Saturn, RIP

The writing is on the wall for Saturn and it’s only a matter of time before the brand that would have transformed the American auto industry is kicked to the curb. I dinged the AMA for their post on the Super Bowl ads and I wanted to make up for it with a link to a new AMA post titled Saturn Coulda Been a Contender. So true and so sad.

Saturn had an awesome differentiator: no haggle pricing. The market responded positively and Saturn became profitable in just three years.

In my humble opinion the fate of Saturn was sealed by the auto unions and a powerful GM dealer network, both threatened by what the realization of the Saturn mission would do to the status quo. GM management, the unions and the dealers are complicit in the demise of Saturn.  How do they sleep at night?

Principles and integrity trump image any day.