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Life and Death of the American Car
When I bought my first foreign car (a Subaru stick-shift) it caused a minor controversy in my family.
The way may parents saw it, you are an American. You should buy an American car. Not because it was your patriotic duty, but because it supported the American worker.
I pointed out (at the time) that said foreign car was not only more reliable, it was a better-built car with better gas mileage. Both were important since I was working as a reporter at the time and the frequent breakdowns and sucky gas mileage of my previously owned, all American cars couldn't be tolerated.
Plus, it was my money I was spending, not theirs. Which they readily conceded.
I owned two Subarus in succession. Both were great cars (although hella expensive to fix on the rare occasions they needed fixing), and those engines were ticking over very strong when I had to give them up. The key problem with Subarus? The body work sucketh the big weenie. It didn't help that the salt-encrusted roads of wintertime New England were all "NOM NOM NOM" on the body either. In short, the cars became unsafe to drive because the floors were rotting out of them.
I was on the broke side when I picked up a Buick Century for $2,000 (thanks in large part to my mother's ability to twist and break the arms of car dealers -- I swear the woman is not only blessed with Arab trader blood, but was probably a horse-trader in another life). The car was reliable, but it drove like a tank and sucked gas through a straw.
I had to dump the Buick rather quickly. There was a minor accident in a parking garage when a guy with a rented jaguar pulled right out in front of my car (the insurance companies dubbed him entirely at fault). His car was totaled on the spot since he couldn't even drive it away. I drove away, but sprung a serious gas leak. I got totaled a few days later.
My parents then thinking it was time to bring me back into the American-made fold, drive me to a Saturn dealership where I bought my beloved 2001 Saturn SL with manual transmission which has never given me a moments worry, has enough pep on the road to rival more powerful cars, turns on a dime, and has gas mileage that rivals the hybrids.
I love my car. I plan to drive it into the ground. Sure, the exterior's made of plastic (the passenger cabin underneath is actually Volvo construction -- which is why the cars do so well in accidents), but it doesn't rust and bounces back from the dings and scratches of outrageous driving like WHOA!
(Unless some asshat hits your car in a parking lot hard enough to break the plastic exterior. Yes. I'm still bitter about my $500 deductible, why do you ask?)
Needless to say, I was utterly befuddled when GM announced it was dumping the Saturn line as part of its bankruptcy process. Yes, they made the decision based on what was making them money, but Saturn is actually a line with a future and could potentially be a success in the world market if GM gave it a shot.
Hundreds of thousands of Saturn owners (some of them with older cars than myself) agreed. There was some serious anger out there, not just among Saturn dealers and their employees, but also Saturn owners.
Saturn owners can now rejoice. SATURN HAS BEEN SAVED! GM is selling it off the Saturn line lock, stock, and barrel to Penske Automotive Group. The man single-handedly saved 13,000 jobs with this move. And unlike GM, which never knew what the hell to do with Saturn, he's got plans.
Hooray!
Or maybe not...Penske isn't getting the Spring Hill plant, which up until 2007 built Saturns. He may be forced to send construction of the car overseas. So while he's saving the Saturn network, the manufacturing jobs may be disappeared anyway.
As for my "buy American" parents, they recently had to buy a new car themselves out of necessity rather than want.
They bought: a Honda Accord.
It's ironic. Just as I'm celebrating the fact that a chip of an American car company is going to survive, they've bought a Honda.
The reason? All the American cars they tried were either underpowered, poorly constructed, or were just uncomfortable to drive. To make things worse, the American car dealers weren't even willing to negotiate on prices or show them any cars that were younger than a 2009.
It was sheer frustration that brought them into a Honda dealership. It was the fact that the dealership treated them like customers instead of marks that got them to stay for more than 5 minutes. And it was the fact that my mother was able to work her horse-trading magic that they actually bought the car.
And they're already in love with it!
The Accord's got all the features they wanted (unlike all of the American cars they tried...and they tried a lot of American cars), and a few features they didn't know they wanted before they had them.
I get updates on how awesome the car is. Jokes about how the car is smarter than they are. All the weird little features its got (like heated seats!). The fact it keeps track of gas mileage.
They're reading the instruction manual even as we speak.
They're going to be sending me "baby pictures" next.
Ladies and Gentlemen...my parents.
If the American car companies have lost people like these as customers, possibly for good, then it's a sign that the fall was most likely inevitable.
ETA: I'm glowering at the sky right now. I was planning to hit the river today, but the low-hanging, rain-heavy looking clouds aren't making me feel comfy about doing so. So now I have to put off kayaking until tomorrow morning. At least it's supposed to be nice and sunny in Sunday morning.
The way may parents saw it, you are an American. You should buy an American car. Not because it was your patriotic duty, but because it supported the American worker.
