Comments were made at the Saturn Summit awards ceremony . Our G.M. and service manger were there because we recieved top dealer in the nation for the 4th year in a row . His speech was a total bash of the current saturns . The L-series is going bye bye and will be replaced with a more luxury type model , and he did refer to Audi , the A6 specifically when describing the L-series replacement . He bashed most on the Ion with comments like .....did you get the interior fabric on a clearence rack , the dash , the style of it . The current Ion will not be around long at all and apparently a re-design is already in progress per saturn . Our lot is clogged with these things because no one wants them . They just sit . We've had the Ion coupe in stock for a month now and have not sold even 1 as of yet . 0 interest , 0 down , $199 a month and we cant even give these things away .

There are a few on here that seem to be interested in Saturn so I thought I'd pass on what Ive heard .

 

Yep Im one of the few that like Saturn and im interested in knowing a couple of things:

1. when do the 2004 Ion Quad-coupe models go into production?
2. Is there any changes planned for 04?
3. Any new incentive programs or discounts to go with 0% financing?
4. Will 03 models be heavly discounted to make room for 04 models?


My wife and I have a awd v6 Vue and love it and Im plannig on getting a 03/04 quad-coupe-3 for my daily driver and keeping my Z-28 as my weekend racer.

Any info would be greatly appreciated

 

It's really refreshing to here someone not afraid to be honest about their own products instead of putting spin on mistakes (a-la Aztek).

But there is one thing that really concerns me. Where would GM have ended up if Rick Wagoner wasn't secure enough to admit he didn't know everything about cars, and didn't pull in Bob Lutz, and a whole troop of designers and key people from other car companies that really knew their stuff.

There most certainly wouldn't be a Ion replacement in the works, and that probally wouldn't be the worse of it.

 

1. The Ion coupes are already on sale . We have several in stock . I would hold off on getting a coupe to see what kinda offers saturn comes up with to sell them . The 0 down , 0 financing for $199 a month is pretty rare for a brand new model just after its launched . That Ithink is only onthe 4 doors though .

2 . Word from saturn is that big changes are coming but no specific timeframe . The word is the L-series will die VERY soon .

3-4 . I work in the service department so I havent really paid attention to new incentives . Vues are actually selling decently so no need to off the 03's . The L-series Im sure they'll continue to offer special packages with special lease deals . The Ion is an 04 model ...gulp

 

I think that they should just kill off saturn altogether and concentrate on making better Chevrolets. If they made import-quality (saturn's reason for existance) chevrolets with great styling, they wouldn't even need saturn. How much have they spent on this division?

Wouldn't the money for the ion have been better spent on a new Cavalier?

Wouldn't the L-series money have been better spent on making the impala's nicer, or maybe an F-body replacement?

Couldn't the vue have replaced the Tracker or even the Aztek?

 

LOL... Good to see Lutz doing something.

 

Saturn isnt going anywhere, they just won the J.D. Power award for highest customer satisfaction. They need to improve the looks of their product and broaden their product line. It wouldnt hurt to emphasize their 5 * crash rating either. Their lack of restyling on long time models hasnt helped either-despite having a platform flexible enough to have newly styled body panels every year.

 

I don't see much improvement coming from moving Saturn up-market - it seems that bringing the L-series up to "Audi A6" levels would only hurt sales of Pontiac and any new Buick models that happen to come along.

Per guionM's comments, I cringe to think of what would have happened had GM not brought in Lutz. From the sounds of things, we'd currently have a crappy Grand Prix and Bonny, along with a milquetoast C6, and I half-wonder if Avalanche-type cladded would have been applied to the entire truck line.

 

:cough: :cough: Oldsmobile..:cough: cough:

Could of absorbed the Alero line and the Aurora into the Saturn lineup as a stop gap..offer really nice cars..that GM was trying to convey to the market....build quality was great..

Just make a new front end with Saturn cues..

or just say..
Oldsmobile Alero by Saturn!
Offer the Oldsmobile line as Saturns luxury name attached to Saturn!

 

Caps and Mervz, I kind of have the same thoughts on Saturn. I haven't seen a Saturn yet that couldn't have been an Oldsmobile or Chevrolet.

The Ion is a poster child of what the Cavalier should be (at least in spirit if not design). The Saturn Ion Redline is the type of car Nova SSs and Dart 340s used to be. A sports version of a budget car for those on a budget, that can more than hold it's own on the street. Ion sedan is today's version of a 1972 Nova to a tee!

As for the Vue and the L series, they seem to scream Oldsmobile. Olds was also positioned as the "import fighter" it's last 20 years or so as was Saturn.

