According to Automotive News [sub], Saturn's looking for a “slight” increase in ’08 sales. Speaking at its dealers party like it's 1999 confab in the City by the Bay, execs predicted the uptick will come from the Aura, Opel Astra and the Outlook. Just in case those cars don't fly off the lots, Saturn execs will put “conquest incentive cash” on the Astra’s hood (for non-Saturn trade-ins). Maybe. In certain markets. Later this year, Saturn will launch the Two Mode hybrid Vue. Beyond that… Saturn suits told dealers that GM expects its growth over the next five years to come from its Rethink division, helped along by a shift away from trucks. John Pitre, the GM of Motor City Auto Center in Bakersfield, CA is stoked. He says his average Saturn transaction prices have gone from $17k in ’06, to $21.5k in ’07. "Our Saturn store remodel will be done in July, so that's a sign that we're very bullish on the brand." Meanwhile, the bears are waking-up out of hibernation.
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The problem is that the loyal Saturn owner is looking for a $13K small sedan. He walks into a showroom full of $35K Vues and $40K Outlooks. This isn’t going to work, even though Saturn (arguably) has the best line-up of any mainstream brand. Well, domestic, at least.
Please.
Meanwhile, they lose money on every Astra sold, and the Outlook and Aura can’t find takers anywhere.
Actually my brother bought an Aura for his wife’s long commute. They like it. I haven’t had the heart to tell them it is really a rebadged Opel.
The Aura didn’t meet its first-year sales projections, and that was with almost 25 percent sold to fleet customers. The Outlook is the weak sister of the Lambda trio (soon to be quartet).
GM keeps making these optimistic projections regarding Saturn…meanwhile, I keep having flashbacks to 1998-99, when GM was releasing press releases touting the resurgence of the “new” Oldsmobile.
As Yogi Berra would say, “It’s deja vu all over again…”
L47_V8:
Please.
Meanwhile, they lose money on every Astra sold, and the Outlook and Aura can’t find takers anywhere.
I will say again i think the Saturn brand should go (to the great space graveyard??) where it belongs. Saturn’s original “mission” was to compete with the Japanese and beat them at the economical small car game. They have FAILED miserably at that.
Now, 4 of 6 Saturn models (Astra, Aura, Vue and Sky) are either rebadged Opels or built on Opel platforms. Guess it wasn’t the Japanese after all GM was worried about. It was THE GERMANS !!!!!
GM, just kill Saturn ASAP and make Chevy your entry level brand, kill either Buick or Pontiac and make Caddy the top of your lineup. GM still has way too many divisions !!!!!!
Saturn is becoming the new Saab (rebadged Opels) – Saab is becoming irrelevant.
The Aura is not a rebadged Opel. The Astra is.
SherbornSean “The problem is that the loyal Saturn owner is looking for a $13K small sedan. He walks into a showroom full of $35K Vues and $40K Outlooks. This isn’t going to work”
That’s not necessarily true. People tend to change over time, they get families they tend to make more later in life etc. Toyota makes more than the Corolla, but they started with just a few small cars. All of my high school friends were driving subcompact rabbit size cars in 10 years we were all driving considerably more expensive larger vehicles.
The problem is that the loyal Saturn owner is looking for a $13K small sedan. He walks into a showroom full of $35K Vues and $40K Outlooks. This isn’t going to work, even though Saturn (arguably) has the best line-up of any mainstream brand. Well, domestic, at least.
That kind of thinking is why Saturn faltered to begin with. The SL vehicles were great at what people bought them for, but when the time came to move up they were greeted by the abominable LS vehicles.
What would you really have, an Aura or the LS300?
GM keeps making these optimistic projections regarding Saturn…meanwhile, I keep having flashbacks to 1998-99, when GM was releasing press releases touting the resurgence of the “new” Oldsmobile.
Funny thing was, those “new” Olds cars really were different. I drove an Intrigue for 5 years and it was the most un-Olds like car ever; great steering feel, extremely modern comfortable interior, good handling, no wallow. I really liked it.
Of course, I bought it fresh off a lease and paid $9K for a 2 year old car that listed for $24K+ when new. Massive depreciation on those puppies. Plus, the traditional Olds market (ie old people) were turned off by bucket seats and a German-like exterior.
The Aura is a good car, but I see no advertising for it whatsoever. They are slowly appearing up here in increasing numbers and they are very nice, but the message hasn’t gotten widely disseminated yet.
