PurdueGuy

I could see them killing the Ion name. It's tainted by so many negative opinions of the current model.

someone needs to do a 'chop of the HHR pickup - standard or small extended cab, with a bed kinda like the old classic chevy pickups. :) Now THAT would be a good side project for HHR production!

I would take info from saturnfans with a grain of salt, but still good to find out for sure on. They'd better have some sort of small car for Saturn. [speculation]I'm going to guess that it's someone who read about GM shutting down the ION production line in spring hill, and doesn't know about the plans to produce it along side the cobalt.[/speculation]

that factory is about 10-15 minutes from me. I've been wanting to get a tour, but have been too lazy to go ask. Guess I'd better hurry before they go re-vamping it for Toyota and don't allow tours. Though maybe they could just keep tourists away from the Toyota parts. *shrug*

Sounds like part of the potential problem is that many people aren't used to getting into those kind of RPMs. That's a fairly high peak, and with it being a smaller engine, I imagine the peak is more pronounced than in a larger engine. I would think that engine could be boring-ly adequate, but not enough for a caddy image. That's about the same HP as the Ion Redline/Cobalt SS S/C, but with 600-700 more lbs. Hope that engine doesn't mind being run at 4-5K rpm a lot. I probably wouldn't buy one with that engine. Of course, I'd love a CTS-V...

what's the HP rating of the 2.8?

<<still thinks leasing is a bad idea...

Looks like a cross between a malibu and a camry.

I think it would be a good idea (with a name change if it came to the US). Some people really appreciate a small car, but want a lot of the upscale/performance features.

I guess I'm wondering why you're leasing the car. A lot of young people with an itch for a brand new car lease and regret it...

I agree. Car companies really can't survive without platform sharing, but when it's just a difference of a grill & tail lights, then it gets stupid. Where it gets more iffy is when there are more notable changes, but the company tries to command a much steeper price for one model over the other.

^^I agree

Sounds like a nice way to differentiate the Sky Redline. ;)

Maybe see a production version of the Saturn Aura?

It's the new Mazda Echo! Blech!

beautiful car, ugly lady. and why would you do that to your teeth if it's gonna make you talk like an idiot? mmmm, nice car. Still rather have a Sky, though.

hate to wake an old thread, but I just wanted to comment that I think GM needs another smaller/lighter car than this, like my s-series Saturn. I find it sad that the Aveo is pretty much the same weight and horsepower as my car, yet gets 5 less mpg. And the s-series was designed in the late 80's. :-p

Am I the only one who thinks the LeSabre was a much classier looking car? I'm sure the Lucerne is well engineered & all, but most of the look just doesn't have Buick classiness, IMO. *edit* As I go back & look at pics some more to figure out just what it is I don't like... it comes down to one thing - the tail lights. I LOVE the LeSabre tail lights. These... :( They're about as bland as they come, IMO.

Well, that should help buy the other manufacturers time. Still, technology gets cheaper & more reliable over time... Glad to be on a forum that knows this stuff well enough to have intelligent discussion. :)

That's kinda cool - that Subaru plant is about 15 min from me. I wonder if they'll have to expand the plant. They used to build the legacy/outback and an Isuzu or 2 out there. A few years ago they dropped the Isuzu part. Now they're building the Tribeca, as well as the legacy stuff (legacy, outback, baja, etc). Not sure how much capacity was left. *shrug*

I find it humorous how some are acting like the hybrid systems are all smoke & mirrors. Fact is they work. It is true that they currently don't pay themselves off financially. A few months ago during a discussion on another board, I compared buying a base Saturn Ion with buying a base Toyota Prius. The comparison was solely financial, and found that the Prius' cost (purchase + gas cost) would break even with the Ion somewhere a bit after 200K miles. Of course this doesn't calculate maintenance, which could be a deciding factor, but last I read, Toyota has yet to have to replace a Prius battery under warranty - only for repairs after an accident. For those sceptical of hybrids, this calculation is somewhat of an "I told you so", however Toyota has not been known to stop developing technology like this. Someone already said their 3rd gen (actually I think it's technically the 4th gen - the 1st gen was Japan-only) hybrid system will be cheaper. Let's say that bumps 20K miles off the break-even point. What if gas prices go up (which is bound to happen eventually). I forget what price I had calculated at, but I want to say it was long before the $3/gal. Every time the gas price goes up, miles come off that break-even point. Add on top of that the driver being able to be glad they aren't polluting as much, and the happiness of not going to the pump as often. Be careful when you want to dismiss hybrid systems as just a worthless toy...

GM should have gotten their $3B worth by learning lessons on the labor-mgmt relations front. I don't think they did. One nice feature (nice for the manufacturer) of the use of the polymer panels that gets overlooked - easy visual redesign. The 2nd and 3rd gen S-series look quite a bit different, but the biggest change was interior. The glass, roof, structure was all the same. They changed the panel design, head & taillights, and were able to give a whole new look. It's not terribly far away from ideas GM had, I believe in the late 80's, to make interior & exterior parts semi-standardized & modular, so if you got tired of what you had, or it got worn out, you could buy new & keep the structure & drivetrain. When the car's crashworthiness depends on the body panels adding to the rigidity, redoing the appearance becomes a much bigger ordeal. Oh yea, I'm new here. Hi. '99 Saturn SC1 owner/fan here. :)

This is the same thing I have heard. In fact, I'm currently wandering around this website looking to learn more about the 1st gen Aurora & reliability issues. They're beautiful wonderful cars, but I've heard so much of problems with them. My best friend's aunt had one and had to take it in to the dealer for MAJOR repairs seven times during the warranty period.