SATURN GOES THE WAY OF STUDEBAKER

“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof:” (from Ecclesiastes 7:8)

Saturn Retailers, employees, owners, and affectionadoes will probably not agree with the above verse regarding the demise of the Saturn make of automobiles. I’d heard yesterday morning that GM’s deal to sell the Saturn brand to Penske fell through and that production was ceasing effective October 1, 2009. Upon closer examination of the issue, I’ve learned that the decision has been made to axe the Saturn brand, but that the retailers and operations will not shut down in Canada until December 2009 and will not shut down in the U.S.A. until October 1, 2010 (not 2009). However, the die is cast and the Saturn is pretty well gone. At least people should be able to buy new 2009 and 2010 Saturns for almost another year (in the U.S.).

Through the years, the Baril family (including the family I grew up in) has owned all sorts of cars. My father even owned a 2-seat 1957 Nash Metropolitan (well, technically it was a Hudson Metropolitan, but that’s a topic for another day) at one time. We’ve had Chevrolets, Fords, Dodges, an AMC, Volkswagens, Oldsmobiles, and one of the three vehicles the Framingham Barils currently own is a 2000 Saturn L sedan.

The Saturn company began in January 1985 and began selling cars in 1990 as 1991 models. Although Saturn was originally marketed as, “A Different Kind of Car; A Different Kind of Company” that everyone THOUGHT was an “independent” like Studebaker or AMC had been, Saturn was actually a product of General Motors. ON PAPER it was a different company, but all of the money behind Saturn was GM money and the entire Board of Directors were GM executives. Saturns were all originally built at Spring Hill, Tennessee. The philosophy behind the Saturn was radically different from the rest of General Motors...and really from the rest of American car companies. The original Saturn plant was non-Union. The emphasis was on quality workmanship and on producing very well built and very reliable compact cars.

Saturns sold well, and people loved them. I’ve honestly never heard a bad word about a Saturn. I believe it was in 2003 that GM decided to end the whole “Different Kind of Company” facade and just make Saturn a regular division of GM like Chevrolet or Pontiac, and that’s exactly what they did. GM shut down the Tennessee plant, and Saturns were built by union workers at GM plants. There was a lot more interchange between Saturns and other makes. Even so, Saturns continued to be quality cars with a loyal following.

We bought our Saturn through a friend a couple of years ago. It’s a great car! It’s absolutely lived up to the Saturn positive reputation. Thus, I was sad to learn of the news. If “money was no object” I’d actually go out and buy a brand new Saturn so I could have it for awhile. (Since Saturn is a GM car, parts and service will continue to be available at other GM dealerships for years to come once Saturn is gone.)

It’s sad. One of Saturn’s original slogan’s (often seen on the license plate frames of early Saturns) was “AMERICA’S BACK!” Well, where does that leave America now?

And, say, DO you remember Studebakers? That’s going back quite away! I do see some of them at the classic car shows I attend. I saw a beautiful Studebaker Avanti in Framingham at Red Line diner a couple of months ago. The Avanti was a sports car. Some were built independently as Avanti II autos after Studebaker folded, but this one was actually a Studebaker. The Avanti was a very cool car, and actually the Studebaker Hawk (a classy 2-door coupe) was a pretty cool car, but most of the Studebakers were boring and dumb looking...especially in the mid-1960s. A little known fact of history is that Studebaker was desperately looking to “pull the plug” on the dying brand and was hoping for some BIG news story to happen so they could pull the plug and nobody would notice. That big story was the JFK assassination. Just 2 weeks after the assassination, Studebaker shut down its South Bend, Indiana headquarters and factory for good. They’d been building 1964 models for a few months, at that time. Rather than TOTALLY kill the make, they decided to keep the Canadian plant at Hamilton, Ontario open and to built cars there using Chevrolet engines. They kept that up until March 1966 until they practically couldn’t give the cars away and they shut down for good.

Saturn deserves a much better end than Studebaker! In fact, Saturn doesn’t deserve an end!