Pontiac and Saturn to be phased out

[85_SS]

I'm an Olds nut but Buick had the fastest car of the 70's and 80's. Buick Stage 1(Hemi killer) and GNX(Corvette killer)mean anything. Go back to each division's routes might be the key. Chevies were cheap, plain Jane cars, Buick and Cadillac fit the same bill. I hate Saturn because it was chosen over Olds. Pontiac as performance car is a very good idea, kill or restyle the ugly camaro, make it a Firebird. The Firebird was always nicer than the camaro.

I still don't understand why Oldsmobile guys blame Saturn for their demise - Olds is what I grew up with and I am a huge fan, but I see now correlation to how Saturn was at fault for them being ousted. If you want to pick a division that it was Olds or them, it would have been Buick - they are the division that most closely resembled Oldsmobile. The reason Olds died was because GM completely changed the direction of the division from the ugly new logo down to the spaceship styling. Before that, Olds has a best selling car for years with the Cutlass. I guess one of the divisions needs to be a scapegoat - may as well pick the "new" one

I do agree that the Firebird was always a better looking car than the Camaro though. Some of the fan made concepts for a new Firebird based on the Camaro are simply awesome looking.

 

[joe_padavano]

Oldsmobile (and GM) started going downhill in the late 1970s. The badge-engineering was the worst. For example, the 77-90 B-body wagons (and I own two of them) are identical from the firewall back. The only differences are the front sheet metal and the dash. Unfortunately, there has been (and continues to be) a marketing mentality that requires each division to have a fully duplicative set of car lines. Back in the 1960s, Olds didn't even have a full-size wagon - the Vista Cruiser was the top of the line. Now, every single GM division needs to have their own version of the latest SUV (Saab needed a version of the Trailblazer???) Talk about cannibalizing your own sales!

 

[Uncletruck]

GM still has a few of the old man customers they can count on. Like my buddy and his dad. They INSIST that Pontiac cars and GMC trucks are better built than Chevy, and thus only buy those badges from the same dealer who has been robbing them blind for decades. Ignorance is bliss to them I guess You really think that UAW jackmos put more care in to building a GMC pickup than the ones they glue a Chevy badge on to?
But seriously, that is how old world they are, and they can't be the only ones.

At least with the late 70's GM badge engineering, you could generally expect to get higher trim levels as you went up the ranks. For instance although all B body wagons were virtually mechanically the same, those who wanted utilitarian got an Impala with base Chevy 305, AM radio and vinyl seats and no power options, maybe even no A/C. Those on the other end of the spectrum might get a Buick or Olds model loaded to the hilt with options and a 403 Olds engine. Today powertrain and trim choices change minimally if any between the brand names, truly making it just badge engineering.


-UT-

 

[beermonkey9417]

i own a 94 saturn sl1. its has 85 hp and i think 110 ft/lbs tq. or it did at one point in time. this is my first car i got when i was 21. i still drive the thing 7 years later. over the years ive wanted to upgrade it but then relised that i cant because theres no market for single cam tbi saturns. i was acutall gonna buy a 95 manual sl2 because it think its a damn good car thatll pritty much last forever. and if i ever total it i can recycle it for more than i paid for the thing lol. i just like it because its my first car and most of my friends are on there 3rd and 4th cars. they poke fun at my car but my car has some how save their cars more than once. its my dd and a tank of gas last me 2 weeks or more and cost less than 20 bucks to fill. ive tryed to fanboy it and its fun what ya can learn by taking the thing apart a ton of times. and the plastic pannels are friggin great! i tbone a caviler a year or so ago and his driver side door was totaled and my bumper was fine. then some douchfag decided to stop in the middle of the road and back in to my car twice. i had the engine replaced at 140000 miles because it was burning oil and coolant. it still ran great and i even had like a james bond thing going, if someone was tailgaiting me i shifted into nutural and hit the rev limiter like 4 grand and it would put out a huge gray smoke cloud and theyd back off REALLY quick. then the trans went(too many nutural drops) and then i put in new shocks and got some rims and other wise just tried to make it as laffable as possible but only i got the joke. its a car that you hate the way people look at it buy you love the way it makes ya feel. kinda like my elky lol