Saturn hopes to beat Honda, Toyota in hybrid sales

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Will Price Rule?
Saturn hopes to beat Honda, Toyota in hybrid arena

By RICHARD TRUETT | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

AutoWeek | Updated: 02/26/07, 8:31 am et

In taking on the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry hybrids, the gasoline-
electric Saturn Aura Green Line will offer a dramatically lower price
and roughly the same high fuel economy rating. But is that enough to
make it a success?

The Aura Green Line is a so-called mild hybrid. Unlike the Camry and
Accord hybrids, the Aura's powertrain isn't capable of driving the car
on electric power alone. And that might matter to environmentally
conscious buyers who want to drive at least part of the time on
electric power only.

Mild hybrids, such as General Motors' pickups and the first generation
of the Honda Civic, have not sold well.

Aura has a belt-alternator-starter hybrid system that provides a light
boost during acceleration, captures energy during braking and restarts
the engine after the vehicle comes to a stop.

Light weight, less filling

But a mild hybrid's advantage is less weight and mechanical complexity
and a much lower price. The hybrid Aura costs just $1,700 more than
the gasoline model, making it the least expensive mid-sized hybrid
sedan.

The Aura goes on sale in early May with a sticker price of $22,695 and
an EPA fuel economy rating of 28 mpg city and 35 on the highway. The
fuel economy figures are the same as the Honda Accord Hybrid, which
has a base price of $31,685. The Camry Hybrid has a base price of
$26,820 and an EPA rating of 40 city/38 highway. All prices include
shipping.

Scott Stapf, director of the Hybrid Owners of America, a Washington
lobbying group, thinks the Aura may do well even though it doesn't
have the technical sophistication of the Camry or Accord. "You still
do have an environmentally sensitive group of consumers who are
worried about emissions and global warming, and just about any hybrid
will cut it," he says.

And then, Stapf says, the Aura could attract buyers looking for a low
sticker price as well as less pain at the pump.

But he says the majority of hybrid buyers generally want more than
just high fuel economy. They want to be on the cutting edge of
technology. The Aura Green Line isn't.

The least expensive

Andre Kazewych, product manager for the Aura Green Line, says Saturn
will pitch the car to potential buyers as the least expensive hybrid
on the market.

"We're not looking at it in terms of tech sophistication but as an
economical way to deliver better fuel efficiency," Kazewych says.

"It's going to offer a lot of people a hybrid option who don't have
one. It should be a strong product in the marketplace," says Kevin
Riddell, an analyst at J.D. Power and Associates in Troy, Mich. He
says the Aura Green Line likely will start as a low-volume car and
steadily build sales momentum.

No national ad campaigns are planned for the Aura Green Line. Saturn
is planning to promote the car heavily on the Internet and might buy
print ads. But Saturn spokesman Randy Fox says the company has other
vehicle introductions and limited resources.

Neither Fox nor Kazewych would say how many Aura Green Lines GM plans
to sell.

John Danielson, sales manager at Saturn of the Lakes in Tavares, Fla.,
says few customers have asked about the Aura Green Line, and no orders
have been taken.

Danielson says the Vue Green Line crossover hasn't sold as well as
expected. Most customers, he says, want the Vue with the Honda V-6.

"If gasoline hits $3 per gallon this summer, that might change," he
says.

The Aura hybrid, made in Kansas City, Kan., is expected to arrive just
about the time dealers run out of the Vue Green Line. Production of
that vehicle ends in March at Saturn's Spring Hill, Tenn., plant.

The new Vue Green Line, which will be produced in Mexico, will be
introduced in the fall.

 

Good article, thanks. Too bad Saturn chose not to properly market the GL
Aura. I like many others block adverts from my websites and will probably
never see them. "Go Green w/o going broke" is a great idea, I'm sure
interest will pick up in them as Summer gas prices go up as they already
have been. Just too bad that they are NAFTA cars. I guess UAW workers are a
rare commodity nowadays? That was a very strong point with many buyers and
still is.

 

No that Saturn is fully part of GM and no longer on its "own" its long
term viablity and competiveness is questionable. You buy a Saturn now
you are basically buying a GM car with a different label which goes
against the whole reason GM first created the brand. Also Saturn
started as a econobox maker and GM is phasing that out to focus on
SUV's which is another long term mistake along with dumping plastic
body parts that set it apart for other vehicles as well.

