I just finished looking at a list of things like the 10 something cars. And on the 10 worst cars of all time, the Saturn Ion is being given credit for the significant effort applied to the end of Saturn production.
Now I know, just like all car forums there are proponents of not quite acceptable automobiles. But the Saturn Ion is the reason I never bought another one, that along with the 3 door coupe and the Re-badged butt ugly Chevy van but to each their own. If you want to see for your self what was said:
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11381...-all-time.html

I am going to have to find time and the extra cash to repaint my 94 SC2 again and have the interior freshened. Saturn was not the only GM car to achieve recognition. It must have been a good time for really bad decisions.

 

The ION listed is the 2003 yet the car pictured is a 2005. The 2004 recieved a number of upgrades. Also I'll add the Delta platform is the best small car platform GM has ever built, and gets better with the Delta II.

I'll take the 2006-2007 ION over any of the eight s cars I've ever had. Mind you I'd not give a nickle for a 2003 or 2004 ION. That said I'd not give a nickle for any SL1, SW1 etc. Yep that means I now drive a 2006 ION 3 Quad Coupe with the wonderfull 2.4L.

 

When that first truck load of ION's rolled up at the store we were ready to have an upgrade to the S-Series. They came off the truck got checked for shipping damage and off they went to the shop to be PDI'd so we could get them on the front lot. Driving the ION 1 and ION 2 was like driving a lumber wagon. The seats were sickning, the tiny steering wheel was retarted. Oh and the door gaps are crazy. The back door of the ION sedan always looks like it's ajar, thats one thing with all the upgrades the ION got that was never addressed. Road noise of that 2003 was unreal was still as bad in 2004. Yet the ION sold real well. 2005 came along with all sorts of upgrades and they made the car into something worth having for the money. 2006-2007 ION are outstanding cars evan though they don't look any different then the ones that came before. ION sales stayed steady as GM was nose diving into the abyss. I to will take a 2006-2007 ION over any SC,SL built. Did the ION kill Saturn? No GM killed Saturn as they damn near did with the entire company. Saturn outsold Cadillac,Buick,Oldsmobile,Pontiac,Hummer,and SAAB. Yet Saturn had to go to keep many of the GM dealerships on board. Remember Caddy,Buick,Olds,Pontiac,Hummer,SAAB,GMC stores are not stand alone like Chevy and Saturns stores. For GM to keep Saturn and kill Buick that would have left dealers groups with 5 of 7 carlines gone. Buick had to stay, and could because GM had moved VUE prodution to Mexico, Shutting down ION production in Spring Hill replacing it with the ASTRA and getting the spring hill plant fully into the GM fold so GM could bring the plant back online with one of the four core brands at a later date. Now SATURN is a thing of the past and writers say one thing and don't evan use the correct photo to go along with the story. I'll be driving my 2007 ION 3 with the 2.4L ecotec for many years to come because no matter how I look I can't find another damn car I'm buy to replace it.

 

