be for Saturn and where it should have stayed, but with the birth of the L series cars came the bad decision to move production outside of Spring Hill. I had an SC2 and loved every minute of the time I owned it. I purchased an L2 and regretted it to the point I said I would not own another Saturn unless it was made in Spring Hill, TN. At least there the were "A Different Kind of Car"

June 24, 2009

In response to: Saturn Demise Might Be Saddest Of All
oo commented:

www.flickr.com/photos/39039184@N08/3589500893/

June 3, 2009

In response to: Saturn Demise Might Be Saddest Of All
Kendall commented:

Sad indeed. I've got 2 Saturns and loved the entire Saturn experience. I never felt like I owned a GM car, and doubt I ever will. My 1997 SC2 has 209K miles and still runs great. My wife 2004 Ion has 84K miles and still looks and runs like a new car. They really were different, until GM brought them back into the fold.

May 25, 2009

In response to: Saturn Demise Might Be Saddest Of All
Brian commented:

Saturns stopped being Saturns years ago. GM failed to keep Saturn from being cloned like all other GM vehicles. Sad..so sad. I had a 91 Saturn for 13 years. GM - you failed miserably and you failed to keep your promise to have Saturn as a 'Different Kind of Car'

May 3, 2009

In response to: Saturn Demise Might Be Saddest Of All
Ron commented:

have had 7 saturns since they were offered. other than minor items they were trouble free, in fact just picked my 2009 vue last saturday. they made great vehicles, unfortunately gm never invested much in them to make them unique. it's a shame gm screwed up one of their better products.

April 30, 2009

In response to: Saturn Demise Might Be Saddest Of All
Steve Scheiber commented:

Like you, I lament the death of Saturn more than any other fallout from the recession-riddled American Car industry. I'll hang on to mine as long as I can. For awhile it really was "a different kind of car company." The attitudes of the employees and managers was to bend over backwards to help satisfy a customer. I bought my first Saturn in 1993, and although it died after 140,000 miles, it lived a long and fruitful life. My current 2002 (with manual everything except steering -- by my choice) is peppy and responsive, and still gets about 37 mpg on the highway. I believed in this effort when GM introduced the Saturn. No one but Saturn ever serviced either of my cars. It is the only GM car I have ever owned or would ever own. Since they won't be making them anymore, I'll have to resort to looking at the Toyotas and Hondas and their ilk.
More's the pity.

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