Sad Email From Saturn Reassuring You That GM Will Still Make Parts For Your Car
Reader James forwarded us a sad email he got from Saturn, in which they admit that GM is probably going to give them the ax. In it, they emphasize that their warranties feature the "industry's best overall coverage" and that no matter what "GM will support the continued availability of Saturn parts and service as needed."
Dear [redacted]:
From our very beginning, Saturn has always sought a better way. We pioneered no-hassle, no-haggle shopping, built dent-resistant cars, set a new benchmark for customer service and forged a unique relationship with our retailers, workers and customers. From the beginning, Saturn was launched as a "Different Kind of Car Company."
Well, here we go again.
You may have read that General Motors delivered a plan to the U.S. government that outlined the corporation's plan for long-term viability.In that plan, GM stated that Saturn would work with its retailers to investigate options for the future of the Saturn Brand. We said that all ideas were on the table and we meant it.
Today, we confirmed that Saturn and GM would further investigate one of those options: a spin-off of an independent Saturn Distribution Corporation.
The Saturn Distribution Corporation already exists as an indirect subsidiary of GM. It's the entity with which our retailers currently have their franchise agreement. An independent Saturn would still have its great retailers, and it would continue to source current products from GM through 2011. If successful, SDC at that point would source products from other manufacturers.
The goal-from a product perspective-would be to find future vehicles that match the Saturn Brand: fuel-efficient, safe, reliable and affordable. From a retailing perspective, we would build on our core strength of unmatched customer service. The same hassle-free experience that is a hallmark of the brand could be taken to even higher levels.
While this process proceeds, we will continue to do what we have always done best: sell great vehicles and take care of our customers. We have a fresh portfolio of award-winning, fuel-efficient vehicles and a network of retailers that is second to none. And our new vehicles are still backed by a 100,000-mile/5-year (whichever comes first) Transferable Powertrain Limited Warranty. When you add Roadside Assistance and Courtesy Transportation programs, we believe it is the industry's best overall coverage. It is coverage that GM and Saturn will continue to firmly stand behind, and GM will support the continued availability of Saturn parts and service as needed.
This is an exciting time at the Saturn Brand, and I have to confess, it feels a bit like it did back in the 1980s when the original Saturn project was being developed. As loyal Saturn owners and enthusiasts, I know you support this brand, and you can believe we are working toward a vibrant future. Difficult times sometimes yield the most innovative solutions, and those who are willing to take on the challenge will emerge victorious. Stay tuned.
Sincerely,
Jill Lajdziak
General Manager, Saturn
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Comments:
I can't believe GM is chucking Saturn and keeping Buick. Should be the other way around.
This is one of the reasons North American car companies have been going downhill, they`re trying to diversify too much. Companies like Kia have maybe 10 models of car, how many models does GM make?
It's about time GM started doing something about this. Diversification has a negative impact on profitability when you're mass producing vehicles like this, and some of the savings can be used to plug their hemorrhaging cash flow, the rest can be passed on to the consumers.
Why ditch Saturn? If I HAD to buy GM, that's the only brand I would think of looking at (well except for a Toyota-built Pontiac Vibe). Saturn produced some pretty reliable cars, but they weren't marketed enough, nor were they really that price competitive when looking at similar entry-level imports.
@gardenwzl: Saturn was the only american made car I owned that did not DIE before 100K. Not saying all american cars do die before 100K but I treated my saturn like crap and putting on 75K in 1 year the thing was great. My F250 and Jimmy (both of which were serviced a lot) died or had serious repair bills before reaching 100K.
I hope someone buys Saturn or they get a chunck of the bail out going to GM and just become a stand alone car maker.
Still driving a '92 saturn
431K km on it
reliable automobiles saturn (used?) to make
Service parts are very profitable for auto companies, so this is not surprising.
@wardawg:
I agree with you totally. Jalopnik released the sales numbers for various domestic manufacturers about a month ago that showed the statistics of each brand/model sold. I was amazed to see that GM, when you count all of the brands under it, had close to 100 different car models to choose from. And there were a lot of stinkers in there. It just made me think, if they had focused on making 75% fewer cars, but making them 75% more reliable and cheaper...they wouldn't be in the mess they are in now.