I pointed out (at the time) that said foreign car was not only more reliable, it was a better-built car with better gas mileage. Both were important since I was working as a reporter at the time and the frequent breakdowns and sucky gas mileage of my previously owned, all American cars couldn't be tolerated.
Plus, it was my money I was spending, not theirs. Which they readily conceded.
I owned two Subarus in succession. Both were great cars (although hella expensive to fix on the rare occasions they needed fixing), and those engines were ticking over very strong when I had to give them up. The key problem with Subarus? The body work sucketh the big weenie. It didn't help that the salt-encrusted roads of wintertime New England were all "NOM NOM NOM" on the body either. In short, the cars became unsafe to drive because the floors were rotting out of them.
I was on the broke side when I picked up a Buick Century for $2,000 (thanks in large part to my mother's ability to twist and break the arms of car dealers -- I swear the woman is not only blessed with Arab trader blood, but was probably a horse-trader in another life). The car was reliable, but it drove like a tank and sucked gas through a straw.
I had to dump the Buick rather quickly. There was a minor accident in a parking garage when a guy with a rented jaguar pulled right out in front of my car (the insurance companies dubbed him entirely at fault). His car was totaled on the spot since he couldn't even drive it away. I drove away, but sprung a serious gas leak. I got totaled a few days later.
My parents then thinking it was time to bring me back into the American-made fold, drive me to a Saturn dealership where I bought my beloved 2001 Saturn SL with manual transmission which has never given me a moments worry, has enough pep on the road to rival more powerful cars, turns on a dime, and has gas mileage that rivals the hybrids.
I love my car. I plan to drive it into the ground. Sure, the exterior's made of plastic (the passenger cabin underneath is actually Volvo construction -- which is why the cars do so well in accidents), but it doesn't rust and bounces back from the dings and scratches of outrageous driving like WHOA!
(Unless some asshat hits your car in a parking lot hard enough to break the plastic exterior. Yes. I'm still bitter about my $500 deductible, why do you ask?)
Needless to say, I was utterly befuddled when GM announced it was dumping the Saturn line as part of its bankruptcy process. Yes, they made the decision based on what was making them money, but Saturn is actually a line with a future and could potentially be a success in the world market if GM gave it a shot.
Hundreds of thousands of Saturn owners (some of them with older cars than myself) agreed. There was some serious anger out there, not just among Saturn dealers and their employees, but also Saturn owners.
Saturn owners can now rejoice. SATURN HAS BEEN SAVED! GM is selling it off the Saturn line lock, stock, and barrel to Penske Automotive Group. The man single-handedly saved 13,000 jobs with this move. And unlike GM, which never knew what the hell to do with Saturn, he's got plans.
Hooray!
Or maybe not...Penske isn't getting the Spring Hill plant, which up until 2007 built Saturns. He may be forced to send construction of the car overseas. So while he's saving the Saturn network, the manufacturing jobs may be disappeared anyway.
As for my "buy American" parents, they recently had to buy a new car themselves out of necessity rather than want.
They bought: a Honda Accord.
It's ironic. Just as I'm celebrating the fact that a chip of an American car company is going to survive, they've bought a Honda.
The reason? All the American cars they tried were either underpowered, poorly constructed, or were just uncomfortable to drive. To make things worse, the American car dealers weren't even willing to negotiate on prices or show them any cars that were younger than a 2009.
It was sheer frustration that brought them into a Honda dealership. It was the fact that the dealership treated them like customers instead of marks that got them to stay for more than 5 minutes. And it was the fact that my mother was able to work her horse-trading magic that they actually bought the car.
And they're already in love with it!
The Accord's got all the features they wanted (unlike all of the American cars they tried...and they tried a lot of American cars), and a few features they didn't know they wanted before they had them.
I get updates on how awesome the car is. Jokes about how the car is smarter than they are. All the weird little features its got (like heated seats!). The fact it keeps track of gas mileage.
They're reading the instruction manual even as we speak.
They're going to be sending me "baby pictures" next.
Ladies and Gentlemen...my parents.
If the American car companies have lost people like these as customers, possibly for good, then it's a sign that the fall was most likely inevitable.
ETA: I'm glowering at the sky right now. I was planning to hit the river today, but the low-hanging, rain-heavy looking clouds aren't making me feel comfy about doing so. So now I have to put off kayaking until tomorrow morning. At least it's supposed to be nice and sunny in Sunday morning.
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Seriously, I know the US car industry has a bad rep internationally, but my parents had cars with heated seats and mileage meters when I was a kid.
I never have, because all my cars have been bottom of the range cheap small cars, but they're a fairly standard feature on cars that aren't dirt cheap this side of the pond.
Fortunately, the 'buy british' attitude was killed off a long time back. Which is why the UK car industry was reasonably succesful, it had to compete with all the other manufacturers globally, and did so fairly well. Apparently GM's UK subsidiary was actually profitable until everyone stopped buying new cars.
