Chevrolet quietly eyes its Saturn rival
Could there be some dissension among the General’s troops?
Apparently GM’s best
selling and strongest brand, Chevrolet, has been having issues with its plastic clad sibling, Saturn, for years.
Chevrolet dealers complain on the resources “wasted” on Saturn, which has been unprofitable for much of its
sixteen year life. They state that many of the the marque's new vehicles such as the Outlook (SUV) and Aura (sedan)
could easily wear Chevy badges. All of which continues to point to the fact that the General has yet to resolve
its chronic problems with brand identities.
But analysts point out that Saturn’s advantages —
high customer satisfaction and import conquests — are probably why GM is currently pouring millions of dollars
into the brand. Also, as GM learned from Oldsmobile, discontinuing a brand does not necessarily free up resources.
However, given that as Wagoner and friends have essentially moved Saturn into the brandspace occupied by the defunct
marque, it continues to beg the question: how will Saturn succeed where Olds failed? Autoblog's own Chris Paukert asked the question a year-and-a-half ago, and is
still waiting on GM's answer.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jamie 12:21PM (2/21/2006)
SATURN does have its own unique place in the GM line-up.
Chevrolet Cobalt goes after the mass market (ie. rental and fleet customers) and whoever else has a buck to spend.
But Saturn offers something completely different and separate from the GM mass marketed cars. Many customers refuse to be swayed by "Chevy rental cars", but they are completely captivated by the uniqueness of Saturn.
This is a good thing for GM:
- Customer awareness of the high quality of GM products.
- Customer satisfaction at both the dealer and service levels.
- Furthermore, the cars are all "head turners".
This is the direction GM should be heading with all its brands.
Saturn is a complete break from the main-stay GM corporate culture.
I say, Bravo!
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Sid 12:35PM (2/21/2006)
Maybe Chris Paukert forgot that it's two main upcoming vehicles havn't launched yet. Tell him to ask again AFTER the Aura and Sky have been out for a while. I also would like GM to bring the Vauxhall/Opel Astra 2-dr Hatch. It's an amazing vehcile with great looks and performance. Why should Mazda, VW and Honda have all the fun with fun hatches?
Heck, they could bring the Zafira over and have a great minivan to take on the Mazda5 and some of the Scion people-movers. The current GM mini-vans have all the charm of a cement wall.
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Sean Flanagan 12:48PM (2/21/2006)
jamie,
I couldn't agree more. Where Chevrolet may be the "best selling" GM brand, it only seems to accomplish this via the fleet sales and unnecessary number of models available. Profitable or not, Saturn right now is GM's truly strongest brand. The future only purports to be better for the Saturn product line with the importing of European models. To me, Saturn stands apart in GM and follows its own brand by offering high-quality affordable vehicles that do truly compete in the private buyer marketplace. Where Chevrolet is focused on sales figures and quantity, Saturn is focused on product and customer satisfaction. GM has begun transferring this same focus to Cadillac and Buick, enough to begin to separate both of those brands from the "GM stigma". Something tells me that Chevrolet will never follow this, as offering 20+ individual models (!), each with fleet gray cloth interiors, seems to have been the rule for quite some time.
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Stephane 12:51PM (2/21/2006)
Saturn Sky will be sold under the GM opel badge in Europe...
an i agree with Sid. I'd like to see more cooperation between Opel and Saturn.
Opel has a full range of small, well built products like the Astra and the Zafira indeed. But also a smaller hardtop roadster Tigra, a larger Vectra that was redisgned and which front now looks Saturn like... And the European look makes it a good choice when it comes to import conquest, differenciate it with Chevrolet and would help Opel/Vauxhall to become a global player
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JZeke 1:14PM (2/21/2006)
Its a shame that Saturn is pretty much a non-brand when it comes to enthusiasts. Im interested to see the impact the Sky and Aura will make in enthusiast circles.
Im aware of Saturn's attempt to make the "red-line" brand their performance division, but the current offering of products hardly foster real excitement.
However, as exciting as performance is to showroom traffic, I'd be more supportive of innovation in their design. The Ion is extremely unattractive to me, yet there was clearly an attempt to create innovative design details. GM could conceivably use Saturn as a test brand for some of the wilder ideas it might have up its sleeves, since after all not all cool car designs are purely horsepower and styling.
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GrowUp 1:41PM (2/21/2006)
I've little (actually, no) respect for whiners. That's what these Chevy dealers sound like to me. Instead of urging GM to axe in-house competition, how about using existing Chevy know-how and resources to produce competitive small car offerings?
Saturn isn't Chevy's problem. Chevy is Chevy's problem.
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rw 2:20PM (2/21/2006)
If I was a Chevy dealer and kept seeing all the its product go to Saturn I think it might make me a little upset. Don't forget Saturn dealers turn profit while the manufacturer never has. How would you like to be Chevy dealer and see the Tracker nee Equinox go to Saturn. How about the Uplander van going to Saturn? Don't forget that the great Roger Smith said the Saturn was going to be a Chevrolet then let the dealers write the franchise agreement for the new car. They were always short on product. What is the best way to give them product? Re-badge a Chevy and give it to Saturn. So if you had good product and kept seeing it going to other divisions would not frustrate you as a dealer? Suburban,Tahoe, Avalanche to Cadillac? Tahoe to GMC? Cobalt to Pontiac? Camaro to Pontiac? Hell about the only Chevy product they did not give away was the El Camino.
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mike 4:11PM (2/21/2006)
It is time for GM to update their auto emblems as part of repairing brand identity. chevy's antiquated gold colored emblem is tired and needs to be replaced with a more timeless silver design that speaks to GM's modern quality. Pontiac's brand emblem could use the same treatment. Buick can be left alone -It is dying anyway.
