Is there a possible return for Saturn?
 

Saturn is one of my favorite car brands. I was so sad to see them go when the economy took a turn for the worst and a few years later I am wondering where the place the market filled has gone. With uncertain gas prices there is a safe place in the market for cheap fuel efficient sedans. Fifteen years ago, you could by a four-door manual transmission Saturn S for next to nothing and get 40-45 mpg on the highway. Now, since the Cruze has been brought to America its sales as an affordable fuel efficient compact sedan have exploded. A Cruze eco will get 42 mpg on the highway with a manual transmission, which account for %51 of Cruze sales as compared to the automatic transmission Cruze's. If Saturn were still around today it would definitely have a place in the market in that sense. Saturn fit into a crucial niche in the American market, in that before Saturn was around, getting a reliable fuel efficient car meant buying imports from Japan.

Throughout it's lifetime, Saturn had a reputation for appealing to a younger market as opposed other brands. Their low cost of ownership and attitude brought in a large portion of the market shares from the more youthful end of the spectrum. If you were to break down the modern day equivalents i.e. Corollas, Civics, and the like you'll find that more and more cars of these type are being sold because there's more of this youth taking over the population and buying cars. You'll notice more and more people buying the same cars also, and market diversity for vehicles is being rapidly crushed with many (at least American) brands stripping down on marques to cut costs.

Sadly, the end-all appeal of Saturn as a brand has greatly diminished over the last ten years. The people who would buy a stickshift compact Saturn to supercharge and bolt on cold air intakes aren't nearly as present as they used to be. Most people looking for a compact car are only looking for the low cost of ownership and fuel economy, and most people probably have no intention of modifying and otherwise enjoying the performance of their cars. I see a future returning for that market, as well a potential revival for Saturn. Nevertheless, a return for Saturn is probably about as likely as a return for Studebaker. All I know is that if Saturn came back I'd run out and buy two of them as fast as I could.

Thoughts?

Never say "never" ... Even Hostess Twinkies are gonna make a comeback ...

I know they say that nothing truly goes away in this case I hope this is true. It'll be sad when I'm older and have to tell my children "When I was in high school I drove this car called a Saturn that they don't even make anymore." I'll have to keep my Saturn I have now until then to show them that they're not a myth. Breaks my heart.

Saturns return ........... I don't see it ever happening.

As a brand and a concept. The original Saturn attempted to fill a gap in the market place. One that was pretty much poo rely identified and then poorly marketed towards. The later Saturns were (to be honest) badge engineered or politically correct I guess, corporate platform offerings of cars that were aready established vehicles and Saturn assembly plant manufactured models of other manufacturers. An neither was successful. Whether they were any good or not is not the point, they and other badged vehicles had little to offer that were individualized. As a GM example some were the same cars offered by Oldsmobile (deceased) and Pontiac (also deceased) and clearly by Chevrolet a brand that is seemingly trying to market itself as a one sized fits all car make while Toyota and other foreign brands that were at one time GM corporate partners have been very successful in marketing their own automobiles. A lesson probably learned from GM in the first place before they began to sell cars based on decisions obtained from their book keepers rather than what the public wanted or was willing to buy. A method to define product in the past. I do not see Saturn coming back at all, any more than Oldsmobile will. A product that has been around almost from the time of the very first automobiles and also suffering from incredibly poor management decisions in the end.

Fill a gap? .............. More like a canyon in the GM small car segment.

To me it doesn't matter if Saturn returns as a brand but that some manufacturer new or already existing sees it as profitable to have a culture that always places the consumer first, which to me was the appeal of the original Saturn.

The original Saturns (1989-about 2000) had very little in common with other GM products including powertrains and platforms not utilized by any other GM vehicle. This uniqueness slowly faded approaching the demise of Saturn in 2009 and I credit it's death to being completely melted into rebadged versions of cars from the parent company.

Unless GM can build them over in China, I don't ever see it happening. They're taking all of the bail out money they got and investing in China. Bastards.

a return of saturn? not likely unless a very wealthy individual decides to buy the name from GM and restart the company. the "real saturns" were very fine cars for their time, and make great used cars today. my wife's SL1 single cam auto drives great and returns excellent fuel mileage. 30-31 mpg is pretty great for my area(three large winging hills on our commute), especially considering the car is an automatic, and it handles better than my five year newer suzuki, not to mention it's more comfortable. all those being said, the inner workings of the car show their age. it still performs just as it was supposed to back in 2000, but the basic engine design has been used nearly unchanged since the early 90's... it's fuel injection system(speed density) is old and is less efficient than mass air systems. the engine leaks or uses oil after some miles of use, and power is pretty low for the size of the engine by today's standards. i think the saturn sc/sl/sw could be redone if the person responsible for the revival of the brand had the same values that the original founder had. the basic engine design could be kept, with some substantial revisions to the cylinder head, and engine management system. new crash regulations and other stuff would ultimately keep the car from being as light or as small as it originally was, and its size and lack of weight were the biggest contributors to its stellar performance. so a new saturn could be made, but not in the same spirit of the original... the best thing we can do is to keep our old cars around as long as it's still possible to...

The original founder was GM, and I credit it's death due to the dealership networks.