As someone who chose Saturn as their first automobile purchase because of the way the consumer is treated by the salesperson (and reliability), I will be very sad if they are closed. The four cars my wife and myself have purchased new have all been Saturns, and I wanted to stay that way.
If GM does this, my wife and myself have coincidentally chose to go to Volkswagon as our next new car purchase. This was done indepently thinking hard about if this was to happen, and when I asked her what she thought, I was pleased to see we are on the same page.
Arrogant GM would never admit they were having troubles for lack of innovation, research and development and their rotten quality. So nice to see them crashing and burning.
Good riddance. I just got rid of my Saturn Vue POS- the line that they state: "While this process proceeds, we will continue to do what we have always done best: sell great vehicles and take care of our customers." Pffft, hardly.
Their customer service went downhill when the company joined the GM line, as well as their individuality. They aren't as affordable and gas efficient as other automakers, and their warranty doesn't hold a flame to others as well. The only part of their warranty that was worth it was it was transferrable- and trust me, the next owner would need it.
The only part of this that saddens me is the existing, die hard Saturn fans. Unfortunately, many of our domestic brands are a dying breed to foreign.
my first car was a 96 saturn SL1. i bought it with 100K+ miles on it, and put another 100K on it--and it still ran great. i'd probably still be driving it if i hadn't totalled it. :(
my current car is a 2001 salturn SL1. i love saturns. *tear*
They aren't still making the parts becasue it's what they want to do to help the little guy. They are required (by the federal government) to make replacement parts for 10 years after a model has been discontinued. After 10 years the owners are SOL if the junk yard doesn't have them.
@k6richar: Holy Christmas! Almost a half mill??? You win.
If some jerk hadn't t-boned (and subsequently totaled) my '03 L300 (130ishK miles), I'd still be pushing it - although it did have quite a few problems.
*moment of silence*
"Today, we confirmed that Saturn and GM would further investigate one of those options: a spin-off of an independent Saturn Distribution Corporation."
If Saturn was a part of the company that was making money, why cut it off? If it wasn't making money, why make it into an independent spin-off?
Anyone know what will happen to Saab and Hummer?
Well most of the recent ones are Opels anyway.
@jaydez: Manufacturers generally make most of the parts for a considerably longer time than that... I can still get most of the parts I need for my '81 and '84 Honda motorcycles from the dealer, as well as my '85 BMW and, before I sold it, '92 Buick. Some of the bigger stuff can be harder to find, but overall parts availability for old cars really isn't that bad.
They've always been a part of GM. Saturn was created by GM... how did their customer service go downhill before they were even created?
It wasn't profitable under the almighty umbrella that is GM. You'd be surprised the amount of wiggle room an independent corporation has when they can slim down their supply lines, dealerships, and other bloaty things that come with being part of a huge mega-conglomerate such as GM.
Not saying SDC will ever be profitable or successful by any means, but it's not impossible either.
@cynical_bastard: Except they sell more Saturns than Buick, and they are just moving the Opels Saturn was going to get in 2010 to Buick now (ie the LaCrosse which is a Opel Insight)
And nothing says they couldn't close Buicks US operations and leave the china one open (since the China one is independent of the US brand and has cars the US brand doesn't even offer
The only reason they are chucking Saturn and keeping Buick is the name. Buick has been a GM brand for ages, Saturn? only since 1985 (and then only started selling cars since 1990)
@Saboth: Ah, I see. Still not bad.
I think my dad's '96 Jimmy is hovering around 300K miles. Kinda on life support though.
@wardawg: I would say that GM probably only has about 10 models as well, just they have 5 different BRAND-VERSIONS of each model in which only the chassis and engine are the same. Its just not feasible.
Yahoo! has an interesting article detailing the restructuring plans of Chysler and GM. The section devoted to Saturn is very revealing.
