Saturn Sky

I first saw the Pontiac version over a year ago, at the Minneapolis Auto
Show in March. This year both Pontiac and Saturn proudly displayed
their versions at the auto show.

I went to the Saturn dealer today to see it. They were very nice,
offered to let me take a spin in one, but they said they could only take
an order, and did not expect delivery until next summer. They said
they were not actually delivering them yet, and were expecting to supply
their first buyers in a few weeks.

Why don't they do a better job of meeting demand?

[No, I declined their offer to test drive it. It's unlikely I'll buy
one, and they said the test model is actually spoken for; I don't want
to put miles on someone else's car. Anyway, I sat in it. It was parked
in the sun, top down, black leather, 95 degree day. YOWWEE!]

> Saturn dealers are going belly up by the boatload, at least where I live
> (NYC).
> I would look for the Pontiac version if I were you.

Look for the Opel version...
--


Joe in Northern, NJ - V#8013-R

Currently Riding The "Mother Ship"

Ride a motorcycle in or near NJ?
http://tinyurl.com/5apkg
http://www.youthelate.com

Heres the real scoop. (and btw- why all the sudden all the haters here? I
thought this was a board for nice pro-saturn ppl)

The SKY was first conceived in '04 in the Frankfurt Auto Show as a concept
car. GM's Rick Wagoner fell in love with it and talked the designers to
bring the car into production. At the time, Saturn was also showing a
concept car called the Curve (which never made to production). The curve
concept was scrapped and the SKY was decided to be built to reimage the
Saturn brand.

Within this design period, GM was going thru some financial issues (I'm sure
you may have heard) and was pondering 86ing either Buick or Pontiac as their
sales were lacking beyond Saturn's. This and the widely-proposed usage of
the Kappa based platform allowed GM to provide the SKY Kappa design to
Pontiac to call it their own and thus the Solstice was born. The Solstice
was debuted a year prior to the release of the SKY to test the market for a
2 seater convertible, despite Saturn's announcement and plans to release the
SKY later on.

Both the SKY and Solstice are what the call Halo Vehicles. See Wikipedia for
explainantion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_vehicle

The idea, which IMO is an ill conceived one, is to make a very low
production car to attract ppl to the brand whom may not have otherwise have
considered the brand. Now why someone would come to a Saturn dealership to
look at a SKY and turn around and buy an ION is just plain silly. A VUE or
Aura perhaps.

There will be NO Opel version sold in the US and besides, that will be the
exact same car only rebadged and shipped from Wilmington USA to Germany,
the proposed selling price for that HALO car is $40K US currency. The SKY is
under $30K. and is very obtainable for those willing to wait.

Saturn is not the only car brand to sell halo cars, but I have to say that
they are relying far too much and advertising too much something that they
can only deliver in very small amounts which in the short run is only
hurting them and driving away current customers. Maybe next year when some
real viable full production vehicles come out will Saturn regain what they
had a few years ago in the general public's eye.

marx404

nope, not toast, lets not write them off just yet, lest see what the future
holds with Opel. I agree somewhat with your opinion about the S series, they
should have kept and revised it.

marx404

On Wed, 19 Jul 2006 22:47:16 GMT, "Private" >
wrote:

>
>"marx404" > wrote in message
m...
>(and btw- why all the sudden all the haters here? I
>> thought this was a board for nice pro-saturn ppl)
>snip
>
>Maybe
> snip
>Saturn regain what they
>> had a few years ago in the general public's eye.
>
>The sales and marketing bean counters killed the hard earned well deserved
>Saturn goodwill when they lost sight of their roots which was simple,
>reliable and economical transportation. They should have focused on
>maximizing the return on their investment in the S series and should have
>brought out a third generation model with very few changes. The second
>generation styling is still attractive and the basic platform is sound.
>IMHO, they should have kept the single cam and the station wagon body and
>marketed them (like Ford escort & Taurus) for the same price as the sedans.
>
>They could have improved the door armrest padding and the location of the
>cig lighter so that a radar detector plug would not block the cup holder.
>Also done some work on the engine metallurgy and I bet that some planned
>fuel system and computer engine management improvements died in the
>engineering department. They could have developed a turbo diesel which
>would compete very well with the VW Golf/Jetta TDI. I would have replaced
>my oldest SW1 in 2002 if they had been available and would have loved to
>have been (or be) able to buy an SW-TDI. I would have purchased factory
>roof rack rails. The S series platform could (perhaps) have been adapted
>for a hybrid engine. They could have developed an S series 4wd like the
>Subaru, (although I have never needed 4wd and would probably not be willing
>to pay the increased cost for decreased load capacity and economy). I wish
>that they had used a more common tire size (185 instead of 175 x 14) and
>wish that I could have purchased the 15" rims with the single cam engine. I
>would have purchased heavy duty springs. I would have paid a higher price
>point.
>
>Instead of doing what they were doing well, better, they tried to do what
>everyone else was already doing better. Why did they kill the SW1? Did the
>world really need another SUV? Was there a shortage of 4dr sedan models
>available? Does every new car model need to be bigger and burn more fuel?
>
>I think they are now toast.
>
>Just my .02
>

