Saturn was Supposed To Save GM - Instead, GM crushed Saturn. Here's how.

Great article courtesy of cleanmpg.com:
How GM Crushed Saturn | Newsweek Business | Newsweek.com

I remember all the marketing, great image, enthusiasm in the first few years. Oh well...

Great article on why GM is badly in need of restructuring.

Good article. It makes me sad to see an opportunity like that wasted.

Tom

Good read. The time line in the article matches my personal experience with Saturn.

I bought a Saturn in '96 and it was one of the most fuel efficient cars available. They also claimed that it was 93% made in the USA, and they had outstanding customer service.

When I wanted a new car ten years later, there was no reason to even consider a Saturn.

In case the link disappear like the Super Car article, I converted it to PDF.

Mod: Please delete it if it violates any rule.

Classic GM scenario: Saturn engineers designed the first cars back in 1991 and they performed well, were inexpensive, and were a plus for GM. Then the company attempted to build a midsize car, called the L-series. GM engineers got ahold of the Opel design, screwed it up and the result was a car that had some major problems. Case in point: the rear-end alignment was so unpredictable that many buyers would toast a set of rear tires in as few as 8k miles. Then, there was no adjustment for it!

I believe this shows what is wrong with American cars and many other American products. Style over substance. They marketed the hell out of an inferior product. I saw this in an American company I worked for for 18 years. Eventually, it comes back to haunt you. It's haunting GM right now.

Hi All,

I really liked my SL2, but what GM did to it made it in the long run something I gladly sold when the stars aligned, and I got a 2006 Prius. Specifically, the blendo-flauge GM color pallet made it easy for two other GM driving drivers to smash into my car. The marble-like Firestone tires made it difficult for me to avoid these poor drivers even when I saw them if it happend to be raining. Prius Integrities are a big STEP up in comparison! And that damn center console - which used the standard DELCO radio designed for a car 2 foot wider thant he SL2 - was a disaster.

Change those three things, and the SL2 would be selling today! Saturn Customer Service is/was fantastic too. Better yet, add a low battery capacity BAS hybrid system, and you would have a real Insight figher.

Please remind me again why we are flushing billions of dollars down the toilet to save the clueless. GM is going to be the example of how not to do things in management textbooks for a long time to come.

Yup. Just like the Disney venture into EuroDisney. Management there had no clue either (I have an MBA).

The Saturn SC and SL models (before they started the L cars) actually had pretty good reliability in Consumer Reports back then. They were amongst the most reliable domestic cars.

Too bad GM couldn't keep that up and transfer that to all of the rest of their vehicles. I think they'd be in a lot better shape if they did that.

Not with Intel Corporation (INTC) i.e. “only the paranoid survives†mindset.

Orcale and BroadCom are still doing well.