Although I'm calling bullshit on GM's "hard work" on the brand (it's well documented GM hasn't done shit for Saturn), it sounds like Saturn was a victim of its own benefits. I guess there just aren't enough dealers or enough people who don't want to haggle. Too bad. Saturn's new line up looked promising, and they're one of the few GM companies I would consider for a new car.
@Saboth: Saturn S series have rolled over 500,000 miles. They had a huge event for the first one a few year back when you used to be able to join the 100k club before GM started stripping Saturn of all the stuff that made it cool like homecomings and events.
@Jim Topoleski: I think it has a lot more to do with GM's internal structure. Saturn is not nearly as integral a part of their operations and dealership structure as Buick is, even if Buick has been neglected and doesn't sell very many cars anymore. Unfortunately, this is more about ease of shedding brands than it is about what brands they shed...
It is interesting to see the logic and reasoning for brand killing. Oldsmobile was killed off because the people who bought them were in nursing homes or dying, leaving only two models that really sold, the Alero and the SUV which was a blazer twin. GM learned from its mistake with this, which is why Cadillac cars suddenly became sporty and youthful instead of land yachts driven to the Cracker Barrel at 5 in the morning around this time. I suspect GM wants to keep Buick for similar reasons, it is really the only brand it has that would appeal to older/elderly buyers. I do recall a time in the early 90s when EVERYTHING GM sold was an old lady car. Ala lumina, Cutlass. I am upset that GM took John DeLorean's Pontiac division and let it languish to a fleet of twins. DeLorean is probably rolling in his grave.
Saturn stopped being a 'different kind of car company' a long time ago. They're really just living off of the image of what it was. Now it's just badge-engineered models that you can always find a chevy or buick version of the same vehicle.
Saturn was the only GM brand I would ever consider. I owned a 1998 SL2 that was a great little car and we had the Saturn ownership experience up until the car was totaled in 2000 and, in which I still say to this day, the car saved our lives. We went back after the accident to look at getting another car and noticed that the sales staff wasn't the same helpful people any more and were more like the slime you'd see at any other car dealer so we didn't buy a Saturn.
Fast forward to 2002... we wanted a SUV, and we felt the Saturn VUE was a good bet and we bought one regardless of the slimy salespeople. It was good for the first 30,000 miles before the transmission began to fail. They had a recall and revised the warranty to replace the transmission, but with another poorly designed one. It failed before it had 30,000 miles on it and Saturn wouldn't cover it and insisted on us paying for useless maintenance work (fluid flushes, inspections, etc.) before they'd even consider doing anything. We traded it in and gave up on Saturn. I do have to laugh that there is a class action against Saturn for this very transmission problem.
RIP Saturn
@jaydez:
Not true. There is no requirement that they continue to make replacement parts for X years. They do have to warranty the emissions system for a number of years, which by definition, implies that they will continue to make some parts for that period.
@gardenwzl: Old people are more likely to pay for their Buicks with cash, which is useful for a company with very little of it. Saturn owners tend to be younger, require financing, and are more likely to default on said financing.
GM also just Axed their entire "SS" performance department as well.. No more high-performance projects out of GM.. They have lost their minds.
When I was buying a used work car I looked at Saturns, and concluded that the horrible "ride" was not worth the mileage or cheap price, seriously, I would rather ride a donkey than go anywhere in a Saturn.
Ended up buying a Saab. Solid-As-A-Brick, but without the feeling of riding on one.
@Geoff Gibson: errr WRONG.
Saturn was NOT part of GM originally. They where funded by GM, but everything about them was separate.
separate platform, engine, management, engineers, UAW contract, plant, dealer contract, you name it.
Saturn was a experiment by GM to see if their plans to restructure GM to compete with the imports would pan out.
What happened was a number of things. First the people who supported Saturn inside GM left or where fired. Then after GM turned in a loss for 1993, and Saturn turned in a profit, GM folded them back in under the guise of "experiment failed" to use Saturns profits for GMs purposes.
