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#1 | |
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A new story entry has been added:
[drupal=3421]A Letter from Jill Lajdziak to Saturn Owners Regarding GM’s Decision to Shutdown the Brand[/drupal] Quote:
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2008 Saturn Outlook XR 2005 VUE Red Line 2002 L300 (sold) |
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#2 |
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Location: White Plains, NY
Posts: 229
2008 Astra XE
2007 VUE 2.2L
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I appreciate the letter but GM will never again have my trust. I see so many more Saturn's on the road than Cadillac's yet they are still alive and our Saturn brand, which had a large loyal fan base is dead! That really makes no sense to me. One of the many reasons GM will never be anything more than it is now. A company whose priorities are in profit and not customer satifaction!
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Saturn#5 Saturn car history: 1995 SL2 2002 LW200 2005 ION 2007 VUE 2008 Astra HEY GM...KISS MY ASTRA! |
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#3 |
Senior Member
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Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 1,286
2002 SL
1993 SL2
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Would I be a bad person if I said "Kudos for being the perfect corporate shill. Your parachute is packed and ready... . Happy landings!"? Probably.
This might be a bit bitter sounding - as we don't know what really went on in the boardrooms - only what the results were. As much as I'd like to think that someone was a stakeholder to represent Saturn owner's loyalty, I doubt we were much of a consideration. Will be interesting to see who will be the first to tap into the Saturn subculture and give folks what they are looking for... . Any bets? Kia? Ford? Subaru? - if someone doesn't, I think they're missing an opportunity to attract a loyal and rabid fan base with little initial effort. |
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#4 |
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Location: bay area calfornia
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#5 | |
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Location: In a van, down by the river.
Posts: 3,971
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but rumour has it he did get rebadged as a finical...
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93 SW2 96 SL2 01 SL2 02 L200 08 Astra Xe 07 Aura XR Complacency leads to mediocrity. Mediocrity leads to our demise. |
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#6 |
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Location: Stuart, Fl
Posts: 72
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Having been with Saturn for over 14 years now it was quite a shock to hear the bad news two weeks ago. Our Saturn facility is lucky in that our owner acquired the Subaru brand and I have found that they , the Subaru owners are more loyal than Saturn owners, take better care of their vehicles as they keep them for 100,000-200,000 miles and then after they sell it to a family member buy another one.
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#7 | |
Master Member
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Celebrity Eurosport. When the road gets a little nervous, take one of these. |
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#8 | |
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Location: New Orleans, LA
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2006 Black VUE Red Line - Now running iOS 11 |
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#9 |
Junior Member
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Location: california
Posts: 46
1999 SW2
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I just helped my nephew find a 99 wagon--he loves it
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1999 SW2 DOHC, 5sp, cruise control...dog in the back |
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#10 |
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Saturn was a wonderful idea, but GM's historically excessive cost structure made the high quality small car concept of Saturn unprofitable. GM's ending of Saturn is admission that for those of us who want to buy high quality small cars at a fair price, we need to look elsewhere from GM. Too bad our tax dollars have been squandered trying to keep GM alive.
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#11 |
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To Jill:
Thank you for trying. Where do we go from here? Besides keeping the 2 SL's with the gold star on the back running well? Someone out there has to EARN our trust and loyalty. They can start by treating us the way the Spring Hill era Saturn Corporation did. Hint... no "tricked...trapped...sold..." practitioners need apply. These are places that are gone. Now we move on... |
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#12 |
Junior Member
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2007 ION-2 Sedan
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I recently re-read the book "In the Rings of Saturn." It reminded me of the time when Saturn first came on the scene. It was a much different world than the one in which we live. US companies were not afraid to compete or innovate.
Jill, I'd encourage you to visit You Tube and punch up a few of the old Saturn Homecoming videos. You'll see what brand loyalty was (past tense...). I drive past my old Saturn dealership everyday on the way to work. It's closed, but the sign remains. I have good memories of buying cars, taking them in for oil changes and service visits. The staff was trustworthy and always friendly. It was the kind of place you could send a friend and know that they'd be treated right. I wonder what happened to the sales staff and the mechanics, many of whom were proud to tell you they had been Saturn mechanics for 10 + years. So, I appreciate that the decision was tough, I just think it was a bad decision. Kind of like when Saturn decided to stop having homecomings, building cars in Tennessee and using plastic body panels. |
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#13 |
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Location: Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Posts: 482
2009 AURA XE
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What a sad ending to Saturn...
The original concept was great, but the reality of GM's overblown cost structure overwhelmed it. Not to mention that after Roger Smith, then Bob Stempel, no one was really enamored with the whole thing. We know Jack Smith shifted a bulk of GMs development dollars towards SUVs (and horridly cheap interiors). Everything else suffered with Saturn suffering the worst of it. Rick Wagoner's efforts at rescue were too little, too late. I also think Saturn was moved upscale too fast. Just make me a good, economical, honest, and reliable car. I don't need anything fancy. If I had to ditch GM today, I'd probably go for a 2005-2009 Subaru Legacy. I've always been a loyal GM person, but feel so let down by them for two reasons: 1.) Bankruptcy, 2.) Saturn going away. There are some days that I really wonder whether or not I can bring myself to go back to GM. I love my L300, but right now, just can't get past how disappointed I am with GM. They've really dropped the ball. It is a shame. "There are places I remember, All my life though some have changed. Some forever not for better. Some have gone and some remain." |
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#14 |
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Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 104
2002 SC2
1996 SW2
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2002 SC2 (78,000 miles) I LOVE my Saturn! =] |
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#15 |
Master Member
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I can say that this was not as exciting as her last letter.
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#16 | |
Advanced Member
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Location: bay area calfornia
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2003 ION-2 Sedan
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#17 | |
Advanced Member
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Location: bay area calfornia
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2003 ION-2 Sedan
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#18 |
Master Member
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That's nice, Ms. J. I truly believe you were loyal to the brand and idea of Saturn and actually believed in it taking a new direction.
In the end, it takes a tool to move up @ GM. Smith, Wagoner, Fritz and Lutz: all highly paid and very busy running GM into the ground over the past 20 years. Does anyone really think they had any interest in building on what they had created with Saturn? They didn't know WTF to do with it when it took off. The ION proved [as did the 96 Taurus] that the decision makers had no clue what made their cars popular.Same thing taking the brand "upscale". Did anyone expect a different result given GM's ability to destroy it's brands ? It's almost as if the outcome was preordained. At least Jill is not responsible for the decisions the dolts at the top made and can leave with relatively little blood on her hands. She tried to put the best spin on some really bad ideas from GM. |
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#19 |
Senior Member
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Jill, I wish you well in the times ahead. If you remain at GM, may you take the lessons learned from Saturn to improve a seriously mismanaged company.
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#20 |
Master Member
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Maybe she should've paid attention when Saturn owners said they liked their polymer body US made Saturns, instead of ignoring them and saying, "Here, have a steel bodied rebadged import with a Saturn badge instead!"
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Celebrity Eurosport. When the road gets a little nervous, take one of these. |
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