A Look Back at Saturn Commercials & Concepts

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:20:32 +0000

Poor Saturn, a brand we’ve known and loved since they opened an assembly line in Tennessee back in the 80’s. They were to become the next great American made automobile. But now, after financial disasters and flawed bailout plans, parent company General Motors plans on discontinuing the line by 2011. In mourning we’d like to take a look back at some of our favorite brands through commercials, as well as concepts Saturn never got off the ground.

Classic Saturn – Introduced to the World on TV

Saturn was established on January 7, 1985, in response to the success of Japanese & German small-car imports in the United States, with the slogan “A different kind of car company.”

Saturn S Series – 1992

Saturn’s S-Series was one of the longest selling and most popular cars for the company. The S-Series was available in both four door sedan, 5 door wagon and two door coupe. Other version included a two door coupe with suicide doors. S-Series kept on trucking with a good sales percentages until production ended in 2002, and was replaced by the Ion.

Saturn SC2 Turbo Concept – 2001

The SC2 Turbo was a concept which many Saturn owners have transformed their S-Coupes into, with a little help from something called Horse Power. The SC2 Turbo was never an official release by the company, but fans have dropped in turbocharged engine, exhaust systems and speakers the size of your entire body.

Rebirth with the Saturn Ion – 2003

European auto maker Opel became a major inspiration to Saturn’s look. Much like a reformed S-Series, the Ion comes in sedan and two-door coupe form, complete with the now well known Saturn suicide door.

Saturn Flextreme Concept – 2008

Flextreme carries on the power-train concept of the original Chevy Volt as a range extended electric vehicle. Drive to the wheels is provided by a 53kW electric motor which gets electrons from a 16kWh lithium ion battery. Where the Flextreme differs from the Volt is the range extender. The Volt uses a 1.0L three cylinder, gasoline/E85 flex-fuel engine to drive the generator. The Flextreme uses a 1.3L four cylinder diesel engine.

What Happened to the 3-Door Saturn?

admin — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:14:39 +0000

Try as they might, Saturn (or any other auto maker for that matter) could really get the whole 3rd Door access to become overly popular. Maybe that’s because it’s known as the “suicide door.” Antique automobiles up through 1960’s era Lincoln Continentals used the backward swinging design, and more modern pickup trucks feature a small suicide door in extended cab models. Two of Saturn’s coupes, its S-Series and Ion, featured this additional access point. But it never really picked up with consumers.

The name suicide door “reflects the increased danger of the door falling open if it becomes unlatched while the car is moving. The potential risk is obvious: when driving at high speed, the fast moving air around the car creates an area of low pressure, which acts as an outward force on the door, trying to open it.” – (thanks Wikipedia)

Saturn first introduced a driver-side third door for easy entry on their 1999 SC coupe. Its latch is on the inside panel, making it impossible to open (on purpose or accidentally) without opening the front door first. Many S-Series vehicles remained in the top 5 most stolen cars during their model run.

In 2003 the S-Series was replaced by an all new Ion, based off an Opel design. Ion’s coupe featured suicide doors on both sides of the vehicle. Saturn Ion had a decent sales rate at first, and was up for a redesign in 2008. However, in 2007 owners GM decided to discontinue their Ion and move onto the Astra. The time for suicide/3-door coupes has come and gone again. Perhaps one day some car company will take up the fight for unique door design again.