GM could not shut down both Pontiac and Buick. If you think about it Caddy dealers were almost always connected to Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and GMC trucks not to mention Hummer and SAAB. With Olds gone GM could not leave the Caddy dealership network with only GMC. To many would have faultered already loosing Pontiac, Hummer, and SAAB. With Buick gone GM would have had to move Saturn upscale into the Buick slot or close to it. So while Saturn still outsold Caddy, Buick, Pontiac, Hummer, and SAAB they didn't need a second brand selling in the Chevy slot. Thats my take on it after working for GM for 30 plus years and Saturn for 18 of them. So Saturn is gone never to return.

Well said I think that answers the question.

Seems to sum it up.

They went the way of all the other American car companies in the past. They were just another re-badge manufacturer with nothing really making them stand out in the end.

You now own a S series and you'll find out how much of a GM rebadge it is.

The S car of course is not a badge engineered corporate platform car. It established the name Saturn and for some reason it took a fair amount of heat from the corporate car testing crowd. As I remember anyway. Noisy, under powered, not competitive. These are things I remember from the time. My personal experience? Expensive. In 1991 or so I was looking to replace the car I was driving and Saturn was one I was looking at seriously. In the service business my self at that time you run across service oriented people at road stops and many were driving the then new Saturn. It was not un-common in that industry to buy a a new car and discover you were wearing parts out faster than they were showing up in the replacement market and that happened on the Dodge Aries K car I was driving at the time. So along with reading not really good road tests on the Saturn I was asking drivers who were racking the miles up on them using them as a service car and there was nothing but positive things to be said about the initial S car. But the bottom line still was it was expensive. And the competition was in many cases equally as good. I ended up by a Mitsubishi that frankly I did not particularly want but it suited my purposes equally as well as a Saturn would have and for exactly the same reasons, but rather than the roughly $16,000 for the Saturn, out the door with the title in my pocket for $11,000. I drove that car 300,000 miles and for 11 years. I am equally sure a new Saturn would have done the same and I probably would have enjoyed it more. But the Dealer One Price did not give me wiggle room to buy the car with and frankly it was not worth the extra money out the door to drive it that way. And 11 years later Saturn was well into the process of becoming a badge engineered "Me To" automobile that offered little appeal over the competition, some of which were the same car with a different name. And still a Dealer One Price sales net work.
When I bought my Van new in 2007 just before Saturn quit I could buy a Chrysler town and Country and did for 21,000 or a Rebadged Chevy for $37,000. I think the math explains things all by itself.

PARTS of it are GM standard parts but, the Original S cars were what Saturn was all about. I remember going to the opening of the first Saturn dealer in town.

The parts that I'm finding are generic GM parts are many mechanical things, switches and relays which is convenient for a 20-year old out of production car from a shut-down company. It makes finding replacement parts a little easier. OCCASIONALLY I'll strike gold and find a first gen s-car at the junk yard.

I was saying that when they got the ax they were just re-badged GM vehicles. The ION and was the last chassis that was native to the Saturn line.

SL Base Manual $7,995
SL1 Base Manual $8,595
SL2 Base Manual $10,295
SC2 Base Manual $11,775

SL1 Base Automatic $9,290
SL2 Base Automatic $10,990
SC Base Automatic $11,775

Transportation
$275

Power Door Locks,
Power Windows,
Air Conditioning,
Power Right Side Mirror,
Cruise Control
$1,430

Air Conditioning
$775

Cruise Control
$195

AM/FM Cassette + Coaxial Speakers
$175

AM/FM Cassette + EQ + Coaxial Speakers
$295

AM/FM CD
$545

Power Sunroof
$530

ABS/Traction Control
$895

I still have the stickers
My wifes 1992 SL2 was $13,780
My 1993 SL2 was $14,030

and I agree the ION was the last SATURN

$9220 For my lovely SL sedan. Wish you could still buy a new car for less than 10K

Add the options up that Rj listed and add 7% tax it comes to 15777.15 so my memory as old as it is, still basically works. And I paid out the door $11,000 with some kind of extra mileage warranty that cost me a Grand to buy because the cost of the Mitsubishi was comming out of my pocket not some one else's and I knew I was going to rack up the miles. I have no complaints with the Saturn, I like the SC2 coupe I still have which why I still have it. But as a 94 and as 2 year old used car it made a lot of sense to buy it when it was bought. But in 91 a number that adds up roughly to 50% more did not make sense. It is my personal belief the dealer marketing more than anything else drove customers off. The Dealers them self were great to deal with. The dealer the 94 was purchased from here in Southern Phoenix was great. The dealer that is no longer there near where I now live I can not say the same thing about. Going there for service was like playing Gouge for Dollars.
The car when it came out was in my opinion as good as the come. Maybe even better, but today 20 years or so down stream the standard generic GM parts are not a problem, it is the Saturn unique parts that break and can not be found that is. That though is not unique to a Saturn, finding Rambler, Nash, Hudson, Packard, Studebaker, Pontiac, Kaiser, Frasier, Henry J, Oldsmobile, Desoto, Plymouth and even Chevrolet parts that old are a problem. The one that can not be dealt with well is taking back to a dealer. At least one can still find a Chevrolet dealer.

No need to add anything up Unc.

He posted the 1991 Price sheet for all to see. Then he posted the amount he paid for two of his Saturn's.