Ken Newton from St. Joseph News-Press: General Motors, feeling the pinch of foreign imports, dangled the idea of opening a new plant to build a "revolutionary" car. Such a factory would employ 6,000 people while also creating 15,000 jobs in supporting businesses. Workers there would not only have the benefit of a paycheck, they would stand, shoulder-to-shoulder, at the vanguard of a new era of American industrial might. Perhaps to seem egalitarian, or more likely to create buzz and cajole some incentives, GM executives offered the pending plant to interested states, hoping they would compete for the car company's affections.

John McElroy from Autoline Detroit via AutoBlog: In the early 1980s General Motors launched a top-secret program to figure out how it could build a small car to successfully compete against the Japanese automakers. It was called the S-car program and the results of this study shocked top management at GM. It conclusively proved General Motors could not profitably build a small car in the United States that was priced against the Japanese — at least not under the current GM system. And that launched another study to figure out what it would take become competitive. GM concluded that it needed a clean-sheet approach to designing, engineering, manufacturing and retailing small cars in the American market. In other words, it needed a whole new car company.

ABC News looked back on its evening news telecast from July 26, 1985 when GM announced construction of the Saturn plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

You may recall a couple of months ago GM had an auction, liquidating lots of classic cars. They even pulled the last built Saturn Ion out of the museum it was in to put it up for bidding. Well, this is that car. It was also featured in at least two articles on this website (here and here). This Saturn Ion is in fantastic shape, as it was stored in a museum. It now has 2,500 miles on it.

Many years ago, Saturn Corporation participated in the Sports Car Club of America racing series. Dave Rosenblum, who ran the Inner City Youth (ICY) Racing Team, ran and managed the team that raced Saturn S-Series coupes, like the modified SC2 you see above. They not only raced, but they won – including the SCCA's World Challenge T2 Manufacturers' Cup.

Saturn's former manufacturing facility in Spring Hill, Tennessee was as revolutionary as the brand's innovative cars and industry-leading retail sales and service experience. This state-of-the-art plant was located approximately 30 miles south of Nashville on Highway 31.

For this week's installment of Flashback Friday, we only have to look back a little more than three months to this past spring. The date was Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 to be exact. On that day, GM's Boxwood Assembly Plant in Wilmington, DE built the last Saturn Sky.

The news last week about Saturn's current owner magazine going all-digital got me thinking about the first Saturn owner newsletter. The first one that I can remember at least. Long before there was "Saturn 360" or even "Saturn Signatures," there was a quarterly publication called "Visions" that Saturn put together for owners, team members, and their families.

Saturn's early television and print ads were quirky, offbeat spots that often focused more on the emotional side of owning a car, rather than talking about latest models from Saturn. But in a clever, indirect, and very effective manner those first ads were very much all about Saturn, and how owning a Saturn could make you feel. Take this commercial that aired in or around 1992.

Saturn unveiled the all-new 1993 SW2 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit during the winter of '92. Billed by the company as a "sedan with a backpack," the SW expanded Saturn's lineup and offered customers new levels of cargo space and utility.