Saturn=cheap dentless economy car to just about everyone.

Why waste time on this brand anymore? It would take 15 more years to create a new upscale image for Saturn if it is even possible.

Create a new division or bring back Olds. That division had a wide range of cars from cheap to luxury to muscle. Cars like those will be remembered and collected, Saturns never will be.

It's like Hyundai trying to make luxury cars. They might be alright but it's still a POS hyundai.

 

Perhaps all this could be solved if GM simply renamed the Saturn division Opel.

That's the flavor they want Saturn to have & the Saturn name apparently has no value.

It also seems that one glaring piece of logic hasn't quite registered yet: If Saturn is ranked at 31 of 38 brands, and sales have plummeted 22% in 1 year, and people see it as a cheap alternative to a Honda (!), who on earth cares if it has "young, educated buyers, most of whom are women" or "half its customers come from non-GM brands".

I honestly believed that Saturn could pull it off, but looking at the numbers & seeing how public perception of the brand could wreck the success of a couple of very promising cars, since you can't kill the brand, RE-NAME IT!

 

Hasn't Opel lost money since 1999?

 

This pretty much sums it up. People will be hesitant to go to Saturn because it's history of crap, but good cars are good cars. It'd be slow at first then sales will pick up once people realize they're not crap. Get a new Ion out that isn't crap, the Aura and the Sky, and all of the sudden Saturn has a full car line that's attractive.

Btw, I never saw Lutz mention Lexus. Saturn is considered the bottom of the market now, moving it up means moving it up to compete with stuff like, you know, Toyota or VW. Keep in mind guys, this is a redzed post. Read the article and realize the commentary is the rumblings of an idiot.

 

Thats Mr. Nissan to you

 

They should of just left saturn alone and merge them into chevy, because they are the same crap. For good cars, should jsut bring in Opel, because yes, they at least have a descent name, who cares if they lost money, it is new and fresh to the States, then again, a sky is a saturn.

It will take a hell of a long time to change the image of saturn, because as long as old IOn's and L' series cars are on the road, there is no way they can say that a new saturn is VW like. VW is lightyears ahead of saturn. lol. If they made these new cars into buicks, they would work alot better.

 

The thing Saturn would have going for them is that about 98% of all college students drive Saturns. If you doubt me, go check your local campus. If they're getting good, friendly service at the dealership, and you have attractive cars on your lot, even if the kid's still in college you'll get an imprint of the car in their mind so when they can afford to move up a little, they may come look at what you have to offer.

 

My wife looked at the Aura pics, and liked the car.. As soon as I mentioned Saturn..she was like, forget that, I will not own a Saturn..

It will be VERy tough to get Saturn's image turned around.. Like someone mentioned earlier, they should have just used the Opel name here..

 

There are a *LOT* of people driving CTS's right now that would have laughed and said the same thing about Cadillac 3 years ago.

 

Of course Saturn can move up--if they are given the right product and marketing! Whether or not they could have done that samething for Olds is irrelevant at this point. And marketing a new brand such as Opel? That might prove a tougher feat than moving Saturn up. Saturn already has a good rep amongst owners for dealer/service experience. They just need product that has a pulse to pull in new buyers (and fewer Ions).

What seems more outrageous is for Pontiac to be considered in the same breath as BMW, at least with their current product line.

 

Yeah I showed my GF..she looked at it and said the car is cool but she hates the logo.

I beleive though that perseptions can be easily changed if you have an awesome product.

 

As someone who's fiance belongs to a Saturn-driving family and works for an Olds/Pontiac dealer, this post is of great interest to me...

While Saturn does not have the strongest image for sure, neither did Caddy, as Darth directly pointed out. Saturn, I believe, does NOT have the image problems to overcome Oldsmobile did. There are factors working for Saturn that were not working for Olds. Olds was seen as old-people cars. Getting young people into dealerships was a further challenge because of incredibly-poor marketing. I STILL cringe at the first Alero ad I remember seeing on TV...the idiot in the driver's seat was wearing a cowboy hat! Yeah, that was relevant to the target market...I believe it will be easier for Saturn to overcome a cheap image than for Olds to lose the "old" image. Olds had the cars, but didn't get the image out there. I think Saturn can learn from that mistake.

Further, Olds dealers were nothing more than GM dealers. A dual-branded GM dealer will hock whatever he can to make a sale, whether it was Olds or something else. Saturn is different. Dealers are first-class. Saturns, for whatever reason, seem to do better than GM's other lower-end offering in reliability and satisfaction. Saturn loyalty appears to be VERY high, and it IS important that nearly half of Saturn's buyers do not currently own a GM!!! That is what Saturn was designed to do...bring new buyers into the GM fold.

I believe with the Aura, Sky, and a revised VUE and Ion, the brand can revitalize itself. With that being said, I am very, very disheartened at the loss of the plastic panels. That is a real shame. I know why they are doing it, and I understand galvanized steel doesn't rust 1/100 as horribly as normal steel used to, but still...a metal Saturn to me is like a 4 cylinder 4th gen...it just isn't right.

I loved Olds' late '90s offerings, and think I will love Saturn's offerings as well. It was amazing selling people Olds' in the 2000-2002 timeframe. People would come on the lot and say to me "THIS is an Olds?" If GM had done better getting the product out there, I am confident Olds would still be here.

Finally, there is no way GM will kill Saturn. They will revamp the hell out of it, but will not kill it. I think people here don't understand the hundreds of millions of dollars it has cost GM to kill Olds. Settling with the 2,700 franchises. Rebating the hell out of the cars. Taking 3 year old Intrigues to the auction with 30k miles and getting $6,500 for them!!!!!!!!! I know...I've bought probably 20 GX models over the past 3 years. Do you think when GM initiated those leases 3 years before they assumed the car would lose 75% of its value in 3 years? Hardly.

This can work...it has to.