Goodbye Saturn

#21

"Jeff" <j (AT) donotspam (DOT) me> wrote

Quote:

"RickyBobby" <nascar42 (AT) cox (DOT) net> wrote in
news:KrZwm.114279$Y83.17683 (AT) newsfe21 (DOT) iad:

"Ray O'Hara" <raymond-ohara (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:ha0jna$j5f$1 (AT) news (DOT) eternal-september.org...
In the wake of failed talks with Penske over Saturn GM has announced
it will discontinue the brand.
2600 dealers nationwide will be closed too.

From the beginning of time until the present time GM has not exactly
had any success with small cars.

Their first attempt at a small car was the Chevrolet Corvair which was
derided as being "unsafe at any speed" and discontinued.

Their next attempt was a tin box known as the Vegas which is best
recalled for having and engine that was woefully underpowered and
constructed of a strange mix of aluminum and iron parts. GM did not
get the recipe right because the Vega engine generally did not last
for even 30K miles.

Then they tried the Monza which was unique in the the engine had to be
halfway removed from the car just to change the spark plugs.

The Pontiac Fiero came in two flavors. There was a four cylinder
model that could not get out of its own way and a brawnier six
cylinder model that had the odd design flaw of often setting the
engine compartment afire.

The sole bright spot, at least by GM standards, was the Cavalier.
That model did last for a long time, in more ways than one, until it
was replaced by the uglier than sin Cobalt which nobody buys. I
believe that there has been a four door Cobablt but I have never
actually seen one because I believe it would look like a Cobalt coupe
that had been beaten with an ugly stick.

And then we come to Saturn. A cheap Chevy with plastic fenders and
not one other feature that was of any possible interest to anyone who
was interested in cars. The Saturn line will not be missed by anyone
not employed by Saturn.

In other words, the next good and profitable small car that GM builds
may be very close to being the first good small car GM has ever built.
I do not include the GEO line of cars that were briefly sold at Chevy
stores because they were not built by GM. That line of Suzukis or
Isuzus or whatever they were was not very memorable in the first
place.

So if you expect the Chevrolet Volt or Chevrolet Cruze to be a world
beater you are going against a very long track record of almost total
failure.

You left out the Chevette. It was even more underpowered than the Vega
and
heavy for a car its size. They sold it with a diesel engine that couldn't
reach 70 mph.

Every vehicle combined that Chevrolet has sold since the Diesel Chevette do

not equal 17 miles per gallon.

Chevrolet stuck with the cast iron overhead valve V8 for about twenty years
too long.

But those two million dollar per year auto execs know a lot more about
making and selling cars than I ever will.

#22

RickyBobby wrote:

Quote:

But those two million dollar per year auto execs know a lot more about
making and selling cars than I ever will.

Bozo the Clown knows "a lot more about making and selling cars
than you ever will"

#23

"Tim Miller" <replytonewsgroup (AT) invalid (DOT) invalid> wrote

Quote:

RickyBobby wrote:

But those two million dollar per year auto execs know a lot more about
making and selling cars than I ever will.

Bozo the Clown knows "a lot more about making and selling cars
than you ever will"

Perhaps. But I saw the Aztec and I saw the first plastic clad Avalanche and
it made my eyes hurt and my stomach turn.

But then Toyota came out with the FJ Cruiser retro pastel painted hauler so
there are some dumb people in Japan also.

Just for the record I ain't against GM or Ford or Chrysler or the UAW. I
just wish they had gotten on board with the decent quality 35 MPG four
seater about twenty or thirty years ago.

And I am not trying to hold them up to the Honda Civic or the Toyota Prius
either. But I do think the domestic auto companies could have come closer
than the Cobalt and the Neon.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

Goodbye Saturn

Nascar NASCAR and other professional stock car racing (rec.autos.sport.nascar)

Re: Goodbye Saturn - 10-05-2009 , 08:48 PM

Re: Goodbye Saturn - 10-05-2009 , 09:16 PM

Re: Goodbye Saturn - 10-06-2009 , 04:57 AM