PurdueGuy

Yeah, with this added into the mix, it now has a feel more like they're looking to drum up excitement, which would seem to indicate they probably already plan to bring it, but want to get some cheap advertising & word of mouth while making EC fans salivate for it.

Using the same platform as a Chevy does not make it a Chevy clone.

You really want to get into this? Fine. GM was divided on whether to support Saturn from day 1. In spite of major resistance & complaints from a number of people inside GM, Saturn got funded well to get off to a good start, and their first product, the S-Series, was a hit. Some major areas of success include: a) Impressive sales, especially considering a small number of dealerships b) Brand loyalty among the industry's highest c) Better efficiency through worker involvement, made possible by their unique agreement with the UAW d) High quality ratings e) No haggle selling meant controlled & restricted discounts on vehicles f) Major import buyer conversion - many buyers of Saturns wouldn't have touched other GM products with a 10ft pole For the first ten years or so, Saturn was wildly successful in all but one area - profit - because: a) small car profit margins suck b) Saturn was carrying a very, very large overhead with the Spring Hill facility. I can't find the production capacity estimate, but for as many S-Series as they were building, it was still only a fraction of what the factory was capable of. For all Saturn's success, GM cut off funding before Saturn could take the next steps needed to become profitable. Funds weren't made available for a true Saturn-designed midsize, so along came the Opel Vectra based L-Series, which, while not a total flop by the terms of this thread, was far from a raging success either. On top of that, Saturn couldn't spread the fixed cost of the Spring Hill facility further with the L-Series, as parent GM forced them to produce it in Wilmington instead. The Ion continued the trend of parent GM meddling, and the writing was on the wall, as a hit was replaced with lukewarm sales. The Vue saw mild success, but not enough to turn around the downward trend forced upon the brand by parent GM. Saturn didn't flop, GM poisoned and starved it in its infancy. And of course many managers and fans of other GM brands were more than happy to see it.

I can't see any way that the S-Series could be considered a flop. Consider the following sales volume numbers: Chevy Cobalt: 2004 4,959 2005 212,667 2006 211,450 2007 200,621 2008 188,045 2009 104,724 2010 97,376 Saturn S-Series: 1991 48,629 1992 169,959 1993 244,621 1994 267,518 1995 302,988 1996 294,198 1997 314,992 1998 219,765 1999 275,633 2000 169,866 2001 117,842 2002 ? Not only did the S-Series handily outsell the Cobalt, it did so without being whored out to rental companies, and without customers haggling the price down, and incentives were generally pretty limited.

It is? Yes, electricity runs all over the place, but if you think you're going to be allowed to just plug your car in anywhere at a whim, you're dreaming. Plugging in something like a laptop into someone's outlet isn't going to make a noticeable change in a person's or business' electric bill, but plugging in a car would. So while electricity is readily available, finding someone to let you plug in might be much more hit & miss. If I were an employer, I'd be choosing between charging employees with electric cars to charge, not allowing it, or perhaps allowing them to charge free & making a big PR deal over it. There's no guarantee that someone who drives their car to work can charge it there, and as long as public charging stations are few & far between, that's an issue as well. And charging time is still a huge issue.

I'm never a fan of nonfunctional stick-on hood scoops, but it looks even worse on top of a big cowl IMO.

Saturn Ion - it sold reasonably well, but when you consider that the last year of sales of the 12 year old S-Series sold more than any year of the Ion that replaced it, that's a bit of a flop. Saturn Astra - it didn't sell reasonably well, and only sold a fraction of what the Ion sold. When GM decides to skip a model year entirely because there are too many of the previous model year on the lots, that's a pretty bad sign.

With how much extra expense and inconvenience? It's not going to work as a primary car for the majority of people, that much is clear. (At least not without involving loaner or rental cars on occasion, which is more inconvenience than most are willing to deal with.)

"....GM will bring back the El Camino if 100,000 people say they want it." People on the internet saying "you should bring back the EC" is hardly the same as people saying they want one. GM needs sales, not people saying "that'd be neat". I wish it all the best, but can't help but feel a huge load of skepticism.

