Saturn dealers giving up a different kind of car company
Saturn was created by General Motors chairman Roger Smith in the late 1980s to be a Different Kind of Car Company. While the first Saturns were generally pretty unremarkable, it was the retail experience that really set the automaker apart from other domestic brands. Saturn was the first marque to adopt a complete no-haggle, no rebate pricing policy and they treated customers like friends. It now appears that the dealers who were the core of the Saturn experience are getting out while the getting is good.
As GM teaters on the brink of insolvency, it's become clear that Saturn will get no new vehicles sourced from within GM and some dealers have decided to close up their stores. Since January 1, two dozen Saturn outlets have shuttered bringing the current total down to 394 with four more in Wisconsin due to close this week. With General Motors making it clear the Saturn brand will either become a separate company or close up entirely, customers are getting the hint and staying away even more than before. Unless a buyer steps up to the plate soon, Saturn will have a tough time making it to the 2012 deadline, even if GM survives.
[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
ken_aisin 8:39AM (4/13/2009)
GM should replace Saturn with Opel to give these dealers a chance to survive.
Reply
hypermiler 9:08AM (4/13/2009)
German Opel bailout plan calls for GM being stripped of Opel ownership and the majority stake to be sold to another automaker.
So far, only Chinese automakers(SAIC and Geely) expressed their intention to bid for the majority stake of Opel to Germany's Commerzbank handling the process.
Quattroporte 9:09AM (4/13/2009)
Maybe you haven't heard...
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/238578/
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/238461/
hypermiler 9:26AM (4/13/2009)
@ Quattroporte
You are not up to date on Opel/Vauxhall news. Read the following link for the latest update.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/5141599/Shanghai-car-maker-SAIC-makes-approach-for-Vauxhall.html
Quattroporte 9:42AM (4/13/2009)
@hypermiler
I was just trying to point out to that Opel's situation isn't rosey either.
Sektor 11:42AM (4/13/2009)
@IHC: I find it funny that SAIC is interested in Vauxhall since all they have are rebadged right hand drive Opels.
hypermiler 12:10PM (4/13/2009)
@ Sektor
> I find it funny that SAIC is interested in Vauxhall since all they have are rebadged right hand drive Opels.
SAIC's interested in taking a majority stake in new corporation comprising of Opel and Vauxhall assets.
PJ 2:14PM (4/13/2009)
Opel's best work would be better employed streamlined into GM's better-known NA-market brands. GM doesn't have the market share to support the current number of dealers.
It's a shame to see the Saturn story come to a close. The fact that their engineers pushed a small, cheap car with a model-specific platform, all-independent suspension, and DOHC engines through the GM bureaucratic labyrinth--in *1991*--showed a lot of promise for the General's future.
Too bad the bureaucracy had the last laugh and deprived them of new product for 11 years. Saturn had to sell uncompetitive products with great marketing, or great products with uncompetitive marketing, for most of its existence... it deserved better.
Other Man 5:04PM (4/13/2009)
No, they don't need more brands to fill in any of the current ones. They need LESS; that's the whole point here.
Opels should come here as Chevys. Simple enough.
Tang 8:50AM (4/13/2009)
Some of those non-negotiation dealers here in the Twin Cities area are suffering a little.
Reply
jgp 8:51AM (4/13/2009)
I think, ultimately, this is the reason Saturn hasn't been very successful, even given how good their lineup is.
As much as I _personally_ like the idea of no-haggle buying, the idea of negotiating prices of very expensive things (i.e. cars and houses) is so ingrained in America that no-haggle buying comes off as cheap, as if Saturn dealerships are the Wal-Mart of car dealerships.
Sad, really.
Reply
fixitfixitstop 11:08AM (4/13/2009)
My reaction to their "no haggle" schtick was to think it's a great deal....for the seller.
Everything is negotiable. Advertising your refusal to negotiate is leaving money on the table.
BigWill 5:40PM (4/13/2009)
... unless you're talking about cars. Virtually everyone has has a bad experience buying cars - especially people who don't know how to negotiate - to the point that a no-hassle experience is worth something.
As for prices, no-hassle doesn't automatically mean you're not getting a deal. Look at Scion for example. An xB - which is basically the same vehicle as a Matrix or Vibe - can be had for a lot less money at a no-haggle price than the comparable Matrix.
hypermiler 9:04AM (4/13/2009)
Saturn will soon announce a Japanese or Korean partner to supply them with Saturn badged models in about two weeks. Instead of fighting an import fighter, it becomes an importer itself.
Reply
Icon149 9:14AM (4/13/2009)
It's the american way, only makes sense that an american company would stop producing, manufacturing, engineering and developing products and just let someone in asia do if for them. We won't have any engineers left who know a thing about manufacturing or materials. but we will all save money and live better by shopping at walmart.
we are taking out morgages on the farm while selling the land to live. at some point there is nothing else to sell and now land left to produce anything... Learn Chinese or russian folks they will own everything in this country soon.
hypermiler 9:29AM (4/13/2009)
@ Icon149
> Learn Chinese or russian folks they will own everything in this country soon.
I don't know about Russian, but Mandarin(Beijing Chinese, as there are hundreds of different languages spoken in China) is the standard language to master if you are to get into the world of finance/business industry.
Sektor 11:35AM (4/13/2009)
@IHC:
Again, there is no reason for a Japanese or Korean automaker to supply cars for Saturn. It looks like they are just going to shut down.
Sektor 11:43AM (4/13/2009)
@IHC: Beijing Chinese isn't Mandarin Chinese.
Tdogg 12:37PM (4/13/2009)
Is there a chance that after Saturn gets a foothold on the Asian cars, that they'll eventually start producing American designed cars again? (and yes i know thier current cars are european).
tekd 7:43PM (4/13/2009)
@Sektor
The majority of people in Beijing speak mandarin, he means the Beijing accented mandarin spoken there, not the local dialect. Especially when you're going to conduct business you're obviously going to be conducting it in mandarin.
People don't really speak dialects all that much in China anymore-most younger people never even learned the old dialects since they were never taught at school-so their ability to speak their native dialects is usually either nonexistent or mediocre.
Heck, most younger folks in China speak English better than whatever their old local dialect was. My cousins speak near-perfect English and Mandarin and can only kinda understand the hometown dialect. Kinda funny, but it's not like most Americans speak whatever ancestral language they had either.