Exactly. After three SLs, I'm now driving a Civic.

Saturn seems to have given up on what my demographic is looking for:
simple, reliable, economical transportation, just as this post says.

i'm not sure if the company's toast, and I'm glad others are finding
what they want in a Saturn -- over the years I've converted several
people into joining the Saturn family -- but I won't be going back.

--Nan
who once dreamed of owning an SW2

Yes very sad indeed. I'm on my second engine & trans for my 94 SW2 and
when this motor goes I'll drop in an electric motor and lay out my
batteries in the back. They should have never dropped the S series it
should have gone to hybrid. The SW is a great little car.


Private wrote:
> "marx404" > wrote in message
> ...
> (and btw- why all the sudden all the haters here? I
> > thought this was a board for nice pro-saturn ppl)
> snip
>
> Maybe
> snip
> Saturn regain what they
> > had a few years ago in the general public's eye.
>
> The sales and marketing bean counters killed the hard earned well deserved
> Saturn goodwill when they lost sight of their roots which was simple,
> reliable and economical transportation. They should have focused on
> maximizing the return on their investment in the S series and should have
> brought out a third generation model with very few changes. The second
> generation styling is still attractive and the basic platform is sound.
> IMHO, they should have kept the single cam and the station wagon body and
> marketed them (like Ford escort & Taurus) for the same price as the sedans.
>
> They could have improved the door armrest padding and the location of the
> cig lighter so that a radar detector plug would not block the cup holder.
> Also done some work on the engine metallurgy and I bet that some planned
> fuel system and computer engine management improvements died in the
> engineering department. They could have developed a turbo diesel which
> would compete very well with the VW Golf/Jetta TDI. I would have replaced
> my oldest SW1 in 2002 if they had been available and would have loved to
> have been (or be) able to buy an SW-TDI. I would have purchased factory
> roof rack rails. The S series platform could (perhaps) have been adapted
> for a hybrid engine. They could have developed an S series 4wd like the
> Subaru, (although I have never needed 4wd and would probably not be willing
> to pay the increased cost for decreased load capacity and economy). I wish
> that they had used a more common tire size (185 instead of 175 x 14) and
> wish that I could have purchased the 15" rims with the single cam engine. I
> would have purchased heavy duty springs. I would have paid a higher price
> point.
>
> Instead of doing what they were doing well, better, they tried to do what
> everyone else was already doing better. Why did they kill the SW1? Did the
> world really need another SUV? Was there a shortage of 4dr sedan models
> available? Does every new car model need to be bigger and burn more fuel?
>
> I think they are now toast.
>
> Just my .02

In article . com>,
says...
> Yes very sad indeed. I'm on my second engine & trans for my 94 SW2 and
> when this motor goes I'll drop in an electric motor and lay out my
> batteries in the back.

Um yeah... Expect to spend over 5000 bucks doing that. Also don't expect
much more than 30 miles per charge...

http://www.ohler.com/ev/spyder/index.html (is a good/neat site to read)

Electric cars are an expensive "hobby". If it aint "big oil" its "big
battery". Battery tech is currently at a stand still. The only viable
alternative fuel source I currently see that is also environmentally
friendly and easy to convert to would be Biodiesel. There are no
limitations with Biodiesel like there is with batteries and with the
already cramped cars being made into hybrids.
Full size trucks, semi's, as well as compact cars can all fill up at
the same pumps with biodiesel. Since biodiesel doesnt have the octane
rating bs of gas nor has different blends, that I know of, there should
only be ONE PRICE at a pump. Since the source of fuel isnt shared with
airlines that would also be a plus.

> They should have never dropped the S series it
> should have gone to hybrid. The SW is a great little car.

Hybrids blow. Spend more money than normal to save nothing but a little
fraction of a fraction of ozone. Waste of effort. Use the money you save
by not buying a hybrid on planting a few tree's.