Quad coupe cruze FTW.

It looks "not ugly" here, but still fairly boring.

I'd like to see a 3-door Sonic/Aveo too. What I find interesting in the NA powertrain lineup is that the 1.4T is paired exclusively with a manual. I would also like to see 3dr (or quad coupe) versions. At some point a car is just too small to be cramming 4 doors onto (eg: Chevy Spark).

I would've done the rear chevy emblem in black, and perhaps darker wheels, but the car is hot as-is.

Enkei did the Saturn S-Series alloy wheels, some of which are very lightweight for their size.

Is GM putting Recaros in any of their vehicles anymore? I know they were putting them in the Ion RL & Cobalt SS for quite a while, but stopped before both models ended production. Not sure what else if anything they were putting them in. I thought the CTS-V uses Recaros designed specifically for it? You're right, just looked it up, I had forgotten about that. So yeah, I've gotta agree - GM should just source seats for the Corvette from Recaro. GM, put that on the next-gen to-do list! (Though going back to the "function over form" thought, if the new seats are terrific, then sourcing from Recaro isn't a necessity, but the name certainly carries weight with performance enthusiasts, and I've heard nothing but good things about the Recaros in the Ion RL & Cobalt SS.)

Is GM putting Recaros in any of their vehicles anymore? I know they were putting them in the Ion RL & Cobalt SS for quite a while, but stopped before both models ended production. Not sure what else if anything they were putting them in.

Exactly. I can see putting a more upscale leather wrap on the wheel, specialized logos, etc, but if GM is designing 10 different steering wheels at any given time, some of them are going to end up pretty lousy. Better to design 2-3 wheels that have excellent ergonomics, durability, and features and use them widespread. Now I could also see value in creating a steering wheel design that is semi-modular, such that perhaps just the airbag cover could be redesigned to give the wheel a fairly distinct look, and use that to distinguish further between brands and top models. That way GM isn't, um, "reinventing the wheel", but at the same time can reduce complaints for those that seem to think that a $50k car shouldn't share any parts with a $20k car, because you simply change the perception.

A $50k-100k sports car shouldn't be sharing interior parts with $20k econoboxes. Why? I can understand if GM were to design a steering wheel with an Aveo in mind (cheap, boring, etc) and then slap it in the Corvette, but if they develop a steering wheel that's worthy of the Corvette, why would they then design a crappier wheel for their other vehicles? IMO the ONLY reason to design more than one style of steering wheel is if it is purpose-driven, such as a shape better for daily driving vs a sports car. If function doesn't dictate the change, then why would you put anything but the best design in ALL your vehicles? Other than the fact that people are stupid & find things to whine about, of course. And perhaps that's enough of a reason since this is sales we're talking about, and logic need not apply sometimes. I've not noticed a single person say "they need a different steering wheel for the Corvette, because the design of this wheel is flawed."

I frankly don't understand the obsession behind the idea of the Corvette having it's own unique steering wheel. I'd be much more concerned with how good is the steering wheel, rather than how unique it is. If they can give it a wheel that's unique because it's designed more for a sports car (form following function), great, but different just because seems unnecessary to me.

If it was a 2-seater, I'd say make it a new Reatta.

Polymer panels go a long way toward keeping that brand new look too. I see early 90's S-Series all the time with perfect panels (and sad looking hood, roof, and trunklids, which were metal). Not always of course, a number of them have gotten clear coat issues, but the lack of rusts & dents is a wonderful thing.

Gotta agree with every bit of what you said. Only reason I can think of to speed it up is if it makes a big difference for CAFE (and that goes right back to it probably being more important to be working on the cars), but it's still better to get it right than fast.

Pretty sure his Ion has the 2.4L, so that's one area where his Ion is superior to the Cruze - power. IMO the Cruze would have a lot more powertrain appeal with the 2.4L or something similar. I'm liking the new wheels, RjION.

Though I can see it in this car, I see it even more in the truck in your sig... just sayin'.

Classy, but boring.