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Yet the most pitiful performer in the small-car field during the past two ) decades has been GM. The bad reputation spread in 1970 with the Chevrolet Vega, a poorly engineered car notorious for rust and breakdowns. That was followed in 1975 by the poor-quality Chevette, a hasty response to the first oil crisis. Then came the much hyped X-cars (Chevrolet Citation, Oldsmobile Omega) in 1979, which suffered from defective clutches and brakes. Two years later, the underpowered and overpriced J-cars (Chevrolet Cavalier, Cadillac Cimarron) rolled off the line, alienating young buyers.
Since the mid-1980s, when both Chrysler and Ford staged impressive comebacks, GM has become a paradigm for America's manufacturing inadequacies. Customers and competitors alike have viewed the company as an overfed, ingrown bureaucracy. The abuse has been humiliating at times. Renegade director H. Ross Perot lacerated the company for its short-term obsession with profits, while the quasi-documentary Roger & Me portrayed chairman Roger Smith as a heartless number cruncher. During the decade, GM's share of the U.S. market slid from 46% to a low of 32%. Says Thurow: "The worst thing to happen to our economy in the past ten years was the fact that GM lost so much of its market share, mostly to foreign companies."
Through it all, GM brass have pointed to Saturn as the company's great hope. Smith, its enthusiastic patron, called it "a project of cosmic dimensions" whose products would someday "shame" the Japanese competition. As Smith promised, everything about Saturn is large scale. It is GM's first new carmaking division since the automaker acquired Chevrolet in 1918, and its huge new plant in Spring Hill is the most self-reliant assembly plant built in the U.S. since Henry Ford put together his Rouge River complex in 1927. Saturn makes its own engines, transmissions, body stampings, instrument panels and seats. Fully 90% of the car's bulk and 65% of its parts are built on the site. Saturn's developers wanted it that way, the better to break away from GM's mold and reputation. Saturn's advertisements contain no mention of GM.
To start with, Saturn is offering three models: the SL sports sedan (base price: $7,995), the SL2 sports touring sedan ($10,295) and the SC sports coupe ($11,775). Saturn gave dealers a happy surprise -- and competitors a call to battle -- by pricing the SL sedan so low, thus undercutting such archrivals as the Honda Civic DX by $1,500 and the Toyota Corolla DLX by $2,000. Even so, most Saturn customers will not be driving $8,000 cars off the lot, since + buyers will be paying a $275 delivery charge, plus $695 if they want an automatic transmission and $775 for air conditioning. Saturn will offer no rebates or other incentives, but its warranty has some sweeteners: a 24-hour roadside assistance program and a money-back guarantee for dissatisfied customers who return the car within 30 days or 1,500 miles.