Sixth Rock From The Sun, Or Saturn In Retrograde.

"Jacques L' Autre" (jacklauterdale)
09/08/2014 at 01:29 • Filed to: Sober Thoughts Drunken Words

Saturn. The little General Motors brand that could, but in the end couldn't. What if GM brought Saturn back though? There are currently only four brands in the GM portfolio, and with an ever increasing variety of cars, maybe it wouldn't hurt to bring back a fifth. So why Saturn?

The Chevy Volt is a fantastic competitor to the Prius range of vehicles, but unlike the Prius the Volt comes in one flavor. What if Saturn was brought back to focus, like it had before, on economy car choices, but with more of an ecological bent? Maybe this is just crazy post-beer banter, and it's not worth the hassle of resurrecting, but I'd gamble that a fifth brand really wouldn't hurt the auto-conglomerate. What say you though? Would bringing back Saturn bring about a slide back into "Old GM" habits, or continue the renaissance?

DISCUSSION (13)

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Jacques L' Autre
09/08/2014 at 01:52

Good idea. Saturn always had its own great personality and I've not really known anyone personally who didn't like their Saturn. I have known a surprising amount of people who owned them. For what they were, there isn't really much Icould say negatively. I would take one over any Honda. Even an aura over an s2k. Ok,maybe not, but you get the idea.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Jacques L' Autre
09/08/2014 at 01:54

GIven that the entire purpose of Saturn was to be "Not GM" within GM but Saturn ended up being "Identical to GM" no, Saturn would change nothing. There was so much strife and infighting at the time that the point of the brand was ultimately lost. Source: My mom did purchasing in GM in the 90s through 2000s. Any time Saturn got special treatment, every single person of any importance who represented another brand bitched and moaned. My mom was based in the pontiac truck/bus group so she was mostly free of the drama as she mainly dealtwith trying to get production and labor costs for manufacture of the non-commercial trucks and SUVs at the time. Apparently the last-gen jimmy/blazer production run was orchestrated by her team and they were glad to not have to worry about stepping on saturn's toes as the late 90s were a political minefield in some areas of the corporation. Meanwhile, in truckland, they just kinda did things and made money.

Steve in Manhattan > Jacques L' Autre
09/08/2014 at 01:58

Many girlfriends ago there was a French tennis pro - she bought an autobox 4 door Saturn. She did not like it, so I told her to take advantage of the return-it-in-48-hours policy, or whatever they had. After some wrangling (coached by me) she traded the 4-door for a coupe with a manual transmission. The dealer did not like it, but they had to honor their return policy. If only we had that today ....

phenotyp > Jacques L' Autre
09/08/2014 at 02:02

Saturn stuck a particular chord in a particular era.

Bringing it back would be great, for the few of us who can recognize that, but there are very, very few of of us. GM was desperate in the mid-aughts, and they transferred a huge amount of their successes and failures to poorly-rebadged Euro cars, which were, honestly, better than the USDM stuff, but they didn't say anything about what the brand was supposed to stand for.

If Saturn were to stage a comeback, it'd have to be made in the US. First and foremost. And it would have to be accessible. As in, people who wanted to buy one could come in and watch it get built. And be amazed by it.

I want this sort of thing to happen, though experience tells me how unrealistic it is.

GhostZ > Jacques L' Autre
09/08/2014 at 03:47

Because they should bring back fuckin' pontiac first.

deekster_caddy > Jacques L' Autre
09/08/2014 at 06:16

Interesting idea - pull the Voltec drivetrain from Chevy and Cadillac and you have a whole new line of vehicles. Make the "new saturn" exclusively Voltec and EV drivetrains and give them several models and you might have a hit!

Problem is you need more dealer franchises. Right now it's good and bad that the Volt is in Chevy dealers. The sales staff often wants nothing to do with it. The service department often has no idea what they are doing with it...

Bonus points for finding that prototype saturn - those are the headlights that went in the Opel Ampera, euro version of the Volt!

Leon711 > deekster_caddy
09/08/2014 at 06:43

due to the height I'd say they were more like the Zafira Tourer lights but they are probably neither and made specifically for that concept.

OPPOsaurus WRX > Jacques L' Autre
09/08/2014 at 08:46

Is saturn the 6th Rock or is it just a ball of gas? I think you you have there is a good idea but I bet it would never work cuz it would take sales away from Chevy or Cadilac and more sales for thier name and thats probably thier #1 concern. Also from my 1 experience Saturns were plastic turds but thats just from 1 car.

BJ > Jacques L' Autre
09/08/2014 at 09:29

Yep, not a bad idea. The idea of unique, EV-only cars being sold as a separate marque has already been discussed here on Oppo (good luck finding those threads with the search tool, though). There's something to be said for putting EV only cars in a separate brand to create value and prevent from crowing both dealerships and public perception of the cars.

And why not Saturn? If they do it fast enough, they'll be back on the market before the new electric Saab...

Jacques L' Autre > GhostZ
09/08/2014 at 09:55

I don't think Pontiac would really work in this hypothetical situation, but believe you me, I'd love to see Pontiac brought back.

Jacques L' Autre > OPPOsaurus WRX
09/08/2014 at 09:59

A lot of them were plastic fantastic, but that wouldn't clash with an eco-eco, ecological-economy, lineup. You did catch me on the whole rock thing though. We'll just have to count one of the rocks in the ring as that.

Jacques L' Autre > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
09/08/2014 at 10:01

Saturn Sky Redline wouldn't be a bad alternative to an S2000. Or you could go all the way and stuff a Mallett V8 in one.

Jacques L' Autre > Steve in Manhattan
09/08/2014 at 10:04

That's pretty cool about the 48 hour return policy, I wasn't aware that they had that. CarMax offers something similar, and give you 3 days to return your car, after the time of purchase, if it turns out it's not the right one for you.