 

Please fix your broken newsreader configuration.
Tools | Options | Display | Message List Pane | Reply Prefixes
It should say re and nothing more -- but yours is blank.

 

Man, that is a stupid idea. Here they have a perfectly good diesel like in
the Opel Antara (Vue) and the Opel Vectra (Aura), yet they're not
capatilizing on the option here in the US.

Too bad!

I wonder if saturn will come out with a mid-size car/suv anytime?

--
kai
www.perfectreign.com || www.4thedadz.com
www.filesite.org || www.donutmonster.com

closing the doors that surround me
so no one will ever penetrate
complete my retreat just to wait for the day
that never comes so i will laugh alone

 

Huh?

Hey, at least he isn't using Outlook Express (and neither are you) -
that's a good thing!


--
kai
www.perfectreign.com || www.4thedadz.com
www.filesite.org || www.donutmonster.com

closing the doors that surround me
so no one will ever penetrate
complete my retreat just to wait for the day
that never comes so i will laugh alone

 

The original Saturn concept of the 1990's is over for good.

You are correct, Saturn has been terminated
by General Motors. Sad but true.

 

Every time SnoMan replies to a reply, his incorrectly-configured newsreader
prepends a superfluous "Re: " at the beginning of the subject line. Google up
a few threads that he's responded in multiple times, and you'll see posts
with subjects beginning "Re: Re: Re: ".

Here's a sampling:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_epq=Re:+Re:+Re:&as_ugroup=rec.autos.
makers.saturn

I'm hoping eventually he'll realize that the problem really *is* with his
setup, and not with everyone else's.

 

Diesels days in cars may be numbered. For many years they operated via
a loop hole in emission laws that let them release a LOT of NOx (may
times a normal car) and that loop hole starts to close with 2008
models and it is not going to be cheap or easy to clean them up. They
are finaily "catching up" with them

 

Guess again, it is not blank and it does say "re" only too! (always
has)

 

Please fix your broken newsreader configuration.
Tools | Options | Display | Message List Pane | Reply Prefixes
It should say re and nothing more -- but yours is blank.

 

Then, as someone else suggested, change it to re re^2 re^3 -- 'cause it's
still broken -- look at the subject of this post! Your newsreader is still
inserting extra Re:'s every time you reply. The problem *is* in your
configuration.

 

Well that is sad if true. I believe Diesel - far more than these expensive
and complicated hybrids - can lessen our reliance on the camel traders.



--
kai
www.perfectreign.com || www.4thedadz.com
www.filesite.org || www.donutmonster.com

closing the doors that surround me
so no one will ever penetrate
complete my retreat just to wait for the day
that never comes so i will laugh alone

 

That's because *you* had *your* installation of Forte configured correctly.

 

Give it a rest.... It is not blank and it is set up properly. I could
make it blank though.

 

I think I disagree because the answer may lie in a new breed of
gas/flexfuel engine with direct injection and much higher compression
ratios. If they would fully move coal based gas with a very high
octane and stop providing support for 87 octane they could make large
gains in MPG. One reason a diesel tends to get more MPG (other than
the fuel having a bit more energy) is because of their very high CR
that extracts more energy for expanding gasses as they burn. People
just do not relize how much 87 holds things back because it limits
efficency and compression. The use advanced knock control to mask it
but it hurts MPG and power at times. I feel that when DI gas motors
make it to the main stream that diesels will loose a lot of luster
because even with current fuel DI allows for a CR increase of about 1
or 2 points and a increase on power and MPG by 10 to 15% . The CR
increase is possible because the fuel is injected into cylinder just
before ignition and this cools mixture and retards knock rather than
the cooled mixture (after injection) being heated in head ports as it
is drawn in.

 

It obviously is *not* set up properly -- you just prepended *another* "Re: "
to the subject. And the reason that's a problem is that every time you change
the subject, you create another separate thread.

 

please fix your broken newsreader configuration

 

OK Doug, you are getting on my last nerve.

either Killfile him, or drop it.