Sky on Cover of AutoWeek
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Sweet!!! I think I'll go pick that issue up on my way home then.mceb said:I left work early today, Saturn Sky was on the cover of this week's AutoWeek magazine. I'll bring it in tomorrow and scan but just thought I'd let you know in case anyone wants to stop at the book store on their way home tonight
::Off Topic::
You know MCEB, we might want to change our sigs for this forum.
Little summary of article...
Cover has Sky against a city back drop. Says '07 Saturn Sky, the general's boring car division gets sexy!
Article starts by talking about Saturn not ever winning the import wars but did win in customer relations. Lutz wants to add products to that formula so Saturn can "fly high".
Talks about all the standard stuff we know (specs). Mentions kappa as a "small Corvette chasis".
Mentions that other divisions still want a kappa (Sabb, Buick and Opel). Hope to one day produce 100,000 kappa across all lines. Lori Queen head of GM small cars says they are still "studying what other cars to build on kappa".
Sky's setup will be "firm enough for sporty driving but comfortable enough for simple cruising".
Text next to pictures says base price $24,900 (that's a little higher than we hoped).
Cover has Sky against a city back drop. Says '07 Saturn Sky, the general's boring car division gets sexy!
Article starts by talking about Saturn not ever winning the import wars but did win in customer relations. Lutz wants to add products to that formula so Saturn can "fly high".
Talks about all the standard stuff we know (specs). Mentions kappa as a "small Corvette chasis".
Mentions that other divisions still want a kappa (Sabb, Buick and Opel). Hope to one day produce 100,000 kappa across all lines. Lori Queen head of GM small cars says they are still "studying what other cars to build on kappa".
Sky's setup will be "firm enough for sporty driving but comfortable enough for simple cruising".
Text next to pictures says base price $24,900 (that's a little higher than we hoped).
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Yeah it is. But since official pricing hasn't come out, I'm hoping that's kinda high. Either that, or the Sky better come with almost ALL of the Solstice options.mceb said:Text next to pictures says base price $24,900 (that's a little higher than we hoped).
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MotorTrend however was there in the news stands, and had a 2 page article on the Sky. There was a small picture of it on the cover too. They listed $24,000 as the starting price. It also made mention that GM was working on some sort of Supercharged or uprated engine (guessing that means either HO or v/i-6), and would be available one year after the Sky comes out in early 2006.
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That's the article I had mentioned on Solsticeforum. I didn't type it all into the thread, but I did quote a good share of that article. Some good info in it on options breakdown, the potential f/i engine, etc.brentil said:
Here is a link to that thread for anyone interested in reading it.
http://www.solsticeforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1104
If true that's kind of what I was worried about. Some part of me thinks the 20k was blurted out by Lutz before they had the car built and GM now wishes they could get a few more bucks for it. Lutz seems to be holding them to his promise (recent Esquire article) but Sky is a new whole new game with a new promise (under 25k).brentil said:
Totally, mceb. Your comment made me wonder if perhaps GM isn't inflating the Sky's price to compensate for the Solstice's low (too low, from GM's perspective?) promised price of $20K. If you can't touch the Solstice's base price then jacking the Sky's price will help raise the average profit per Kappa.mceb said:
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Yeah, I'm with ho2go here. I hadn't thought about it that way. That GM might actually be making a loss or no real profit on these first year Solsti. That maybe, after this first year the Solstice will go up a $1K or two, and the Sky is a couple $1K higher not because it's upscale, but because Bob didn't force them to keep it at ~$20k.ho2go said:
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I agree that the Sky could be meant to bring in profit lost on the Sol's low base price.
I’d look for consistent price increases on the Sol for the first couple years. They could toss in some extra standard equipment to try and justify it, but its not going to stay down under $20K for too long.
Heck, that was a promise that started at the 2002 NAIAS when they were thinking of doing the Solstice on a modified Delta chassis. Having to develop its own chassis, the increase in steel costs since then, other manufacturing cost increases, etc would make it more difficult to meet that cost.
Even at the time in 2002 I thought it sounded cheap. As if it is meant to be a loss leader for brand image purposes. After they get their marketing mileage out of the low price, its going to go up. They probably can up it some and stay under the Miata too, just to retain the “cheapest roadster” title.
I’d look for consistent price increases on the Sol for the first couple years. They could toss in some extra standard equipment to try and justify it, but its not going to stay down under $20K for too long.
Heck, that was a promise that started at the 2002 NAIAS when they were thinking of doing the Solstice on a modified Delta chassis. Having to develop its own chassis, the increase in steel costs since then, other manufacturing cost increases, etc would make it more difficult to meet that cost.
Even at the time in 2002 I thought it sounded cheap. As if it is meant to be a loss leader for brand image purposes. After they get their marketing mileage out of the low price, its going to go up. They probably can up it some and stay under the Miata too, just to retain the “cheapest roadster” title.
One thing that worries me is that the article mentions the Sky will be "slightly softer" than the Solstice. Hopefully not too soft!mceb said:I left work early today, Saturn Sky was on the cover of this week's AutoWeek magazine. I'll bring it in tomorrow and scan but just thought I'd let you know in case anyone wants to stop at the book store on their way home tonight
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Well, since we know GM people read our forums, lets at least mentioned, to give the SKY an option that will give it the same ride as the Solstice. Called it sport suspension or firmer ride and put a price on it, this way people could have it either way. Are you listening GM?.ho2go said:
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Well they are using the exact same suspension parts on the Sky as they are on the Solstice. So you're more then likely not talking about a big gap in difference. The Sky is probably a little more forgiving then the Solstice due to small changes in the springs and shocks.ho2go said:
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