But, then again, you can take the flip side & say Oldsmonbile should have been adsorbed into Saturn (Saturn is attracts the youngest buyers [percentage-wise] of all GM's divisions).

 

I have a question about saturn. What is it about the dealerships that makes the service so increadable? If it actually is much better than other dealers, why havn't the other companies caught on and emulated the saturn experiance?

 

Here's a related story. Sounds like Saturn is going to be the next division sucking resources away from Chevrolet (and competing directly with it?)

Business Week 06/02/03
author: David Welch

Last fall, General Motors Corp.'s Saturn Div. had something to brag about. After a seven-year slide, sales were finally turning up thanks to the modest success of the new Vue sport-utility vehicle. Saturn execs hoped for an encore when their all-new Ion sedan replaced the aging S-Series compact in dealer showrooms in November.
Then the good news ran out. The new Ion is no hit, while sales for the updated L-Series midsize car were down 30% in April alone. Worse, the tiny Saturn unit continues to burn through money: Insiders tell BusinessWeek the long-suffering division -- it has never made money in its 10-year existence
-- could lose $1 billion in 2003. That's a lot of cash for a minor subsidiary of a giant that is expected to earn just $2.8 billion this year.
So, will Saturn go the way of Oldsmobile? That is out of the question, says Robert A. Lutz, GM's vice-chairman for product development. Convinced that Saturn's consumer-friendly image still has lots of gas, he plans to pour even more money into new models in the hopes of adding pizzazz to the lineup. But the first new Saturn model won't appear until 2005 -- and it will be a crossover SUV shared with other divisions. Moreover, Lutz may put Saturn styling on other GM pickups and SUVs. That means the division GM once called a different kind of company could lose its distinctiveness. Warns Art Spinella, president of automotive consultant CNW Marketing Research Inc.: They'll turn Saturn into 'Chevy, too.'
It's all quite a reversal. When GM launched Saturn in 1990, it created a plant and a workforce modeled on many of the best practices used by Japanese auto makers. The unit was supposed to become a template for the rest of the company. And Saturn did stand out with its modern-looking, quality cars, no-haggle sales pitch, and folksy advertising. Folks who normally bought imports flocked to the Saturn. In fact, to this day, 70% of Saturn buyers trade in a foreign car -- by far the highest rate of import owners to defect to any GM brand. That, says Jill Lajdziak, Saturn's vice-president for sales and marketing, remains the brand's reason for being.
But GM has long struggled to really capitalize on that popularity. For nine years, Saturn made only a compact car, so buyers who outgrew it had nowhere to turn. Moreover, margins are always thin on small cars, and Saturn's unique approach saddled it with high marketing and production costs.
By the mid-'90s, Saturn execs knew they needed to shift gears. Hoping to boost revenues and profits by selling larger, pricier vehicles, the division poured hundreds of millions of dollars into developing the L-Series, Vue, and Ion -- a triple whammy that was supposed to drive Saturn back into the fast lane.
Too bad the new cars flopped. The L-series, launched in 2000 to take on Toyota (TM ) Motor Corp.'s Camry and Honda (HM ) Motor Co.'s Accord, is widely considered stylistically boring. Its performance is also unremarkable. Even with rebates of up to $3,000 on an $18,000 car, Saturn sold just 81,000 last year, less than half the projected number.
The Ion isn't doing so well, either. Surveys show that consumers don't like the car's cheap plastic interior and are turned off by the quirky styling. After just seven months on the market, inventories now stand at almost 100 days worth of cars -- 35% more than the industry average.
All of this is cutting deeply into Saturn's bottom line. Thanks to the L-Series' poor showing, Saturn has cut production at its factory in Wilmington, Del., to less than half its capacity -- but Saturn must still pay 1,450 furloughed workers. Add development costs and rebates, and it's easy to see why Saturn is hurting financially.
That's one key reason Lutz may turn some Chevrolets into Saturns: to give the unit some more profitable vehicles. Lajdziak says Saturn will also cut costs by building vehicles using parts from other GM models -- stylistic differences, she says, will keep the brands distinct. Although such a move could dilute the Saturn image, GM has little choice. The real question is whether people will by a car that's a Saturn in name only.
By David Welch in Detroit

 

I agree completely.

 

man..like I said Olds' Alero and Aurora could of been the upscale Saturn brand in intro car market...
Olds could of lived on..as a Saturn Luxury car...and could of brought in a whole line of REALLY WELL BUILT CARS!!!


so sad
GM..the Ion is not selling..like the Aztek,..gotta make good exciting cars..not gothic works of art..

 

Why not let them build some space frame sports cars for: Saturn, Pontiac, Chevy and Buick!!