“We’re Still Here”

By Amy Sullivan | @sullivanamy | March 27, 2009 | +

As a proud Saturn owner (despite the fact that my husband keeps threatening to push the wheezing car into the Potomac), I found this commercial running during the NCAA Tournament endearingly sad. Hey, everybody–we’re not dead yet! We’re still around! Don’t forget about us!

What I didn’t realize, until I read Joseph Szczesny’s Time.com story today, is that the ads are intended not just to convince consumers to rush out and buy themselves a Vue hybrid, but also to pitch the line to a foreign car company that might take Saturn off GM’s hands. As with said Vue, I bet you could pick it up for a bargain price these days.

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http://smoothlikeremy.blogspot.com/ sgwhiteinfla

Saturns are good cars and relatively cheap. I think the problem is that from the moment that Saturns were introduced they kind of seemed gimmicy. But they didn’t attact the cool hip crowd like and so people just started to look past them when they thought about buying a car. I rented a Vue a couple years ago and couldn’t believe how much I loved it. Had I been in the market for a vehicle I would have definitely considered buying one. And everyone I know that owns one says great things about the service. Hopefully someone can pick them up and carry on the brand. I know they have plants in the south and if they close up shop its going to hit the economy down there pretty hard.
henqiguai

(Hmm; doesn’t seem like anyone here in the Swamp really cares.)
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Saturn’s real problems began when GM pulled the company back fully into the GM hierarchy, which then promptly stifled any further innovation for a decade.
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Last I saw anything about Saturn coming out of GM, the plan was for the Saturn brand to be more or less a distributor. It would sell re-labeled cars from other manufacturers; e.g. China’s Cherry, continue with the two Opels (Vue and Astra, I believe).
kbanginmotown

@henquiguai: You’re obviously tuned into Motown. Although Roger B. got props for launching the Saturn brand, it’s subsequent absorption into the GM fold made for…blandness.
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@sgwhite: Ha! The good senators from Tennesse will be upset when the Spring Hill plant closes, but AL, GA, MS, and SC all have their foreign imports and don’t neeed no steeeking UWA, thank you very much!
. It seems to me that only a total collapse of the auto supplier chain will convince those GOP doofusses (sp?) that we’re all in this together!
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@ henqiguai: “(Hmm; doesn’t seem like anyone here in the Swamp really cares.)”.
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yeah, that’s our problem in Detroit. You make a post about AIG and you get a gazillion hits. You talk about Detroit and zzzz….
Cliff

Riveting!
cfukara

AM:
“As a proud Saturn owner.”

Mmh.

Dear Amy: For how many times did you chant that verse over and over before you really believed it?’
nhautamaki

Hey henqiguai, just out of curiosity, why did you name yourself ‘very strange’ in Chinese?
henqiguai

#6 – nhautamaki Says:
Monday, March 30, 2009 at 8:34 am

Hey henqiguai, just out of curiosity, why did you name yourself ‘very strange’ in Chinese?

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Holy crap ! Sorry for the really, really slow reply. I am fairly new to this blogging thing, and don’t have a really good way to monitor my favorite sites. They sort of drop off my ‘radar’ after a day or so, and I only read these things for a short time after work or on weekends. Was playing around with my WordPress “dashboard” and saw your question.
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Why’d I name myself “very strange” in Chinese ? ~Couple of reasons (what follows should be an ordered list, but probably won’t be) —

Everyone who knows me agree…
“strange” and its variants were/are already in use
Ain’t too many people using pinyin that I’ve seen
Don’t have the imagination to come up with something cute
Did I mention that I really am off-the-wall strange ??