By Alex Vickers

Katakuna

I spent weeks searching: through lots full of dealership trade-ins, back alleys, and even junkyards. Where’d I find my beater? In my driveway! Read more…

Continue reading "Shopping For A College Beater: Success!" »

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

What started out as a division with a cult-like following ended up another irrelevant brand within the GM hierarchy. This is the story of how GM fumbled a golden opportunity to reinvent itself over the last 20+ years.

Almost twenty years ago, a new division was launched within the behemoth General Motors empire, and its purpose was to bring back disenfranchised buyers who refused to shop at Chevy, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Buick dealerships. The division was named Saturn, and it was going to be run differently than any other GM division. The premise of the Saturn brand was very simple, they did not share anything with GM; the cars were exclusively Saturn, the power train was exclusively Saturn, the manufacturing plant was exclusively Saturn, and the dealerships were stand alone Saturn stores. You could not find one GM logo connected to the entire brand when it was launched, right down to the keys. But one thing that stood out in the consumers mind was how they were treated at the dealerships with its no-haggle pricing policy and low pressure sales tactics. So how did a division with so much promise become the also ran within GM in less than 20 years? Read more of my piece at Automotive Traveler.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Penske cited “concerns directly related to the future supply of vehicles beyond the supply period it had negotiated with GM.” GM then announced plans to shut down the brand. Full story at the New York Times

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

It looks like the acquisition of Saturn by the Penske Group will be finalized this September. It looks like all the dealers will remain independent, but will have to sign a new dealer agreement with the new owners. So, why is this of any interest to the CarDomain reader? With the closing of the GM Facility that produced the Saturn Sky (along with the Pontiac Solstice), I though it would be prudent to see what the new Saturn product offerings might look like. So come along with me on a voyage of discovery, and see if the magic crystal ball is working.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Pure Speculation: Saturn's New Models After the Roger Penske Takeover" »

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Yesterday marked the last day of production at the General Motors Delaware assembly plant. The 62-year-old factory was a victim of the automaker’s restructuring that has claimed tens of thousands of jobs and will close or idle 14 plants in the next three years. GM has stated when they filed for bankruptcy protection that the Boxwood Road plant would be shut down by the end of July. This is the place where the Kappa Roadsters were built, in the form of the short lived Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky, and they even exported them as the Opel GT. It was reported that the members of the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky car clubs visited the plant to pay their respects to the manufacturer that produced their beloved cars.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Short Term Memories: the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky say Goodbye" »

By Alex Vickers

Katakuna

Are you the underdog in the CarDomain community, or the enthusiast community in general? Do people look at your car and automatically say “what a piece of junk”? Saturns get a really bad rep these days, and my Saturn is no exception. You see, all I drive is a borrowed Saturn SL2. Although I absolutely love Saturns, very few of you out there seem to like them. I see people in traffic sneer at me just because I drive this thing and actually enjoy it.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Are You an Underdog?" »

By Bob Balderston

Bob Balderston

Well, our friends at GM finally sent out the word, via e-mail, that the lifeline to the ship Saturn is about to be pulled, and that no further models are to be had, at least from the GM product lines. We all knew this was coming. Short of the Sky, Saturn was pretty much a dead player in the marketplace. The only saving grace was the dealer network and their way of selling cars. In years to come, when MBAs are studying failure models in classes taught by bitter professors who own these quirky cars, the reasons why GM came to this crossroads, and why they let them go so long, may finally be understood. God speed Saturn, we barely knew ya.

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

It is amazing that when a car manufacturer is in deep financial trouble, one of the first things they try to raise money is selling off some of their assets. The General Motors Heritage Center seems to have excessive assets, and in the midst of one of the worst economic downturns in modern memory, they have decided to liquidate a great deal of their collection to raise capital. The problem that I can see is that most of this inventory should should never have been kept. Proper management would have dictated selling off some of these items a long time ago. Contine reading after the jump.

Continue reading "Images of GM Heritage Cars at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Nail polish is useful for touching up chipped paint on bicycle frames, but would you paint a whole car with it? Sadly, the photographer for the Maryland Gazette didn’t manage to get the whole car in the photo, but you get the idea. The lady likes quilts. Via Jalopnik

Remember Saturn? They started out with a ton of promise in 1990. They were going to be Detroit’s import killer. But then GM started letting them flounder. And now GM is "exploring alternatives" for the brand. What went wrong? There’s a good article over at The New York Times.