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Tom 6:06PM (2/21/2006)
Why would Chevy be envious of the ION?
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Tom 6:07PM (2/21/2006)
Why would Chevy be envious of the ION?
Having the ION in their line up is like being knocked unconscious, put in a weighted burlap bag and dropped in a deep, cold lake.
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United Artists 7:12PM (2/21/2006)
eh....oldsmobile...god rest its soul. but as for saturn i think that GM did a great job when the brand was first launched, but then GM started to slack off on it....alot...and now there in this situation. GM needs some sierous commitment and dertermination if they want to make saturn profitable.
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iQuack 8:29PM (2/21/2006)
Chevy was perceived as junk during the 1980s and a Chevy-branded car couldn't compete with Toyota and Honda. The Cavalier was OK, but a POS compared with its Japanese competition.
Saturn was created as a separate company without GM's culture, and the Saturn factory operated under a less burdensome UAW contract.
If the Chevy Cavalier had been a better car, there would not have been any need for GM to create Saturn; the Saturn SL was sized and priced almost the same as the Cavalier.
Now that Chevy is viewed as a better car, Saturn is redundant--especially after Saturn stultified its former good reputation by creating the grotesque ION.
Think about it: Does GM really need Chevy, Pontiac, and Saturn? I don't think so.
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Harry Murphy 9:55PM (2/21/2006)
From it's very beginnings, Saturn was the only American brand that could capture import intenders and serious value, [as opposed to price] buyers. Saturn offered fine, quality small cars, fairly priced, sold and serviced by the most user friendly retailers in the history of the automobile business. It was magic.
Saturn was never intended to rival Chevrolet in volume sales even as it grew. Nor was it ever intended that the two brands would be competitive with each other. Chevrolet simply does not have the credentials to compete with the likes of Honda, Mazda, Subaru, Volkswagen and Toyota. Saturn has those credentials and new products in the pipeline to do the job.
GM must avoid any obvious badge engineering between Chevrolet and Saturn and Saturn must quickly expand its useage of the opel/Vauxhall product lines to assure it's product independence from GM's American platforms.
Opel is a candy store for Saturn with micro vans, mini vans, mini hard top convertibles and mid size versions as well. there are terrific looking "hot hatches", entire really good looking hatch back lines and some really handsome performance station wagons.
As far as retailing these products, the possibilities are endless. Why not Saturn/Saab/Opel retailers all under one roof? Hey just a thought.
GM has a potential huge winner on it's hands in Saturn, much of which is already in place. And the rest is clearly in sight. So hey General, what are you waiting for?
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donald douglas 11:05PM (2/21/2006)
hey rw you are wrong chevy gave away the el camino also to gmc....
http://trucks.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=trucks&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chevelles.com%2Fsprint%2F
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donald douglas 11:49PM (2/21/2006)
http://www.thebiglot.com/ad_auto.asp?WI=879342308&MK=GMC&MD=CABALLERO&PN=1&AT=1&
and later in life it was called (sick) caballero
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iQuack 12:42AM (2/22/2006)
"Chevrolet simply does not have the credentials to compete with the likes of Honda, Mazda, Subaru, Volkswagen and Toyota. Saturn has those credentials and new products in the pipeline to do the job."
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The above comment is well meaning, but ridiculous. Chevy and Saturn are owned by the same company, so all the "credentials" are there.
If Chevy had been the car that it was supposed to be 20 years ago, there would be no need for Saturn at all.
GM has too many brands in relation to its sales volume. Some brand should be dropped and the remaining brands strengthened.
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Richard Warren 7:18AM (2/22/2006)
Simple equation:
Saturn about 13,000 cars per quarter sales
Chevy about 220,000 vehicle sales per quarter
Average loss per year from Saturn since inception 13 billion
All that, and a car to fight imports, brought to market too late with too little content to make the difference, still in production when other divisions sold more product, including Olds.
All the pipe dream of one man Roger Smith.
Chevy is 100% right, if you go back and look at what happened to the divisions financially from when Saturn came on line they were stripped of resourses for product and rebadge technology went to full swing.
It's a waste, has been a waste, will continue to be a waste.
It's a car for the afraidd of walking into a dealership and warm fuzzy feelings, most of which has gone.
Roger Smith, I want your retirement, all your bonus and salary back and have you homeless for the damage you did that is still being paid for.
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Big Matt 1:10PM (2/22/2006)
Why does GM need all these brands anyway? Why not model itself after the imports.
Saturn = Scion (but can we lose the plastic body panel already and just use the great styling of the Opels)
Chevy = Toyota
Cadillac = Lexus
Buick - Buh bye (brand recognition gone too far. Why make all the cars look like the same ugly car?)
GMC - Buh bye (not sure why they exist anyway)
Pontiac - Buh bye (Bonneville... 'nuf said)
Does it really make sense to make the same car/truck for three or four different brands? Not to me...
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Harry Murphy 8:09PM (2/22/2006)
Wake up and smell the coffee. Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet ain't credentials to import intenders that GM wants to capture. The highest levels of customer sales and service satisfaction are and now that Saturn has some truly hot products on the way and the strong possibility of some of Opel's best to fill in the gaps, saturn is GM's best shot at making some significant import conversions.
Let Chevy concentrate on fleet sales, Trucks, Big suvs, big cars and now european export sales and born again dawoos and lest we forget, cameros and other revived muscle cars. I'd love to see an El Camino and some other Chevys of the baseball, hotdogs, apple pie generation, yeah, hows about some big swoopy 5 passanger convertibles too. WHY NOT?
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Harry Murphy 1:32PM (2/24/2006)
Render unto Chevrolet those things which are chevrolet's And unto Saturn those things which are Saturn's.
Then and only then will the general have the strenght to hold back the Toyota hordes from the #1 gates.
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