Hummer and Saturn gone?

Can't say I'm sorry to see Hummer go. Half the people who own them can't handle driving them.

 

You thought you'd get away without any partisan finger-pointing but...

I blame Bush for Saturn's demise!! Also, I blame Obama for Hummer's demise!!

Now, I feel better having gotten that off my chest.

 

What do you mean, it looks just like him...
But he "usually" wears his dentures. :lol:

 

Whoever ends up buying Hummer will be making and selling them after Saturn is history. Will always be customers for Hummer or its successor models. Saturn is just a car.

Me too... about Saturn. Thank the lord there aint many Saturn mini-vans!

Saturn was an experiment, and bless their heart, GM is.. err... WAS big on 'alternative vehicle target market'.

Witness SAAB. Cant get much weirder target market than SAAB owners, unless its Citroen/Peugeot/Renault.
{F$#%@@K Chelskum just scored! 2-1}

Whatever.. SAAB and Saturn same demo. People who dont wanna know nothing about cars except to believe they have a QUALITY car, and QUALITY customer service. Mostly important they aint real keen on driving skills either. If there was a 'point and shoot' car and Saturn made it, it would be a sales leader.

Witness the first Saturn edition was notable for its plain jane looks. Actually I thought it was freakin UGLY but that's subjective. What made it notable was the Full Service concept. Bring it in and you're in the same atmosphere as a Borders Coffee shop. Successful SAAB dealers had the same customer service concept.

Problem being, cars are only as reliable as the components they are built with. Quality work in assembling those component parts into the car can only go so far.. in fact, the best quality comes from assembling the car with robots.
Now we get to the role of the 'Production Engineer with MBA' in industry.....

 

Yes... thank you. But you got some of the point and missed others.

It was about markets and about which of the two marques will survive and why. I highlighted the key part of my comment on Saturn and SAAB to give a clue. It's NOT just snark, it's somewhat fact. Check it out.. or ride around Berkeley, Austin or Yellow Springs ahia.
I didnt pick the 'Borders' atmosphere as an example just on a whim. And I'm not snarking at that demographic. {Though I COULD by pointing out their unexplainable liking for VW and who it was funded the development of the Beetle in the first place}.

And you're absolutely RIGHT about the Edsel. Funny thing is there were 4 Edsel models on two basic platforms. the low end 2 -Ranger/Pacer- were but on Ford {Fairlane/Galaxy} lines, the Corsair / Citation were built in the Mercury Plants. Second funny thing was replacement parts for all the Ford / Mercury key mechanical components all came from the same bins. With the exception the Automatic Transmission.
Whatever.. it was the somewhat off-kilter looks AND quality of the base models killed the Edsel; if the Mercury built models had been the only offering and priced at base model sticker, it might well have survived.

Whatever... Hummers will be made in ten years, Saturns wont.

Get that? Hummers are 'Land Rovers for well-off Alpha Males'! You see Land Rovers at Borders, You see Grand Cherokees and Wranglers at Borders.

See any GMC Yukons? Now go check the trade-in lot at the Hummer Dealer.

Just to be clear, if someone gifted me a Hummer, I'd be quick looking for a more practical vehicle to trade for. But then, I aint a well-off alpha male {not even alpha male, for that matter} AND I know summat about cars.

Just to be clear, if someone gifted me a Saturn, OR a LandRover, I'd be quick looking for a more practical vehicle to trade for. 'Cuz I aint exactly a beta male, either. AND I know summat about cars.

Hmmm... maybe this will explain it better: If there was a reliable-build minivan, with a turbo-charged 3 liter or TDi, that a suburban soccer mom or potential Saturn or VW buyer wouldnt be caught dead in, THAT one is the one I'd keep.

Just sayin'

 

OTOH, some chick's got taste in their choices of SUV:

 

I have no idea what this thread has developed into... But - I was really excited when I heard that they were making a VW minivan because I had high hopes that it would be offered with the TDI.

But - Nopes. Just a Chrysler with VW trim and badges. Frrrrrrrr....

 

Hummer gets a suitor

... guess from where. China
Ah. well...

 

Well, not at present day.. imagine my shock decades back when I found out I could actually rent a Penske. Or have a Penske crew service my car.

But there's only one guy who more enjoys peddling his name as an automotive brand: Carroll Shelby.

1) PLEASE, Roger, NO Shelby Edition Saturn!

2) Where ARE ye, Jackie Stewart?

3) Whatever happened to Carroll Shelby's Chili?

Whatever... if Penske Group brings this off, I may be wrong about Saturn's on-going viability.
- - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - --
It occurs to me, this may be the future of vehicle sales and manufacturing. Wherein the brand is owned by its dealers, and they only contract for those which customers actually want.

No more Pontiac Azteks, or Chevettes
Oh.. wait.. the Chevette is EXACTLY what Government Motors has in mind for us.

 

Not exactly. I associate Penske with racing but have more memory of him as a NASCAR and Indy team owner.

 

Slate: Detroit's New 'Green' Delusion

- via Instapundit
And that company hasnt gone broke because it made an outside the contract conference room pact with UAW.
'We want Quality. We'll do our best to save your jobs, you do your best to save our brand.'
It even worked for a while with Jaguar, didnt it? Eventually, though British work ethic and class divide eventually wins out.

* Heh... Car and Driver aint always got the answer. Every fucking new Audi, from the 100LS on, was a drivers dream and always a great improvement over the serious flaws of the last one.

News... the 100LS was a POS from the git go. Maybe DRIVERS liked them when they were new but all you had to do was ride in them a little to see the lack of threads in the seams...,. which the owners pointed out were perfectly uniform, fit and finish detail.. ya know. Guys in repair shops got to marvel a lot on that finish detail.
Of course it WASNT one of those Taurus that you couldnt drive a fucking block without encoutering.
Or the 89-97 Tbird. Onna the best fricking 'road car for the masses' ever built by ford. Or anyone else.