Saturn Consortium history

Hoglund served until Richard G. “Skip” LeFauve succeeded him on February 3, 1986.

The year 1987 was a big one for the company, as parent company General Motors funded the construction of the facility.

1987 Saturn's logo is created.

Riney set about creating a "charismatic brand." He felt strongly that model names would detract from the Saturn name and insisted that the cars simply be called "Saturns," with numbers distinguishing various models. As a result, the Hal Riney & Partners agency was named as Saturn's "communications partner" on May 24, 1988.

1988 The Spring Hill plant is completed and 3000 workers are hired.

In April 1989 Riney produced "Spring, in Spring Hill," a documentary explaining the company to employees, suppliers, and the press.

1989 First Saturn dealers are appointed.

By the time the Saturn brand was launched in Japan, the Japanese economy was already in a sharp decline following the 1990 collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble.

Butler, Lacrisha, “Sasser Praises Saturn Work,” The Tennessean, Nashville, October 7, 1992.

Taylor, Alex, “Blah Car, Bad Book—In the Rings of Saturn by Joe Sherman,” Fortune, November 29, 1993.

In 1993 Saturn was set to sell 200,000 cars, garnering 1.4 percent of the market.

--Thanks to a unique partnership between Saturn and its retailers, in 1993 the retailers rebated back to Saturn 1% of the cars' sales price, to get GM's permission to start a third production shift.

In June 1994, for example 44,000 Saturn owners and their families drove their Saturns to Spring Hill for a three-day "homecoming," a feel-good event in which the relationships between dealer and customers were further cemented.

Saturn's sales had fallen, however, from a peak of 25,000 per month the year before to 15,000 per month in 1994.

Saturn's best year was 1994 when it sold 286,003 units of the S-series.

Aaker, David A., “Building a Brand: The Saturn Story,” California Management Review, Winter 1994.

Gilbert, Stuart C., “Observations on the Saturn Project: Site Selection, Financia,” Economic Development Review, Fall 1994.

Moreover Saturn faced increased competition from South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. and from United States automakers such as Chrysler, which introduced the Plymouth/Dodge Neon subcompact model in 1994.

When the Neon was first launched it 1994, the company (then Chrysler) attempted to imbue the car with a likable personality.

1994 Saturn reports its first profitable year.

winter, drew. "saturn turns 10." ward's auto world, july 1995.

Nevertheless, the experiment continued, as Saturn took the battle for small-car dominance to its most formidable competitors' home turf, appointing six distributors in Japan in 1996.

In 1996, Saturn dealerships distributed the electric GM EV1, the first electric car released under the GM marque.

"saturn struggles with gm's global strategy (to derive most of its small car platforms off a common global architecture)." ward's auto world, september 1997.

In 1997 Saturn entered the Japanese market, meeting head-to-head with the competition it was created to beat.

In 1997 Saturn began exporting cars to Japan.

white, eleanor. "relying on the power of people at saturn." national productivity review, winter 1997.

kerwin, kathleen. "why didn't gm do more for saturn?" business week, 16 march 1998.

Moreover, in March of 1998, Volkswagen AG launched its New Beetle into what the Wall Street Journal termed "a cutthroat market" and captured the bulk of the attention aimed at the small-car sector.

Fann, Gina. "Saturn Springs First Three-Door Sports Car." The Tennessean, October 30, 1998.

Mateja, Jim. "Saturn Open-Door Policy a Breakthrough." Chicago Tribune, October 30, 1998.

On November 1, 1998, the Saturn Corporation, a subsidiary of General Motors (GM), became the first car company to offer a three-door coupe when it introduced an updated model of its SC coupe.

In December 1998 Saturn reported "its first month-over-month increase since April," according to the Sunday Gazette-Mail.

saturn student packet. spring hill, tn: saturn customer assistance center, 1998.

Price cuts are announced for 1998 US models.

In January 1999, Saturn rolled out its two millionth car.

Expanding the Product Line: 1999 and Beyond

When Saturn finally did release a new vehicle in 1999 it was the ill-fated L-series, a midsize sedan designed to compete with the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

Even as late as 2000 it ranked second in owner satisfaction, behind Lexus.

2002 Saturn releases its first SUV called the Vue.

The winner, in early 2002, was Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, based in San Francisco.

Writing for Advertising Age in 2002, Bob Garfield maintained that Riney's "long-cultivated folksiness" approach to advertising the Saturn "attracted certain buyers but repelled many others.

The campaign culminated in the introduction in 2004 of a new tagline, "People first," replacing Saturn's first slogan, "A different kind of company.

In 2004, GM and the United Auto Workers dissolved their unique labor contract for the Spring Hill manufacturing plant, allowing Saturn operations to be integrated with the rest of GM.

It has 46 known moons (in 2005), 14 of which have irregular orbits; the largest, Titan, has a dense atmosphere.

2005 The Saturn L-series is cancelled.

2006 The Sky roadster joins the Saturn lineup.

The Ion was replaced by the European-built Astra in 2008.

GM had continued to produce the Aura, the Outlook, the Sky, and the Vue into the 2010 model year.