colt45shooter

Hi, guys. I work for a Saturn store in California. I'm not entirely comfortable being specific, just in case my comments are taken the wrong way and passed along the chain of command. I don't mean to critizise the product (we have great cars--my '98 SL2 has over 200,000 miles on it, and I always use that in my presentations--they just keeping going and going....). You can't go wrong with our machines, yet convincing some of our customers that we're just as good if not better than the competing imports is like hitting a home run with a toothpick. You'd think with gas prices, in our area, approaching $3.50, that people would want to take advantage of the 32-35 mpg of the ION, but there's been few takers so far. Some of our sister stores are doing better, and their Sky supply went quick, and a colleage informs me today that we now only have one Sky left. If it sounded like we had a dozen, forgive me; there were actually only two, both manual transmission cars. Most people see the five-speed shifter and say, "Do you have an automatic?" Ugh. But a manual Sky is the car to get if you really want to have a blast driving. It's ten times better than the automatic, in my opinion. No sign of the Aura yet, but we're looking forward to it. I'm dying to try out the "automatic-manual" transmission. I grew up with GM cars (there was always a Chevy in the driverway) and it's great to be a part of the company; I just wish we were moving more units and experiencing some of the excitement Lutz and Company are saying we'll have. I hope it happens soon. I need a Corvette really bad!

I sell Saturns. Right now we're struggling. I mean, struggling. For the month we've sold around 30 cars. April and May have been the worst months of the year so far. We have very few visitors and fewer buyers. All this to say that, yes, we're excited.... but a little doubtful. If nobody's buying the bread-and-butter cars we have now, will they show up for the fancy new stuff when it finally arrives? Take the Sky for example. There's a lot of buzz and excitment and expectations, but a lot of people who come in to see it start complaining right away, for a variety of reasons (lack of trunk space, no power top; they expected better gas mileage, better 0-to-60 speed). When the car first went on sale, we sold five in four days. Our remaining supply now sits motionless like the rest of our inventory. So all the buzz about the company is great. I really want it to come true because I started selling Saturns after owning one. But it's going to be a long wait and a rough road getting to the point Lutz is talking about.