Then while claiming Saturn would still retain their autonomy, they stripped and changed all the contracts with the UAW and dealers, took all of Saturns engineers, and eventually took their plant leaving them just "brand name" without any support structure left.
@B: try dead. The only way they would be sold is if the Swedes would buy them, and they just said no today so unless independent funder can come in Saab is being killed with Hummer.
@gardenwzl: Yes, they're downright stupid to scrap Saturn and keep GMC, which 1) sells enormous gas-guzzlers that nobody wants and 2) sells practically NOTHING but vehicles also sold under the Chevrolet brand.
In my opinion GM is almost as undeserving of the bailout as the morons at Citibank.
@Plates: ONE is the Astra. 3 if you count the two Saturns that are sold as Opels but where Saturns first (Vue and GT).
The Aura shares NOTHING with the similar Opel Vectra. Just design cues. Its actually similar to the G6 which came before it, and the new Malibu which is actually a carbon copy of it with a Chevy body.
@wardawg: I agree as well. I think that dropping every brand except Cadillac and Chevrolet could be a good option for them. I've never really understood why they have GMC, and I don't think Pontiac is necessary. Buick could always be kept as a brand in China where it's quite popular.
@Vanilla5:
My Saturn got totaled too and I would have driven it till it died otherwise. It was the best, most reliable car I've ever had and it suited my needs perfectly. I'm very disappointed by its closing and don't know what I'm going to do now when it comes to buying another car. :(
*moment of silence too*
My local news talked to the owner of the two Saturn dealerships here, and he said that they won't be going anywhere, and Saturn is already in talks with two or three potential buyers.
I love Saturn. My family has had 7 Saturns over the past twelve years. We still have 4. Two were sold and one wrecked. They've been really reliable and the one I wrecked kept me safe in a bad wreck.
I wouldn't be surprised if what's happening to Saturn is the way that the automotive industry is headed in: the marketing/selling/design of cars will be separate from the manufacturing of the vehicles. It's basically what's happened to the computer/electronics industries: your Apple/Dell/HP/etc computer is not actually manufactured by those companies. Rather, the company works on designing, marketing, and some of the engineering for their products; then they outsource manufacturing to various contract manufacturers such as ASUSTeK, Quanta, Foxconn, etc.
Similarly, you would have Saturn most likely doing the design/support/marketing/distribution for the vehicles, but most likely outsourcing manufacturing to other car manufacturers. You already see car manufacturers in similar joint ventures today: there are GM vehicles that are essentially rebranded Suzuki/Toyota vehicles (such as my Pontiac Vibe, aka Toyota Matrix), Ford vehicles that share a platform with Mazda vehicles (Ford Fusion/Mazda6, or Ford Escape/Mazda Tribute), among many other examples.
@Vanilla5: Got ya! My 94 Ford Ranger is at 423,000 miles with the original motor. The AC suffered black death, an Ford stupidly put the clutch slave cylinder inside the bell housing, but otherwise it has been bulletproof! It is no longer my primary car, but I can't get rid of it just yet.
@BlackMage is doing the Time Warp agaaaaaaain!!!: It's more a case-study on how incompetent, jealous execs from a bloated, insular, larger organization can run a more nimble, more customer-focused, higher-quality division into the ground so they don't seem quite as excruciatingly full of Suck.
I definitely recall seeing more Hummer ads than Saturn ones, and I watch few commercials.
Nice to see it worked out so well for them. In spite of the job losses, I'd love to see GM allowed to fail - their execs, at least.
@scootinger: Yes, they're downright stupid to scrap Saturn and keep GMC
Not necessarily. GMC is their commercial brand - heavy trucks used in construction, dump trucks, etc. It isn't meant to be a consumer brand except for the one or two models consumers buy from them. Most of what GMC sells is heavy, and GM needs a brand in the heavy equipment market.
Well, considering that you can still go buy parts for Oldsmobiles, it's not too surprising that you'll still be able to buy Saturn parts. It also helps that they share a lot of parts with their badge engineered counterparts (at least after the S-series).