On January 7th, 1985 the General Motors Corporation established the Saturn Corporation as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Vehicle Production began in 1990 due to the success of Japanese small imports in the US. Saturn imitated many Japanese manufactures by giving workers more control and involvement in the plant. Vehicle designs were also very similar to the small Japanese imports. GM decided to do something different with Saturn and gave the company complete corporate control.
With the help of finely crafted image advertising Saturn built quite a cult following. The company held annual car meets in Tennessee for its owners and day-to-day special events at its dealerships, which they called “Retail Facilities.” Saturn quickly became know as an affordable car company with great customer service, but despite all this they could not make a profit. By the 2000’s Saturn became a several billion dollar loss for General Motors.
With Saturn unable to capitalize on its early momentum, General Motors decided to take control of Saturn and integrate the company into the GM infrastructure in 2003. GM has updated Saturn’s line up with new vehicles such as the Sky roadster, Aura sedan, Astra hatchback, and Outlook crossover SUV. Saturn picked up the void Oldsmobile left as the upper-end family cars in the GM line up.
Saturn Today
Today Saturn is a well known name in the American automobile industry. Their current slogan is “Rethink American” as they prepare to continue their quest of bringing quality cars to the United States. Their newest model is the Saturn Sky, a roadster that Saturn hopes is a top seller for them. The roadster is sleek looking but comes at an affordable price at around $26,000. Other new models that Saturn hopes leads the way include:
- Saturn Aura Sedan
- Saturn Astra Hatchback
- Saturn Outlook SUV
Today Saturn contains two different models with each of their cars. They are:
- Red Line- a more performance enhanced version of their car
- Green Line- a more environmentally friendly version of their car.
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