One of the nice things about the automobile hobby is that it is something everyone can enjoy and no matter what the automobile is, there will be rabid fans of it. I am sure some where there is an avid Trabant car club. A vehicle that epitomizes the inadequacies of communism. Liking an Ion or not is part of enjoying the sad story that Saturn came to represent. At least in some peoples minds.
The S car when announced was a refreshing breath of air in what was becoming me too form of design and engineering that always existed when something was taken apart and inspected but usually disguised with some form of marketing, hype or very real cosmetic and material differences.
GM both announced, failed to market well and killed the Saturn, but what killed it more than anything else was a mind set that they buying public was willing to buy a Cadillac and a Chevrolet that had little to say for themselves as to differences other than the badge that came on the hood and the trunk when GM dropped the engine departments of the individual marques and made Chevrolet the Corporate GM engine starting in about 1975 and that the same people would buy a Chevrolet made by Toyota or Isuzu and oh by the way make one for the other divisions too, our buyers are stupid.
Things that come to my mind to pick on GM is marketing an Opal through Buick dealers until German economy started to get weird so they had them made by Isuzu. Opals by Buick they were referred to. Another class act, one of many, the Cadillac Cimarron a thinly disguised Chevy designed compact, can’t remember the name, drove a couple. Butt ugly, horrible drivers and Cheap.
Some one in marketing wanted a BMW equivalent to draw people back to Caddy not realizing people left Caddy because buying one was a joke.
Does anyone remember the T.V. Adds of a 1980ish FWD Caddy plowing it’s way dead direct through a set of cones. And then touting the luxury of the thing?
As if people who bought them even if they did not appreciate handling (them being BMW’s) discovered when you changed lanes you did not get car sick doing it. A feature I had in a new Lincoln, gawd that was a perfectly horrible piece of corporate platform crap with air suspension. I am prone to car sickness and that was the only car I ever owned that tended to make me car sick driving it. And reliability? None. It was in the shop every two months. It cured me of buying Ford Products, it represented corporate platform engineering in such a way that I will have as little to do with badge engineering as possible and also what prevailed in the auto industry then and influenced people to buy something imported from anywhere other than Detroit.
Sorry, there is nothing wrong with liking an Ion. I guess, I don’t. I don’t appreciate the concept of Corporate Platforms an euphemism that is meant to replace individual design and created buy a book keeping department rather than a design studio. A concept that in my opinion created automobiles that were intended to be the least offensive in appearance to the widest margin of the customer base and at best managed to be homely to all and a 2nd choice to any company that could come to these shores and sell a car.
The first Hyundai’s drove like little baby tanks. Were noisy with lousy road manners but were acceptable, cheap and reliable. Today a style leader, highly respected and a leader in almost anything. While GM closes plants that made me too corporate platform look a likes with a questionable reputation.
And the dealers are struggling to sell what are at best 2nd rate products.
I recently stopped to look at the new Chrysler Van. Yes another corporate platform with little differences between it an Dodge and sold for a while as a Volkswagen. And some one commented on the Chrysler 300 aluminum wheels I have on the car, a set of wheels I accumulated when some one owed me money and I got them cheap. They are 17’s, look good etc. I was asked why I had them because it took away from the trade in. Another marketing ploy that I was supposed to get excited about and I responded with for $30,000+ plastic hub caps painted were not my idea of style and another salesman said more or less, carbon fiber, not plastic. To which I replied. I am old school, for my money I want polished shiny stuff like chrome not bloody plastic that one could get from a Yugo, another universally identifiable piece of cheap crap that I am sure some where there is a car club for. Other than product loyalty which drives many people, if it did not have Stow and Go seating I would have bought a Mercedes. And I probably would have anyway if the salesman was not so damned stupid to tell me when I wanted one with out leather that they had non with cloth, only leather and MBTEX which was vinyl. A material which is NOT leather which is what I asked for.
Sorry, take no offence, for what it is I like my S car. I think it was a good buy when new. Except for Saturns incredibly stupid pricing which meant I bought something else almost a third cheaper when I bought a new car at the time. Mine was purchased as a 2 year old used car and a good financial move.

The Ion? Represents to me Badge engineering at it’s worse, pretty much homely and available from other dealers as something badged different. Today? Represents something hard to get parts for and they must be shipped in from some other country.
I still will prefer to buy American but when I want something specific if it wasn’t made by an American company I found one that was made elsewhere.
My Mitsubishi was a great buy. Ran 270,000 miles with out enough problems to talk about. It was sold as the Expo LRV and also as a Plymouth Colt Vista, The Eagle Summit wagon. I bought the Eagle, the same car across the street identical except for the label Mitsubishi was $1000.00 higher.
Will I buy another Mitsubishi? No, they no longer make what I want.
When I bought my Town and Country I wanted Stow and Go interior. But would buy price. The Saturn Dealer had a rebadged Chevy Van, damned butt ugly at 38,000 with one price shopping. The Chrysler dealer sold me what I wanted for 21,000 cash. Cars were hard sell then and I could afford what I wanted and found it and bought it.
Saturn stuck in their marketing rut designed when the sold cars that were actually built by them, no longer worked for badge engineered products when their buyers were buying something off shore with an identity.
Me, I am old, a back yard mechanic, don’t like the Ion, would not buy one new at any price and don’t care about them now other than as part of the Saturn family of cars which are now history, a sad one to say the least but not alone.
And yesterday I got my Mercury Marine motor mounted in my 1976 AMC Hornet Station wagon and discovered I am going to have to re-locate the power steering pump and A/C compressor by fabricating brackets that I did not realize I was going to have to do.
Why? I like’m and there is no reasoning behind any of that.
It’s a hobby not a lively hood. I don’t have to defend poor design and marketing any longer. I worked a long time for Eastman Kodak. A company that recently went **** up because;
They sold film, actually they sold imaging and got used to being a leader in the industry and forgot that film is only a medium so as not to compete with themselves they placed imaging designs on shelves where they would get lost behind boxes of film. That collected when their buyers bought digital until Kodak no longer had anyone to lead and no one, but no one likes a parade of one.

