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Though that partly reflected the transition to a new small car, the real culprit was the L-Series: down 17 percent in ’02, Rembrandt Hotel Bangkok then by 20 percent more — to just 65,000 or so — despite facelifted ’03s with standard curtain side airbags and detail chassis improvements. Not surprisingly, the unloved L-Series faded away during model-year ’05, when only an unchanged V-6 sedan was available with far fewer options. All were L300s with standard ABS/traction control reinstated and no manual shift offered. Just over 5000 were sold.
With that, attention turned to the car itself. The sedan was criticized as looking like a scaled-down Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. Saturn greeted the world with four-door sedans and two-door coupes sharing a basic front-drive platform and major components. 2 with hidden headlamps, was more favorably received, though some said it resembled the Geo Storm, an Isuzu-built hatchback coupe then sold by Chevrolet. Each body style had its own styling, but neither drew rave reviews on that score.
General Motors’ first new nameplate in over 60 years was born in 1982 as Project Saturn. Smith realized that although GM was highly successful with traditional American cars, it badly lagged behind Japanese makers for small-car quality, design, and cost. As a result, younger buyers were deserting GM’s smaller U.S. Hondas, Toyotas, and other Japanese models — and they weren’t coming back. Conceived in part by then-chairman Roger Smith, it was an all-out effort to stem the growing Japanese dominance of the U.S. More than eight years passed before the first Saturns were sold.
Only Toyota’s subcompact Echo dared something like it. Reviewers were critical on many counts, none more than Car and Driver, which pronounced Ion “probably the most disappointing all-new American car in a decade…Its chassis refinement, advanced safety systems and value for money are impressive” — base prices ran around $11,600-$16,000. Also brave was making coupes available with the CVT as well as the torque-converter automatic. As Saturn’s most affordable car and the replacement for its top-seller, the Ion was critical for near-term success. Unusual, too, was the interchangeable roof-rail trim available through Saturn dealers in colors and patterns to mix and match with paint and interior decor. Saturn planned to peddle 160,000 a year, yet hardly budged the sales needle from the S-Series’ last calendar year: about 114,000 through the end of ’03.
For maximum driving range, a “regenerative” feature reversed the main motor on braking to replace some of the power used; a transaxle “coastdown” feature gave a similar effect when coasting on flat surfaces or when or descending hills. If you loved this write-up and you would certainly like to get even more information relating to HOA doesn’t allow me to rent out my condo – Sell or Keep it? (CA) kindly visit the internet site. That was deemed excessive for a fairly impractical car with unclear market prospects and embryonic technology. Recharging took 12-14 hours with the onboard unit, about three hours with the 220V equipment. Recharging was by a 220-volt stand-alone unit or a 110V onboard charger. The EV1 cost a cool $350 million to develop, and GM said it should have sold each one for at least $35,000 just to break even on the project.
