Is GM About to Kill Saturn?
GMInsideNews says that the 2010 Saturn Aura, a clone of Opel’s new Insignia midsize sedan, is on hold. GM has already shipped much of the tooling to the Kansas facility where it was planning on churning-out the Aura in late 2009 as a 2010 model. While GM hasn’t made an announcement, GMI confirmed that the program has been paused, and speculates that the move will, at the very minimum, delay the next gen Aura’s arrival in America. This after recent rumors that one or more of GM’s brands is headed to the great automotive dealership in the sky. Is Saturn about to be strategically reviewed to death? We’re not exactly talking about a critical brand for GM here, with about 7k - 8k non-SUV sales per month. Lest we forget, GM did the same product pause prior to Oldsmobile’s euthanasia a few years ago. Talk about irony: Oldsmobile was starved for product and funding in the 1980s to develop the Saturn brand. On the other hand, some commenters at GMInsideNews see it differently: the pause is for fresh fuel efficient engine development. Or alternatively, Saturn will delay the Aura until 2012 or 2013, adding “Oh, and by 2013 GM will be picking up momentum at which time the 4-Door Sedan version of the Aura can return.” With apologies to all you extremists, I respectfully think that’s notgonnahappenatall.com.