Still, comparative advantage is a wonderful thing, just takes awhile for the economy to adjust. Good that someone with a brain has stepped up to take one of the better divisions though.
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Granted, there was my transmission blowing out on my way to Christmas Eve service in Alaska, but overall, I'm quite happy with D and plan to keep driving him for as long as I can.
So, yes, count me in the crew of folks excited that GM found a buyer for Saturn. (And color me confused it isn't something they wanted to hang onto.)
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Well, I don't think the 2010 models will come out till June/July...? Or did you mean, wouldn't show them any older models?
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Example: My Dad works at a factory that builds radios for cars and motorcycles. At the moment, their two biggest customers is BMW and Crysler.
I also hear you about the weather. My parents are heading off to MA today, and there was a lot of thinking about what to pack do to the weather.
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It's maddening.
But, yeah, American/Foreign cars really isn't quite the neat divide it was during the 70s.
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I had completely forgotten about Saturn, so thanks for the reminder. hopefully the plant can stay here, too.
More info than you want, but gotta share, cause it's Saturn!
We joke that my family should be a Saturn commercial (or get some sort of bulk purchasing discount).
My mom was first, leasing one in the early 90s. She just loved how the company dealt with her and thought the safety features were great. By the time she got her second sedan, my dad was in a little two-door.
That second sedan saved her life. Asshat in an SUV ran a red light going 40+ and plowed right into the drivers side of her car. They had to use the jaws of life to get her out of there. She was knocked around a bunch and had ongoing back troubles, but other than that, she was pretty ok. While the back troubles were pretty bad, considering how it could have been, we *really* appreciated the Volvo-like safety construction under all that plastic. (When my dad and I went to take pictures of her beloved car to prove to her it was totaled, the pic that sold her was the fact that the drivers seat was basically where the middle console used to be.)
So she definitely replaced that with another Saturn.
When it came time for me to get my first car, my parents said I could get what I could afford or they'd help me get a new Saturn (gee, let me think...)
At this point, I'm on my first, Mom's on her third, Dad's on his second, my brother's on his second and we've even gotten my sister-in-law in on it and she's on her first. (See what I mean by bulk discount...Come on....buy 10 get one free? Anyone?)
So we've been understandably unhappy with the way GM has been handling Saturn. This news is more than welcome!
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Julia, and don't even get me started on the insanity of trying to stow coats, purses, camera cases, structured hats, et'c, with more than one person in the car...
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Hey, missed you! Only got chowder once, and never got to eat lobster while I was in Boston. Visited the Aquarium on my free day. If I never see another staircase I'll be happy. :-)
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I now drive a Pontiac G6. Yup. Another GM. And another line that's being discontinued.
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Your Saturn sounds good though!
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I too am glad Saturn was saved, though.
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The weather was gorgeous most of the day here in Cambridge.
I hope you got out on the river.I can read. >_>no subject
I know a lot of people who loved the Saturns though, so I'm glad they got saved.
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I did consider a Saturn, but stayed with the Civic.
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At one time, the people in my family that had Saturns included me, my wife, my mother, my sister, my sister-in-law, and my mother-in-law. The only reason I'm not still driving my '94 SL is because we bought a pop-up trailer and needed something that could pull it.
However, the death knells of the Saturn were when GM grabbed it and made it just another version of the other stuff they were selling. If Penske has them built here in the States, we'll be back.
No matter what happens, though, when the time comes, we'll be buying a vehicle that's made in the States, regardless of where the company calls home. I'll also be looking for a bumper sticker that reads: My Car Was Made In The U.S. Was Yours? Too many "American" cars would have to answer, "No, not really."
Sadly, The Saturn That You Remember Is Long Gone...
While they still take your picture in the dealership, they no longer have a no haggle price and some of the unique features of the car (Saturns had a totally different motor than a lot of GM cars) are the same as other cars to save money.
I too was saddened to hear about Saturn. I gave up the '97 wagon which was the ultimate gear hauler family car, in my divorce as it still had a payment and my Mazda did not.
To summarize the NPR story I heard, GM killed the Saturn concept the way we remember it because it didn't make enough money. Not that it didn't make some money, but GM in their greed, decided that they'd make more money if they moved the plant to Mexico and made other changes to make it more "cost effective."
When I heard that, I felt less sad about Saturn's demise.
They interviewed some folks who'd worked at Spring Hill during the glory days and they had many fond memories of actually being a real contributor and the pride they had in working on Saturn.
So I hope that Penske doesn't just buy GM parts and make a Malibu with a different body, which is what a Saturn is now.
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Before that, for almost 20 years, I drove only used cars that my grandfather had bought and fixed up - he loved Fords best because they were easy to fix and parts were cheap and plentiful although he worked on both American and foreign over the 30 plus years after he retired from the Navy and there was always a car in pieces in his driveway.