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| I didn't like their looks at first... |
This and the Pontiac G8 are the sure-thing investments from the dead GM divisions, if you ask me. (I mean, if you happen to be looking for something to stick under a car cover in the garage...)
Books. Bikes. Boomsticks.
“I only regret that I have but one face to palm for my country.”
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Future Collectible...
Seen parked up out front of 20 Tap the other day:
The Saturn Sky is only half as common as the arguably better-looking Pontiac Solstice, with less than 35,000 sold over its 4 (really 3) year run. By comparison, Ford built 84,000 Edsels during the course of its production run, and over half a million Mustangs in 1965 alone.
This and the Pontiac G8 are the sure-thing investments from the dead GM divisions, if you ask me. (I mean, if you happen to be looking for something to stick under a car cover in the garage...)
This and the Pontiac G8 are the sure-thing investments from the dead GM divisions, if you ask me. (I mean, if you happen to be looking for something to stick under a car cover in the garage...)
The convertible top doesn't seem to fit right when it is new,
ReplyDeleteI liked the looks of the Sky better than the Solstice, but they needed more power, I think.
I really did like the Solstice...I mean, I would have picked it over the Sky, or the Honda S2000, or the Miata if I was looking for a roadster.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of suprised another branch of GM didn't kidnap the Solstice, the G8, and maybe even the GTO. If someone still made a car with the horsepower the G8 had at that price point...someone would buy it.
Actually, I wanted one back in the day. No reason, except I was a Saturn bug from day one. Had 6 or 7 of the little devils, and my Vue saved my life in a most spectacular crash that would have toasted me in a Volvo or Buick.
ReplyDeleteI hope to someday shake the hand of the man who designed in that lovely controlled buckle feature on the Vue's hood. Bambi's Daddy had hooves that hadn't quite touched the pavement yet, so, the bumper untouched, the airbags didn't deploy as he came back toward me and the glass at well over 80 mph.
The hood buckled where (as I could see later) it was designed to do, stopping just short of the windshield while popping Romeo (it was rut season) up and over me. Sweet bit of design Sir, and thank you.
I do miss then, although GM had cheapened the line with corporate parts after the first two generations. The square cut gears sounded like a dumptruck in reverse, but they outlasted hypoids better than 2 to 1.
I had an unlicensed teenaged loon hit me in the driver's door with a '78 Oldsmobile (unregistered) so hard he threw me up on top of a snowdrift (SL2 sedan), and the ABS took all the structural damage. New fender skin, new door skin, and I was rolling again with several hundred extra in my pocket from the insurance company.
When they became essentially rebadged GM corporate cars with standard parts, most of the new magic went away, but for those of us who were there from year one, the plastic years were fun.
My last L300 was essentially an Opel Vectra with a Lotus made Z22SE 4 banger attached to a sweet SAAB 5-speed tranny. All the fit and finish bugs were gone, the door gaps were as small as they were ever going to get with plastic, and I never had any of the supposedly fabled timing chain problems, or knew anybody who did.
The service was the best and cheapest I ever saw. All electric bays with no hydralic fluid anywhere, smart friendly staff. I miss the enthusiasm and cheerfulness.
But by the end, the GM brasshats (you can drop the br if you want) had basically reinvented Oldsmobile, so not much loss I guess.
But I bet I'll be seeing SL-2's still running around when I'm 92. The homely body is indestructable, the way it wraps around the frame keeps it out of rust's way, and the double live roller driven cam is big enough to drive a tank engine. About as loud too, but along with the square cut gears, it was all part of the mystique.
Libertyman, there's a company called Mallet that can shoehorn a small block V8 in either chassis.
ReplyDeleteThat is a Saturn?
ReplyDeleteI briefly considered a Saturn on one of my car purchases, long ago when the name brand was new and hadn't been assimilated by the GM Collective yet. I liked the coupe with the small third door, or auxiliary door, or whatever it was called, but for some reason decided against it. I've often wished that other manufacturers had picked up on that idea, especially Honda for the Civic and Accord coupes.
I like my Astra, but really it's a re-badged Opel/Vauxhall Astra, not a "Saturn" design.
ReplyDeleteBut even then you can still see some of the little "WTF?" things that make you realize why Saturn died - like the fact that it's a 2008 model but the radio has no Aux input (despite the European models having one), or the fact that there's only one power plug.
The nicest bit is, unlike a jag or a triumph or a maserati, you can
ReplyDeletea: Be of normal size and comfortably drive it for hours
and
b: pull off the car cover, get in it, and go somewhere, without a weekend of replacing failed components first. They were very nice little cars! I put the "New" Tbirds into that category as well, and often think of buying one.
...I go 'round and 'round with people on Brit cars, Og. They're *high* *maintenance,* but if you actually keep up with it, they'll run and run. Go treating one like a Chevy (or a Saturn) and it will bite you every time. One may argue about this being a bad thing (it certainly is for most owners) but it's not as if Jag or MG ever pretended otherwise.
ReplyDeleteAs for driving comfort, I have just one thing to say: 1981 XJ-6. Even you would like it behind that wheel.
My truck is well, the truck, but buying a small US made car a few years ago was enough to ensure I never bought another Detroit made vehicle again. That was reinforced by the Dodge Caliber I got as a rental car a couple of times. It had more blind spots than a submarine without radar and moaned like a bored hooker when one tried to accelerate. At least I knew if the brakes failed I could just turn on the a.c. and the vehicle would slow to a halt.
