By Robert Emslie
GM introduced the Saturn brand in 1985 as their way of proving that they could go toe to toe with the Japanese when it came to profitably building a desirable small car. Saturn didn’t really fulfill that promise of competing with the imports, except that is, in this junk yard where they do.
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Image: ©2016 Hooniverse/Robert Emslie, All Rights Reserved
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Jeff Glucker
Future classics, Saturns. You heard it here first from ol’ Batshitbox; a name you can trust.
Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdSUT5ReWVg
I still can’t fathom how this channel doesn’t have more views. Their videos are hilarious.
My main concern would be finding replacing body panels. The “dentproof” panels become hard and brittle over time, especially in hot climates. I’ve seen several old Saturns in the last few years that have pieces or large sections of fenders, quarter panels, or door skins missing.
Cold climates too. I see Saturn’s in cny with cracked and broken panels all the time. When it drops below freezing and you so much as tap one of those panels… Boom.
This is an odd junkyard that doesn’t group its cars by brand.
Maybe they are sorted by colour – roughly.
The modern self serve wrecking yard often sets a new row every week or so. Next week they crush another row and drop the new cars in that just vacated row.
Saturn made a decent play and their cars weren’t bad. Customers absolutely loved them. The problem was the jealousy of other GM brands and the dilution of Saturn’s unique features and business model. Well, that and the absolute incompetence of GM management.
Chevrolet absolutely hated Saturn, because they siphoned off small car development money that Chevrolet thought should rightfully be theirs. But then, after the Vega, Chevette, Citation, and Cavalier, Chevrolet had proved they couldn’t be trusted with small cars. And customers did love Saturn. Early on, they had a potentially fatal (for the engines) antifreeze problem with ~1,900 cars (it was really Texaco’s fault, for supplying the wrong antifreeze). Instead of just flushing and refilling the cooling systems, or repairing engines, they bought back and replaced all the cars.
Naive question: Japanese cars from the 70ies require metric wrenches, right?
Almost certainly. There may be some odd English fasteners, but almost entirely metric.
I know it is only rock and roll,but I like it.