The death of Saturn

[ZL-1]

GM should be integrated as one company worldwide, with Holden, Opel, and GM NA all sharing resources to benefit the company.

[caddycruiser]

ocnblu: Your last 2 posts = I LOVE YOU!

Speaks just of the truth, and are exactly words that could come out of my mouth. VW, even with problems, has continued to put out a line of vehicles that are just stellar, particularly so amongst a US market--overseas, they may be "Chevys", but here they're vaunted and for good reason. Your description of a Rabbit, for instance, is just one of those.

And the same for the G8. Structure, drivetrain, performance, and refinement are there and should be sublime. But, agreeably, the styling is still quite like the problematic GTO was, even if that wasn't it's biggest problem. Hopefully, it sells just for that drive quality and the total package, and there doesn't start another debate of "Oooh, it's just another bland looking Aussie car." Most of us know here, it really isn't, but people are used to garish anymore. At least it should exude quality like we still haven't seen 100% from a lot of domestic lines.

[Oracle of Delphi]

ocnblu: Your last 2 posts = I LOVE YOU!

Speaks just of the truth, and are exactly words that could come out of my mouth. VW, even with problems, has continued to put out a line of vehicles that are just stellar, particularly so amongst a US market--overseas, they may be "Chevys", but here they're vaunted and for good reason. Your description of a Rabbit, for instance, is just one of those.

And the same for the G8. Structure, drivetrain, performance, and refinement are there and should be sublime. But, agreeably, the styling is still quite like the problematic GTO was, even if that wasn't it's biggest problem. Hopefully, it sells just for that drive quality and the total package, and there doesn't start another debate of "Oooh, it's just another bland looking Aussie car." Most of us know here, it really isn't, but people are used to garish anymore. At least it should exude quality like we still haven't seen 100% from a lot of domestic lines.

As for the G8. You know all this for a fact? Have you driven one, has anyone here driven one? :rotflmao:

Also!

Edited September 8, 2007 by Pontiac Custom-S

[ocnblu]

All we can go by right now are the magazine reviews for the VE cars and the Astra. Hopefully those reviews translate to the US versions. Although Top Gear thinks the Astra OPC's engine overpowers its chassis... probably won't be an issue with the 1.8L 140 hp Ecotec. Edited September 8, 2007 by ocnblu

[Camino LS6]

<-----Steers thread back to original topic.

For me the bottom line on Saturn is quite simple: as it was set-up, it was a complete and utter failure. GM dumped terrifying sums into this experiment long before the first Saturn was ever built. In fact, by the time that actually happened (years later than planned) the black hole was so huge that there never was a chance of breaking even, let alone making a profit. It was the king of stupid ideas. And, I'm betting, the most expensive mistake GM has ever made.

All that they had to do was to create viable small cars for the existing divisions, not build some psuedo-independant, quasi-creative, warm and fuzzy illusion of feel-good harmony that couldn't really exist in the first place.

What they have now done is to make the best of an existing sales channel. What has been done with Saturn in the last two years alone did more good than everything done the entire time Saturn existed up to that point.