It’s just a bad time to build cars, period. I was at the Saturn dealer looking at Astras, but I kept tripping over Vues; there must have been 35 at this small dealer. While markedly superior to the pevious Vue in almost every way, they’re simply heavy gas hogs — while crude tops the ton, Vues (and others of its ilk) sit forlornly, waiting for the cash to hit the hood.
I will say again i think the Saturn brand should go (to the great space graveyard??) where it belongs. Saturn’s original “mission” was to compete with the Japanese and beat them at the economical small car game. They have FAILED miserably at that.
Actually, they succeeded impressively, with sales of the original SLx approaching 300,000 in ’95, before they dragged Saturn back into the Mother Company and dumbed it down, because Pontiac insisted on being the “sporty” division. For those of us who prefer handling to power, the first generation Saturns were fun to drive. Of course, the engine was a POS but that’s another story.
Of all GM’s brands Oldsmobile had the least Olds only stores. Less than a hundred if memory serves me right. Yet GM still had to pay out BIG money to close down Oldsmobile. It had nothing to do with Oldsmobiles product.
Now remember that Saturn was originally designed to go toe to toe with the Japanese. Roger Smith and his crew were well aware of the perception problem that some people had with GM cars. So it was setup as an independent car company within the company. It had it’s own unique models and engines. None of the marketing mentioned that it was part of GM. And of course it required it’s own stand alone dealerships. If you wanted a new Saturn franchise, you couldn’t pair it with Pontiac, Chevy, or whatever. You had to build a complete new facility.
So forget about GM (outside of bankruptcy) ever closing Saturn. With all those standalone dealerships they could never afford it. Pontiac and Buick are possibilities though because of their grouping with GMC.
I don’t see rebadging Opels as a necessarily bad thing. What they need to do is start building them here and exporting the Opel versions to Europe. We’re doing a great job of hammering the dollar down to “peso” levels to the point where building cars for consumption in Europe may become a viable proposition.
David Holzman: “They suceeded impressively”
In losing billions of dollars, yes. The whole original Saturn SL misadventure cost GM billions.
I haven’t had the heart to tell them it is really a rebadged Opel.
I have no problem with rebadged Opels if they make a sensible, quality vehicle. I checked out the Astra at the auto show, and while it was a good looking car, it didn’t have some standard usable items like realistic cupholders, steering wheel audio controls, etc.
Salhany: I did the exact same thing, buying a 2000 Intrigue in 2002 for 9 grand (from a local Buick dealer who sells 1000’s of ex-rental cars a year).
What killed Olds, IMO, and is killing Buick, is GM dumping long established model names (Cutlass, LeSabre), and replacing them with (awful, in most cases) new names.
The Elmer Fudds that bought most of the Olds’ and now Buicks walk into showrooms, don’t see their favorites, and walk out. The Intrigue name, for example…IMO, was just awful. And what the hell is/was an Alero? GM = Clueless.
If I remember the production figures correctly, the last year Buick offered the LeSabre & Park Avenue, they sold roughly 350,000 units. How many first year Lucerne’s did they sell? Roughly a third of those figures. or was it a fourth…I forget.
Two weeks ago, I bought a 2008 Saturn Vue for a very good price. At first, when I made an offer, the dealer said no. Then, after pointing out the build date of September 2007 on the Certification Label, the dealer thought it over…and so…the VUE is in my garage. It took many hours, and 3 clay bars to remove months of built up pollution.
The dealer must have had at least 40 others in stock. Running my hand over the finish told me they had all sat there a while.
The homely L Series was an Opel under the skin, and I thought I read somewhere that the Aura is too.
Dunno what it means, but the local (Palm Springs, CA) Saturn store in the Cathedral City Auto Plaza closed about 4 months ago. So far, no other dealer has re-opened at that location.
The Saturn Dealer in Palm Springs wasn’t the only local Saturn dealer to fail. Saturn of Alhambra and another local Saturn dealer whose name escapes me closed recently.
Ford still leads the parade with shuttered dealerships locally. Withing two months and 5 miles in either direction of my home, Ford closed two dealerships, the latest one on 1/31/08. That particular dealership had been in business since the 1920’s. One possible reason for this mom & pop dealers downfall, the worlds largest Toyota dealer is minutes away.
Within the last year, I believe Ford has shuttered at least 12 local LA and Orange County Ford dealerships.
For years, Saturn had a crystal clear brand image. It was the helpful, no-haggle, customer-comes-first brand. GM had a good thing going when Saturn first came about. They fucked it all up now and it’s too late to do anything. Somebody please pull the plug.