ReplyDeleteWell, the GM God Corp has a "Black Sheep" in the family known as Holden down in Australia. I believe the G8 was just an Americanized version of it. Anyway, rumor has it that they will be shipping something to us in the States next year, with the V8 up front and the Differential in the rear, just like Allah willed it.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope so, because when the Wife and I attended the Cleveland Auto Show last month, we were struck by just how many of the exact same cars were being marketed by all the Auto Makers. They all were pretty much the same, until you hit the High end stuff like Audi, BMW, et.al.
But what can one expect from all the Nanny State Crap the Automakers are forced to put on a Car nowadays?
But it was nice to see that the VOLT was conspicuous by it's absence, and when we asked the Chevy Reps when it would be back, they said "Uh, maybe soon, we think, but don't quote us."
The XJ-6 is nice enough but not enough headroom for me. Now, the Mark 2, that's a nice car.
ReplyDeleteI now have more than 600,000 miles combined on Ford Explorers and I have basically replaced wear items like shocks. No component of either truck have spontaneously combusted nor at any time failed to proceed except by self inflicted stupid
I have spent a lot of time under the hood of a lot of Brit cars, including my own 67 Land Rover 109, which only ran reliably once I swapped the engine for a 230 from Detroit, and removed all the original electrics. If your idea of "Normal mainenance" is replacing the whole car a part at a time for it's service life, then yeah, great cars. if you actually want to- you know- drive, you have to buy a chevy or a ford or a toyota. If it was easy and simple and inexpensive, you would get in your MG this afternoon and drive it around. Brit cars have the reputation they have because they deserve it, plain and simple.
Oh, rub it in.
ReplyDeleteWas saving towards a Solstice when they cancelled the whole thing.
Because, yeah, why would someone living in a state with 300 sunshiny days a year ever want a convertible that didn't cost $50K?
Way to go, Generally Morons.
Next year I'll be purchasing my first convertible, and it's almost certainly going to be Japanese. I'd send a letter, but no one lives in Detroit anymore. Can't figure out why...
My four year old daily driver Holden Commodore VE SS/G8 GT as a collectible? I like the sound of that. I'll have to remember that when I'm forced to trade it in on the Obama Electric Trabant in a few years.
ReplyDeleteBTW: I've had Datsun, Honda, Ford, Pontiac & Chevy. This G8 GT is by far the best and my favorite of all in 30+ years of car ownership. I love that car. I guess that's why my wife calls it my mistress.
Well, you know how I roll, right? The only GM thing around here is a 67 De Ville convertible.
ReplyDeleteI have a '98 SC2 coupe still going strong. I was really interested in the Sky, but then GM, having rolled Saturn back under the big tent, killed them off. I really think the GM suits would rather have seen Saturn fail within GM than succeed as a semi-autonomous corporation.
ReplyDeleteAnd so they got their wish. My Saturn was as close as I'll come to buying GM now - once they took my tax money to stay in business they wrote themselves off my list. Not that they seem too worried about it.
og
ReplyDelete"The XJ-6 is nice enough but not enough headroom for me."
It's generally recommended to... take of your top-hat whilst driving (I'm 6' 5" and can't say headroom in anything other than an old mini has been an issue).
Oh and the Explorer was discontinued here due to "poor finish, shoddy workmanship and abysmal reliability" and outside the US you'll struggle to find anyone who'll buy 'any' US car.
Go anywhere where your life depends on your vehicle (Africa, Australia, Outer Mongolia) and you'll find Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi.... and the odd Land-Rover.
Just Sayin'
I always thought the Saturn looked better than the Pontiac. I felt they were just trying to hard on the Pontiac, like they thought the only way to be "edgier" was to add more edges. Kinda like what they did to Cadillac. The curves of the Sky reminded me of the Miata, but enough larger than the Miata I might actually be able to get into it.
ReplyDeleteAll show no go. Comparing to an S2000 is heresy. Someone get a match...
ReplyDeleteNo room, there's a Bricklin and a Delorean in the investment garage already... ;)
ReplyDeleteAble: You know why you find land Rovers all over the world, right?
ReplyDeleteThey couldn't make it back.
Top hat? you must be all legs. My torso length finds a new Beetle to be barely sufficient, and an Explorer is almost perfect.
It stands to reason that the people that manufacture Brit cars can't properly assemble a decent American car. No surprise there. I remember a Top Gear where Jeremy Clarkson whined about the fit and finish of the F150- and all the things they photographed were the right hand steer crap that gets put on for the UK market!
it's easy to be ethnocentric where it comes to automobiles. Unquestionably, there are a lot of beautiful Brit and Italian cars, but I will put my 400,000 mile Explorer against any new brit vehicle you choose, and do anything with it you like. I have a hitch, and room in the back for a towbar, so I can bring you back OK. ;)
og
ReplyDelete"be all legs" I'll have you know I am perfectly proportioned (it's everyone else who's a weird shape)
"It stands to reason that the people that manufacture Brit cars can't properly assemble a decent American car ... the right hand steer crap that gets put on for the UK market!"
Er, since we don't have any American manufacturing plants here, doesn't that mean that Americans can't assemble a decent American car?
"It's easy to be ethnocentric where it comes to automobiles"
I'll have you know I like the ladies so don't go implying otherwise ;-)
2700 lbs with 260 HP is why I rather enjoy thrashing our Vermont hills in my GXP!
ReplyDelete"Er, since we don't have any American manufacturing plants here, doesn't that mean that Americans can't assemble a decent American car?"
ReplyDeletethe RH steer stuff is fitted in Europe, last I looked. So far as I know no RH drive machines are manufactured in the US, I've been in nearly every (Ford) assembly plant on this continent.