 

It's more than easy to get parts for ION's. In fact ION parts are more plentifull then S cars parts. Also the ION had a higher content of U.S. sorced parts then the S-car did. Now if your talking about the ASTRA thats another story all together. While I think the ASTRA was a stupid move had GM wanted to keep Saturn alive. The ASTRA is still a damn good little car. I'd not buy one because they are under powered and they are a hatchback that has an opening to small to be usefull...so whats the reason for a hatchback again? I do agree the ION is not good looking yet better looking then so many other cars. When it comes to Opel, well Opel is GM has been for more years then Saturn. GM bought Opel in 1929, bought Vauxhall in 1925, and Holden in 1931. GM engineers work all over the world, they come from all over the world and those worldly engineers that worked for GM started Saturn. GM was messed up long before SATURN was put to rest, and maybe by cutting brands GM can make it. Time will tell, and if GM comes up with a car I want I'll buy it.

 

Well my ION has less then 43K on it guess I'll keep it for some time. Wifes ION had 55K when we sold it and got her the Solstice. Daughters ION has around 80K on it now and I don't see that going anyplace for some time to come. Sons ION was totaled when a lifted Ram rammed into him and a couple other cars on the freeway. Funny thing is....that ION is back on the road via salvage title. I don't give a damn if GM shared engines, transmissions or any other parts on the ION. The only thing that mattered to me is the ION was built on a good platform and came with SATURN sales and service.

 

Saturn Sales and Service. We'll have no more of that.

 

Nope............no more of that.

 

One can lament the loss and certainly not the first of it's kind. Since the late 1800's there have been some 4000 different brands manufactured or registered as such whether they actually produced anything or not is sometimes questionable and at times the production figures have been a total that could be measured with the fingers of our hands and have figures left over. But some one missed them, for awhile carried the flag and tried to preserve the marque.
I have seen, driven and owned more than a few that no longer exist and have 5 of one brand in my driveway.
Saturn is going to be hard to keep alive, if it can be and I doubt it. History the great teacher of the past says it ain't gonna happen for a variety of reasons. Cars that degenerated into little more than badge engineered products, a methodology of manufacture and derision which has been alive in the automotive world since automobiles have been in existence say that has happened. A methodology that recently has been assigned the euphemism of being a corporate platform in an attempt to cover up the taint badge engineering brought with it, has been nothing more than an attempt to place legitimacy and acceptability to a corporate production method that essentially has little if none at all.
Who really remembers the last Packard's or Hudsons to name two of them. Automobiles that in their own rights had developed upstanding reputations but in their death throes became badge engineered or corporal platform variations of a second brand and then died.
Oldsmobile, another with a qualified career by the time of it's death gas been little more than a badge engineered Chevy with no identity of it's own since about 1977 when corporate created the universal acceptance of the Chevy V8 and the car was a sheet metal variation of the same with it's own badge.
The last Olds I had used a Buick designed motor that it itself had been sold outright to *****'s/Kaiser and used in Jeeps bought by AMC and sold back to GM and was commonly referred to by the valet parking people, the purple sedan next to the Toyota.
Or what ever.
The car itself was Fast, Reliable, and arguably homely as hell.
And could be bought under 4 or 5 different badges from as many dealers and generally quite forgettable.
Any success Saturn's have is going to be directly related to parts availability, the drive of the collectors to find them or have them made. And personally I do not see that happening.
I'll enjoy the one I have as long as I can but the end for mine is near. It needs another cosmetic restoration. If I live long enough it will get it. And then go from there. There already is parts shortages for cosmetic parts needs so there is only so far I can stretch it.
Oh Well.

 

and time keep slipping away ........... tick-tick-tick