The fortunes of car companies and brands have been amazingly unpredictable over the course of history. In the early days there were hundreds of brands and makes. Eventually the free market saw that those hundreds were whittled down to dozens and then those dozens were whittled down to nary more than a handful in comparison by the time we got to modern motoring. This being said, there is still some volatility and has been over the last 20 years. Saturn stands as a stark example of that.
Back in the early 1990s the then new division of GM with its composite bodied cars, hassle free pricing, and generally good cars with low prices was crushing it. Remember, the country was in a recession and times were tight for many people. The company had seemingly struck on the right formula to sell cars to people that needed them. They were making inroads on the Japanese and the possibilities seemed endless.
Then GM did what GM does and started monkeying around with the whole thing. By the time they were done Saturn was selling a bunch of stuff that was just kind of rebadged material from other divisions (I’m looking at you Sky) and that plucky identity was gone. When the company was steered by the US Government after the economic collapse of 2008(ish) Saturn was one of the divisions that were lopped off.
The rise and fall of the brand spanned little more than 15 years. Weird.
Here’s a look back at the good ‘ol days.
Saturn was revolutionary and when you consider it was supposed to be on the market 2-3 years earlier how much of a splash it would have made in ‘89 ? Great cars , great customer support, stole import customers from Honda and Toyota and was headed to a long profitable run. Oil consumption on early models and SOHC head casting flaws were the big problem but the company stood behind them even out of warranty. Then they got GM’d. No support even though they were popular and profitable Saturn spiraled into GM “ badge engineering “. Saturn had quality, profits and fanatical customers, (see Saturn homecoming) until of course GM ran it fully into the ground. Starved for investment and with a changed labor contract it all fell apart. The later L’s were junk. Stretched Opels with rear suspension geometry issues that were never fully resolved. The Vue had Honda running gear but fit finish and overall quality lagged and again rear suspension woes. They had a winner but screwed the pooch and poured money into other makes that they also ran into the ground (Olds,Pontiac) they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I saw it all firsthand writing service from day one and then being the service manager in the dark years before the Great Recession when the sales manager,used car manger and I were all let go in the same day and the make was wound down.
I liked the 2000 and back SC2’s. Fun little cars. It’s a shame GM GM’d the brand. I remember there being some bulletin back then for the oil consumption around the piston rings micro-welding to the pistons. I think the procedure was to try and soak the rings with GM top engine cleaner before ultimately tearing the engine down for piston replacement. Been a while though.