Ford still leads the parade with shuttered dealerships locally. Withing two months and 5 miles in either direction of my home, Ford closed two dealerships, the latest one on 1/31/08. That particular dealership had been in business since the 1920’s. One possible reason for this mom & pop dealers downfall, the worlds largest Toyota dealer is minutes away.

Within the last year, I believe Ford has shuttered at least 12 local LA and Orange County Ford dealerships.

What killed Olds, IMO, and is killing Buick, is GM dumping long established model names (Cutlass, LeSabre), and replacing them with (awful, in most cases) new names.

The Elmer Fudds that bought most of the Olds’ and now Buicks walk into showrooms, don’t see their favorites, and walk out. The Intrigue name, for example…IMO, was just awful. And what the hell is/was an Alero? GM = Clueless.

If I remember the production figures correctly, the last year Buick offered the LeSabre & Park Avenue, they sold roughly 350,000 units. How many first year Lucerne’s did they sell? Roughly a third of those figures. or was it a fourth…I forget.

Two weeks ago, I bought a 2008 Saturn Vue for a very good price. At first, when I made an offer, the dealer said no. Then, after pointing out the build date of September 2007 on the Certification Label, the dealer thought it over…and so…the VUE is in my garage. It took many hours, and 3 clay bars to remove months of built up pollution.

The dealer must have had at least 40 others in stock. Running my hand over the finish told me they had all sat there a while.

The homely L Series was an Opel under the skin, and I thought I read somewhere that the Aura is too.

I have no problem with rebadged Opels if they make a sensible, quality vehicle. I checked out the Astra at the auto show, and while it was a good looking car, it didn’t have some standard usable items like realistic cupholders, steering wheel audio controls, etc.

In losing billions of dollars, yes. The whole original Saturn SL misadventure cost GM billions.

Now remember that Saturn was originally designed to go toe to toe with the Japanese. Roger Smith and his crew were well aware of the perception problem that some people had with GM cars. So it was setup as an independent car company within the company. It had it’s own unique models and engines. None of the marketing mentioned that it was part of GM. And of course it required it’s own stand alone dealerships. If you wanted a new Saturn franchise, you couldn’t pair it with Pontiac, Chevy, or whatever. You had to build a complete new facility.

So forget about GM (outside of bankruptcy) ever closing Saturn. With all those standalone dealerships they could never afford it. Pontiac and Buick are possibilities though because of their grouping with GMC.

Actually, they succeeded impressively, with sales of the original SLx approaching 300,000 in ‘95, before they dragged Saturn back into the Mother Company and dumbed it down, because Pontiac insisted on being the “sporty” division. For those of us who prefer handling to power, the first generation Saturns were fun to drive. Of course, the engine was a POS but that’s another story.

Funny thing was, those “new” Olds cars really were different. I drove an Intrigue for 5 years and it was the most un-Olds like car ever; great steering feel, extremely modern comfortable interior, good handling, no wallow. I really liked it.

Of course, I bought it fresh off a lease and paid $9K for a 2 year old car that listed for $24K+ when new. Massive depreciation on those puppies. Plus, the traditional Olds market (ie old people) were turned off by bucket seats and a German-like exterior.

The Aura is a good car, but I see no advertising for it whatsoever. They are slowly appearing up here in increasing numbers and they are very nice, but the message hasn’t gotten widely disseminated yet.

That kind of thinking is why Saturn faltered to begin with. The SL vehicles were great at what people bought them for, but when the time came to move up they were greeted by the abominable LS vehicles.

What would you really have, an Aura or the LS300?

That’s not necessarily true. People tend to change over time, they get families they tend to make more later in life etc. Toyota makes more than the Corolla, but they started with just a few small cars. All of my high school friends were driving subcompact rabbit size cars in 10 years we were all driving considerably more expensive larger vehicles.

I will say again i think the Saturn brand should go (to the great space graveyard??) where it belongs. Saturn’s original “mission” was to compete with the Japanese and beat them at the economical small car game. They have FAILED miserably at that.

Now, 4 of 6 Saturn models (Astra, Aura, Vue and Sky) are either rebadged Opels or built on Opel platforms. Guess it wasn’t the Japanese after all GM was worried about. It was THE GERMANS !!!!!

GM, just kill Saturn ASAP and make Chevy your entry level brand, kill either Buick or Pontiac and make Caddy the top of your lineup. GM still has way too many divisions !!!!!!

GM keeps making these optimistic projections regarding Saturn…meanwhile, I keep having flashbacks to 1998-99, when GM was releasing press releases touting the resurgence of the “new” Oldsmobile.

As Yogi Berra would say, “It’s deja vu all over again…”

Meanwhile, they lose money on every Astra sold, and the Outlook and Aura can’t find takers anywhere.