[rogobuck]

The new issue or Wards Auto World has an article about the 2005 NAIAS and a couple of paragraphs about the Sky. The best information though, was in their daily e-mail update for today. Because of copyright infringement, I cannot post the whole article, but here are some of the better excerpts from it:


"Saturn Corp.'s upcoming Sky roadster, unveiled at January's North American International Auto Show in Detroit, is expected to pull in buyers to the Saturn brand but not make money for General Motors Corp., CEO Rick Wagoner says."

"Sky, whose projected sales are 10,000 per year",

"Phillippi gives the modern-looking Sky a better shot. It is built from the same architecture as the Pontiac Solstice roadster that is due this year as an '06 model, spreading development costs among two models. GM forecasts combined sales of 30,000 per year and plans to produce a third car, to be sold in Europe under the Opel/Vauxhall brand, off the Kappa platform."

"both it and the Solstice are expected to be priced near $20,000."

"As long as Solstice and Sky live up to the promise of inexpensive, fun to drive cars, GM has the potential to reprise the (Mazda) Miata 15 years later," Phillippi says.

"The important thing about Solstice and Sky is that they look terrific and don't over promise," Phillippi says. "Sure they'd be happy to sell more, but by keeping production limited they protect the image as well as the
price."

 

[mceb]

Interesting, 1/2 as many Skys. Not sure what to make of that.

 

[brentil]

Awesome, thanks for the information.
As I mentioned on the Solstice boards, it seems kinda odd they expect to sell twice as many Solsti as Sky.

Hmmm, something jsut doned on me. Maybe these values are for the Solstice on sale from June 2005 to Dec 2006 as a 2006 model, but the Sky is only for it's "early 2006" release to Dec 2006.

 

[LatinVenom]

"both it and the Solstice are expected to be priced near $20,000."
This just does not make sense, since at the NAIAS I thought the quoted intro price was about $25K. I know that price is with a lot of standard features that are options on the Solstice, but then this means you could not order a SKY without them, since they are standard and not optional.
So I can buy a $20K Solstice but I can not buy a $20K SKY.

 

[rogobuck]

The way I read the information in the article, the production numbers are annually, so that would rule out the extended model year on the Solstice and the shorter model year on the Sky. As for the prices of both being around $20000, The Solstice could list for $19999, and the Sky could list for $24999, and both be considered to be around $20000 in the thinking of corporate bean counters.

 

[rogobuck]

Interesting, 1/2 as many Skys. Not sure what to make of that.

I think that the Sky is being thought of as a true halo vehicle, something to generate excitement in the brand so once you are in the dealership they can sell you another one of their products. I think that if the Sky is going to be limited to only 10,000 units, it will wind up in more garages as a "future classic" than out on the road.
I think the Solstice has this "assignment" for the Pontiac Division also, but I also think that the thought is part of their overall scheme of "putting the excitement back into driving". Hopefully Pontiac will use it to their fullest advantage and make it a fun driving machine.

 

[mceb]

"both it and the Solstice are expected to be priced near $20,000."
This just does not make sense, since at the NAIAS I thought the quoted intro price was about $25K. I know that price is with a lot of standard features that are options on the Solstice, but then this means you could not order a SKY without them, since they are standard and not optional.
So I can buy a $20K Solstice but I can not buy a $20K SKY.

I think this was a mistake in the article, Sky is clearly being positioned as "under 25k" not 20k. Only other thing is could mean is stripped both cars are 20k in cost but Sky seems like it won't be offered that way (from all indications).

Also on the 10,000 units, I posed the question on SolsticeForum if the Saturn dealership network is smaller than Pontiac, less stores = less sales? Just a thought.

 

[ho2go]

"Sky roadster...is expected to pull in buyers to the Saturn brand but not make money for General Motors Corp., CEO Rick Wagoner says."

"The important thing about Solstice and Sky is that they look terrific and don't over promise," Phillippi says. "Sure they'd be happy to sell more, but by keeping production limited they protect the image as well as the price."

This is welcome news to me, that GM still seems "in sync" with the car's initial mission statement. Perhaps feature creep in later model years or generations (as was discussed in several Solstice Forum threads) won't be so much of a problem since GM seems intent on preserving the car's core values.

Kudos to GM for the unified product direction - I think it is the MAIN factor that will make the Kappa cars a success. It is no small feat to get everyone (development teams, marketing people, upper management, etc.) on board and aiming for the same target from inception to sales & beyond.

I think the Kappa cars' impending success (purely my own speculation) will really show GM that this is the right way to approach auto development. Hopefully this mentality will trickle down (trickle up?) to all their other vehicles.

 

[LatinVenom]

I think this was a mistake in the article, Sky is clearly being positioned as "under 25k" not 20k. Only other thing is could mean is stripped both cars are 20k in cost but Sky seems like it won't be offered that way (from all indications).

Also on the 10,000 units, I posed the question on SolsticeForum if the Saturn dealership network is smaller than Pontiac, less stores = less sales? Just a thought.

I think you are right on target with that thought about the Saturn Dealership numbers, an example, in my home town ther are 4 Pontiac dealers within a 15 mile radius, but only 1 Saturn Dealer and compare to the size of the other 4 Pontiac dealerships is kind of small.