I was/am a HUGE Saturn lover, we were on our 5th one. The circumstances behind GM “throwing them under the bus”, after having earlier meddled and micromanaged them before their collapse has effectively ended my 30 some odd year loyalty to GM products.
During the “reorganization”, the light at the end of the tunnel was that Penske was going to aquire the brand and continue it, then all of the sudden they get dumped, and he ends up with the “Smart” car. Poetic justice after the fact seeing it’s sales plummet and knowing it is a pile of junk, but I have a feeling he was strongarmed into it and Saturn was dumped because they had a more performace oriented Union agreement (at least it was that way from their start).
Now I’m trying to decide whether to throw some dough at the VUE and take it to 400K miles, or get a Honda Pilot or a Ford product...
My first car that I worked for in HS was a Chevy Cav. It was not exactly hard to get girls on a Saturday night, but one thing I’ve learned that everytime it broke down, the parts were damn cheap.
Comnpare that to my upgraded 2nd car during my soph years, the Honda Civic R hatchback (back then you had to have a “ricer”), the parts were damn expensive as they are coming from Japan.
You are right Penski would have done a great job with the Saturn label but Roger was never prepared for the long arm of the obomination administration and how suppliers all of a sudden changed their minds about providing chassis and or parts.
Extreme pressure was exerted around the world to make sure Saturn was a dead model line.
Seems the scum in chief did not want such good competition for Government Motors.
Just one guys opinion.
Saturn aka later cars = Opel. Some of the newer GM cars especially the Buicks looke like they were opel design including the Aussie G8. Too bad GM did not go bankrupt and reorganize. F GM and Chrysler.
I have 1999 Yukon and it has served me well. Instead of getting a new(er) one I will spend time/$ to keep it for a lot longer.