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 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.

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