Saturn fanboys trying to save brand with petition
Actually, to be more precise, www.saturnfans.com wants more than just the preservation of the Saturn brand. The Web site hopes to garner enough signatures to convince Wagoner & Company to keep Saturn in the General Motors stable.
It seems a bit odd to be asking GM to keep a brand it hasn't exactly showered with love. Bob Lutz has even said the company considered killing it off before the latest crisis.
But as we've reported, dumping the brand could cost GM at least $3 million for each Saturn dealership. And with no original products, it's hard to imagine many corporations lined up to bid on essentially nothing more than a Saturn logo and a dealership network.
Saturn owes much of its success to a grassroots network of devoted fans who, at one time, congregated in Smyrna, Tenn. for yearly homecomings. Maybe a fan-based surge of support for the brand is what GM needs to revive Saturn as more than just a division of re-badged Opals. Thanks for the tip, everyone!
Gallery: 2009 Saturn Line-up
[Source: Saturn Fans]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Justin 10:37AM (12/11/2008)
It's funny because I see Saturn as an actually viable brand. Yes, it needs some help, but having a reputation of affordable and small is something that seems to be a coming trend.
Keep bringing some of those nice Euro models over and they may be on to something.
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Motor_Yakuza 10:50AM (12/11/2008)
Saturn it's useless, kill it and import Ope(they are the same cars with other badge), that will be a very smart move for GM, if they want to make profit.
MUSASHI66 11:17AM (12/11/2008)
I don't think that Saturn has any small and affordable cars. Astra and Aura cost as much or more than the competition. They can easily import Astra as Chevy and kill Aura because Malibu and G6 might be enough (although Aura is pretty)
jay 11:58AM (12/11/2008)
I agree, I'm surprised to see them dump Saturn. I wouldn't buy one. But I'd be less embarrassed to be seen in a Saturn than a Chevy or Buick, 2 brands they are keeping. Buick has the old-man stigma, Chevy has the poor-white-trash stigma. Saturn carries no baggage for me.
Ligor 12:03PM (12/11/2008)
Saturn shoud just die, together with pontiac
how can Saturn be known for reliable and small cars - they used exactly the same crap that was found on all GM cars, so they were just as bad as Chevy.
Now with the new revised Malibu and the lambada's, and of course Cadillac, seems like GM is on the right track for reliability and performance, so to have to split your product range in so many brands make absolutely no sense at all
you'd waste so much money on tooling, making profit would stil prove hard
Chevy, Buick, Cadillac - worldwide spread, I guess GMC for heavy duty stuff and make the biggest Chevy the regular 1500 pick-up truck
gessvt 12:18PM (12/11/2008)
jay=aspiring BMW owner
cs 2:40PM (12/11/2008)
Ligor -
"Saturn shoud just die, together with pontiac
how can Saturn be known for reliable and small cars - they used exactly the same crap that was found on all GM cars, so they were just as bad as Chevy.
Now with the new revised Malibu and the lambada's, and of course Cadillac, seems like GM is on the right track for reliability and performance, so to have to split your product range in so many brands make absolutely no sense at all"
First, you mean Lambdas.
Second, you clearly don't know anything about the original idea of Saturn. The small S-Series cars they sold for a dozen years (and was all they sold during the '90s) were unique from the rest of GM. The brand was created to sell and market its own cars, separately from other GM makes.
The S-Series was its own platform, and used a unique 1.9L four-cylinder engine.
mk3 2:47PM (12/11/2008)
What happened to the meaning of a car brand. You guys are saying let Chevy import the astra. I hate when a company imports or makes a similar car and than just add a random badge. I mean that is very sad. A car brand should have a history and should stick to that to be successful. I think that is the problem with American brands. There are a few cars like the Vette Mustang that clearly kept their historical name but the rest of the cars are just rebadged cars.
jamie 2:57PM (12/11/2008)
You're grasping at straws.
GM loses about $2000 on every Opel it sells as a Saturn because of the exchange rate. The business model is unsustainable.
SimbaDogg 9:13PM (12/11/2008)
why would u want to kill saturn and bring in opel, when they are, as you said, essentially the same car?
"hey buddy, i'm sorry to inform you that i'm going to be taking my product off the market, and will be replacing it w/ basically the same exact product, just with a different logo"
do you even understand how stupid this sounds? Anyways keep Saturn, you'd probably be better off doing away w/ GMC. Why on earth do we STILL need a sierra...and a silverado, a yukon...and a tahoe. Jesus Christ i mean, this is rebranding at its worst.
Mobius_1 10:37AM (12/11/2008)
If you really want to save Saturn, go out and buy one.
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zamafir 10:50AM (12/11/2008)
That's about it. Or provide GM with a few Billion, a petition isn't going to do jack for GM's bottom line or to affect the situation they're in right now. Though I wager it makes these fanbois feel like they've done all they can.
ckm 11:28AM (12/11/2008)
I was actually looking forward to getting a 3-door Astra. Then I saw the engine choices....
No thanks.
Cindy 10:16PM (12/13/2008)
We have!!
We have two saturns... My husband has an L300 that we've had for about 5 years and still runs great. I drive the Saturn Outlook. We just traded in the Saturn Relay van which I loved. I was disappointed that they didn't have another van, and because we need seating for 6, we were forced to the Outlook - the Vue only seats 5. We are looking ahead to getting the Vue - probably hybrid - when our lease is up on the Outlook. Unless they bring back a van... :)
I hope they keep the Saturn brand name...
asdffdsa 10:38AM (12/11/2008)
Saturn - ugly cars for ugly people.
Unfortunately, it may not be up to GM whether Saturn goes or not. Talk to the Car Czar...
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Mazda FTW! 10:40AM (12/11/2008)
Ugly cars for ugly people?
I'm not sure where you're getting the data for the latter half of your comment but they definitely have some good-looking cars in the stable. The Sky, the Astra and the Aura are hot and the Outlook is very sharp too.
Perhaps you were referring to Toyota's stable? Or BMW's? Or Honda's? Or....
jg 10:59AM (12/11/2008)
Hey now, my Bimmer is one of the best looking cars ever made (E46 coupe). And I'm not so bad looking either.
ya jerk! :)
asdffdsa 11:11AM (12/11/2008)
This will always and forever be the image Saturn conjures up:
http://www.marshallauto.com/Vehicles/01-SATURNBlue.jpg
happy_penguin 12:07PM (12/11/2008)
Ignorant comment from an apparently ignorant person.
Brian 12:52PM (12/11/2008)
My wife and I have a new Saturn Aura, and its one of the nicest cars i have driven. Looks great,very quiet and the 3.6 with the six speed auto is fast and we get 30 mpg on the highway and 25 around town. We compared it to everything else in its class and nothing came close.