RIP

I just heard the news... it got me to thinking, my very first internet
search was for "Saturn" (My second search: Saturn -planet). I had a
photo of my '94 SC1 on the "Saturn Server", subscribed to the
listserv, followed the newsgroup, laughed at the "Ellen" spoof.
Farewell, Saturn.

 

What was strange on the radio news today was that there was a commercial
for Saturn, and then the newscaster segued into the story about Saturn
shutting down, which probably didn't make whoever paid for that ad very
happy.

Looks like it was Renault failing to agree to supply vehicles to Penske
after GM no longer would supply cars is what killed the deal. Could have
been a back door way for Renault to return to the U.S..

I saw a Saturn Sky the other day, the first one I've seen and it looked
really nice.

 

The advertising is contracted for long in advance so last minute corporate
changes often don't affect it.

I remember when Texas Instruments, the semiconductor manufacturer, had
cancelled their development of bubble memories as computer storage media.
There was a big article on bubble memory technology in one of the
engineering magazines which appeared several days after the press
announcement that TI was terminating development.
http://www.decadecounter.com/vta/tubepage.php?item=30

All the same, I'm now wondering where I will get repair parts for my L
series. Many parts are dealer only. Hopefully, these will still be available
through other GM dealers.
I went thorough the same thing (25?) years ago when I had a Chrysler product
at the point when they started to go under. Since the company was producing
the Army M1 Abrams tank, they got a bail-out.
Déjà vu...

 

I expect that GM will continue servicing Saturns for a few years, then
they'll sell any remaining parts inventory to some third party that will
make it available to independent mechanics (as happened with Daewoo).

The lack of after-market parts has always been an issue with Saturn
since they sold in such small volumes there was no incentive for
after-market manufacturers to jump in with alternatives to dealer parts
as you see with nearly every mass market brand.

 

IMHO one of the most major failings of GM was their failure to integrate
Saturn spare parts into their huge and well established GM parts
distribution system. This, more than anything else caused Saturn to remain
as a second class orphan in the GM family and was the major issue which
almost caused me to pass on the purchase of my first new Saturn in 1996. I
had
existing relationships and understanding of the workings of the GM system
that allowed me to buy GM parts wholesale, but was never able to get similar
service from Saturn. This caused me to avoid the Saturn dealer shops even
more than I would have otherwise.

The closure of the Saturn brand and division will IMHO result in a steep
drop in resale value due in large part to fears of parts availability
problems. There is still good availability of S series cars at the self
serve wreckers but this will probably diminish with time. Now is the time
to stock up on spare parts such as radiators, wheels (w tires) and mufflers.
I suggest that the low resale value will make the purchase of an inexpensive
similar car a good strategy as a source for major spare parts or as a spare
good running car. I suspect that normal aftermarket replacement parts such
as brakes, plugs, filters and tires will continue to be available with
better price and quality than the factory dealers were.

I still think that the S series cars are an excellent design and give great
value. I also think that Saturn should have continued to produce them
(especially the SW1) and that the greatest failure of Saturn marketing was
in not selling an optional turbo diesel. I lost interest in purchasing new
Saturns when they dropped the SW1 but my existing cars are still giving
excellent cost effective service and hope to keep them for many more years.
My original 96 SW1 now has 330,000km and still burns only 1lt of oil every
1,500km and the gas consumption is getting even better (lower) than when
new.

Good luck and Happy trails,

 

There were so many reasons that Saturn failed it's hard to know where to
start. From mediocre products to lack of innovation, to its stubbornness
of sticking with fixed pricing while the competition priced their
vehicles according to supply & demand, to depending on a small subset of
the market that was more into a quality buying experience than a quality
vehicle, Saturn will be a business school study for decades.

 

On a positive note- After more than a decade and many thousands of
Saturn newsgroup posts under various names, your personal vendetta
against Saturn and Saturn owners can hopefully be put to rest along
with the brand. Happy trails.