Review: 2007 Saturn almost great

[MileHiSky]

Review: 2007 Saturn almost great
By Jeff Rundles
ColoradoBiz Magazine
Article Last Updated: 02/07/2007 09:58:03 AM MST

I have always had high hopes for Saturn.

It is a General Motors division, and the only division in the company that doesn't trace its lineage back to the turn of the last century, or thereabouts.

Saturn was launched in the 1980s, and the whole idea of the line, made in Tennessee and other non-Michigan locales, was to copy the Japanese and bring moribund GM into the modern era of car manufacturing.

That never happened. The first - and second and third and fourth - generations of Saturns were really nothing more than Chevrolets with a different badge.

That pretty much summed up the problem: They weren't, as the stated goal had been, competing with the Japanese, but rather with the flagship brand of General Motors, Chevrolet.

In other words, what GM said it wanted Saturn to be was a line of cars that would steal buyers from Toyota and Honda and Nissan. It never did, as the continuing growth in marketshare by those Japanese-based lines attests to.

No, Saturn buyers were Chevrolet buyers hoping to find a better car than their Chevrolet, as they believed the marketing hype. Too bad.

[Superman]

LOL, the 'history' that article talks about with Saturn taking some customers from Chevy instead of the Japanese isn't too far off, but the writer makes it sound like that was the ONLY thing Saturn did. I mean, heck, Saturn's success at stealing people from the Japanese cars isn't the only factor in how well the Japanese cars sold. Fact is, Saturn DID steal a lot of people from ALL different brands other than GM. Problem is that Ford and Chrysler haven't been doing as hot either the last 10 years or so, so the Japanese companies are stealing from them too.

Silly writers have to look at the whole market. It isn't just GM vs the Japanese, lol.