A Letter from Jill Lajdziak to Saturn Owners Regarding GM

[Charlie]

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]

Of all the letters I have written this past year, this one is the most difficult. I want to begin by thanking all of you for your support over this last year. Your loyalty to Saturn motivated my team to work very hard to try to find a way for this brand to continue. The many e-mails, calls and personal notes provided the inspiration to all of us at Saturn. By now I'm sure you have heard that the sale of Saturn to the Penske Automotive Group could not be finalized. As a result, the Saturn brand will now be phased out over time.

[Saturn#5]

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!

[MiSaturn]

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.

[crystal scan]

well our big nice saturn dealship has closed theres a couple of left overs at the chevy lot that used to that saturn dealship i am not so sure how much longer that dealship goign to last, there was not that many cars on there i don;t car what brand of GM they are, aslong as they are there, the people i like there, I hope nick my sales person can find anther job or be rebadged with something else from GM, since hewas the one who brought my my "baby" that i drive now, i originaled test drove a 96 sl2 loaded but could not get it finicaled, then he said well we just got in a 2003 IOn2 i was like sure i want to test drive it , then i bought it

[unkle bik]

Originally Posted by crystal scan

:I hope nick my sales person can find anther job or be rebadged with something else from GM,

nick didn't find another job.
but rumour has it he did get rebadged as a finical...

[saturned1]

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.

[VTHokie00SL2]

Originally Posted by saturned1

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.

It's too bad Subaru seems to be going downhill now. I love my 2007 Legacy, but there's no way I'd consider the ugly, cheap, de-contented 2010 Legacy.

[BobbyP]

Originally Posted by saturned1

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.

What you wrote is a typical of an original Saturn owner. They take great care of their cars, drive them 100-200k miles, and keep them in the family...

[bdog]

I just helped my nephew find a 99 wagon--he loves it

[Last Saturn]

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.

[Starduster_Sat]

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...

[bobafett1985]

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.

[kknobl]

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."

[IONfan2]

[piney]

I can say that this was not as exciting as her last letter.

[crystal scan]

Originally Posted by MyOutlookonLife

English is not your first or second language, huh? finicaled? Put the bong down and step away from the car...

To the those who can't believe GM would put profits ahead of customer satisfaction.... have you been living under a rock? What profits?

well the saturn crew came in , i talk to them alot when i can , they said GM is done and pulled the plug they are done so i don't there will be a 2010 model year or alteast i our area since that was the last saturn dealship yes all the saturn -it people are going to were chevy uniforms. Yes it is my first language, i am just a bad speller. It looks like GM did a oldsmoblie kill to saturn

[crystal scan]

Originally Posted by kknobl

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."

yeah i have noticed the chevy trucks look cheap inside, and my moms 2009 saturn Aura XE front seats make my back hurt after while i figured why, there is plastic backing with little net, i hate seats with something pushed in back of it, it could of been nice seat if GM had not went cheap with it

[Citation84]

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.

[wei_]

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.

[VTHokie00SL2]

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!"