Saturn Car Manufacturers

The Saturn Corporation is a registered trademark established on January 7, 1985 as a subsidiary of General Motors in response to the success of automobile imports in the United States. Just as NASA employed Saturn rockets to beat the USSR to the moon in the space race, General Motors created a new division by the same name to beat the Japanese in the economy car race. GM hoped to use Saturn as a test bed to reinvent the way automobiles were built and sold, as well as to reinvent the labor relationship with the United Auto Workers union. The brand's tag line was "A different kind of car company."

A new car called for a new way of selling cars, so when the first Saturns began rolling off the assembly line in Springhill, Tenn., on July 30, 1990, Saturn dealers sold them with a no hassle, no haggle sales approach. In other words, the price on the window sticker was the price the customer paid.

The first two models introduced by Saturn for the 1991 model year were the SC sports coupe and SL sedan, followed in 1992 by the SW station wagon. The second-generation SC was notable for a driver's-side auxiliary third door that could be opened when the front door was open. Saturn dropped the S-Series vehicles in 2001-2002 and replaced them with the Saturn Ion, which was produced until 2007.

Except for the Saturn Outlook, which shares its platform with the Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave, the current crop of Saturn vehicles are based on models from GM's Opel division and include the Saturn Astra (Opel Astra), Aura (Opel Vectra), Sky (Opel GT)and Vue (Opel Antara).

Founded

January 7, 1985

Headquarters

Spring Hill, Tennessee, U.S. (1985–2007) Detroit, Michigan, U.S. (2007-2010)

Defunct

October 31, 2010

Website

http://saturn.com

In addition to the regular Saturn lineup, in 2003 Saturn announced it would start offering sport-tuned versions carrying Red Line badging. The first two vehicles to get the performance tuning were the 2004 Ion and Vue. Later the two-seat convertible Saturn Sky became available in a Red Line version as well.

In addition to the Red Line series of cars, Saturn also launched a Green Line series which incorporated mild hybrid technology. Hybrid features included start/stop technology, allowing the vehicles to run on battery power at stoplights and in heavy traffic, as well as regenerative braking that recaptured energy lost as the vehicle came to a stop. The Vue Green Line was joined by the Vue 2-Mode Hybrid in 2009, making Saturn the first automaker to offer a vehicle in both mild and full hybrid versions.

As GM struggled to remain viable during the economic crisis in late 2008 and 2009, it announced that Saturn was slated to be sold or eliminated before the end of 2010.