Lutz Kisses Saturn Goodbye, Brand Not Likely to Survive

"We spent a huge bundle of money in giving Saturn an absolutely no-excuses product lineup, top to bottom."

The problem is they abandoned their market. Saturn is/was supposed to appeal to people looking for inexpensive, entry-level, high mpg vehicles. Chevy does all of that better.

Looking down the product list and it's easy to see why. The Astra has never sold well (disappointing) and the rest are just restyled clones of cars GM sells under other names.

The days of Saturn being unique are gone.

agree with all 3 of the above, and here is one more... the no haggle pricing is really hurting them. you walk in a lot of saturn dealerships and you will get exactly what you see on the commercials. the salespeople just don't give a crap about selling you the cars because "we don't haggle, sir!"

The only car that is unique to Saturn is the Astra and the Vue. Everything else from the Sky to the Outlook is represented elsewhere by another GM vehicle. When you can get a better equipped Acadia for a better price than an Outlook, which one are you going to buy?? While the Saturn lineup is actually really good now instead of plastic throwaway cars, they have abandoned their core market and moved away from what they originally were. No longer unique in an ocean of sameness, they have melted away and are no longer any more noticeable than an Oldsmobile.

They really screwed the pooch when they started badge engineering.

I really like the Sky much more than the Pontiac Solstice, its a much more aggressive and fun design. Too bad they never were able to bring out the coupe version.

How many non-car people even know what an Astra is/was? The weak dollar didn't help that one at all but it is hard to bring in an entirely new car model without a ton of advertising.
Saturns were awfully boring for awhile, which they acknowledge in their ads where the guy has to step back out and look at the sign on the dealership because the new cars are so much better. The problem is you can't just recover from bland, not-so-great cars in a couple of years. Even when you add some cars that are much better. Plus as good as the Aura was the Malibu came and took away the buyers with a different version of the same car. Saturn is a small picture of what GM is struggling through with all its names.

Did they really have a kiss my astra contest??

I think they should have had a "put Uranus in a Saturn" ad campaign.

alman08, it is funny that it is so hardwired in peoples minds that if they don't get to haggle then they aren't getting a good deal. A good example is that you think the salespeople didn't 'give a crap' because they told you they didn't haggle. It was company policy, not a bad attitude from the salesperson.

They might get a bit tired of people trying to haggle at the 'no haggle' car company but I bet they still wanted a sale. Can you imagine customer after customer coming in and offering them less than the price shown when the company spent millions advertising that the price shown is the price you pay...

Great idea that just never took off.

"The only car that is unique to Saturn is the Astra and the Vue"

Isn't the Vue and the Chevy Equinox the same thing? If not then they are so close, one should be cancelled.

Do you prefer Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" or Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey"?

Thats too bad. I really think they just had crappy advertising.
Does this mean there will be some killer deals out there? I wouldn't mind picking up an Astra or Sky at a steep discount.

I don't think the Vue is the same as the Equinox? I thought the Vue was a rebadged Opel just like the Astra was. The Equinox is its own platform based off the same as the Suzuki Grand Vitara. Or so I think?

greenpony, I prefer neither.

My experience with Saturn sales was mostly pleasant, and it was they, not the service department, that helped me with loaners and other items when both Saturn Ions I owned went sour.

As for Saturn service, it proved average to worse than average for me and my other family members. One Saturn shop butchered my Ion so badly it was declared a full lemon and I got my purchase price back (one good thing about living in California!).

Since then, Saturn's badge engineering, mediocre interiors, and markups (yes, markups - Saturn dealers in S. Calif packed the Sky like crazy) has done nothing to embellish the brand. Now the 30 day guarantee is gone as well.

Perhaps it is time for Saturn to go into a full eclipse.

How unfortunate. Saturn was the only brand of GM vehicles I was at all interested in. Oh well. Japan builds a better product anyway.

Great product is fine, but people need to know about it and GM completely neglected marketing Saturn. That isn't surprising seeing how many brand mouths GM has to feed. Killing brands is the right thing. Think how much easier it would be to focus on just Chevrolet, Cadillac, and maybe the BPG channel.

No, the Equinox and Vue were not the same, but they competed in the exact same segment so what is the point?

And tmanz, the problem with the no haggle pricing is that the listed price you pay is higher than what even the average consumer could negotiate for a similar GM product, and even sometimes higher than the MSRP for that similar product. Such no haggle pricing would only be a good value if it was below the MSRP of competing products, so you could get a better deal without trying.

Where's the news from Edmunds about rumors that Pontiac is also on the same chopping block as Saturn? I keep hearing it on the radio, but I have yet to hear it anywhere else.

So...?

I definately agree that if you are going to do a no haggle setup then the price should be competetive, but the complaint at hand was that the salespeople just didn't care because they wouldn't haggle. I'm guessing it frustrated them at times that the customer would walk rather than being able to play the game with them.
Not caring and not being allowed to haggle are two different things. My other point was that if it came across as not caring when someone tried to haggle with them it probably just got old after awhile having people try to haggle with the 'no haggle car company'.
A bit like the people that go into dealers now and offer them an amount for a car that is well below what the dealer's actual bottom line is on the car and are shocked when the salesman won't waste his time with them. If you want to bargin you need to start from a realistic point that shows you are really interested in making a deal.