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My Favorite Network

First of all, let me thank all 1,300+ of you who have joined ImSaturn.com! I always knew that Saturn customers were a highly social and fiercely loyal group.

It has been insightful to read your posts and comments, from the Sky lovers to those of you who miss the Ion. We’re going to do our best to address your comments and questions as you post them on the site. You’ll hear from Saturn staff, and from time to time, I’ll post my thoughts as well. (By the way, we also love the Sky and miss the Ion, but we adore the Astra!)

One topic I’ve noted is your concern about the availability of the Vue and Aura hybrids. Unfortunately, we’ve been dealing with an initial component shortage. I’m pleased to report that the Vue Green Line, however, is on the way! Availability will be limited, but they are already beginning to arrive at retail facilities. It is best to work with your local retailer to get “on the list” for these in-demand vehicles.

The availability of Aura hybrids will also be limited. Select markets (Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Sacramento) will begin to see Aura Hybrid inventory beginning around mid-May. Other areas will begin to receive vehicles with the 2009 model year, which will start production in July. We appreciate your patience as we work to boost availability.

Thanks for all of you comments online. I also love getting away from the office and talking with people all around the country. For example, last week I had the chance to spend a whirlwind day in Washington, D.C. I was particularly excited to have the chance to share coffee and dessert with a very interesting group of bloggers. There were some familiar faces (Charlie from SaturnFans) and many new friends. The topics of their blogs ran the gamut from autos to parenting to general observations about life. Mama's got moxie has already posted her observations from the evening. It is always nice when I meet with a blogger and they write about Saturn, but I also value the honest and articulate input that these discussions yield.

I also met with a first-year MBA class at George Washington University. I was happy to tell Saturn’s story and share my experiences, but this meeting was also a two-way street, with me gaining valuable insight and inspiration from the students and faculty.

The last stops in D.C. were with Jim Healey of USA Today, Warren Brown from the Washington Post and Mark Solheim of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. They will all soon be writing reviews of the new Astra. Hopefully the positive press will continue with these two very important critics. Our new products continue to get great reviews. In fact, Charlie’s SaturnFans.com site does a great job of highlighting some of the best articles.

We’ll keep telling Saturn’s story and seeking input wherever we can get it – from online communities or in person. We’ve got a lot to say, but it is even more important that we listen. So keep those posts and comments coming, and thanks again for helping us launch ImSaturn.

19 Comments

Comment by PSVUE on May 1, 2008 at 6:47pm: Hi Jill. My sincere thanks for your willingness to participate in a forum like this and to listen. I am a Saturn owner since 1994 and I have always been happy with Saturn vehicles. I am glad to hear that you adore the Astra. I too like the Astra's interior and exterior appearance as well as it's fit and finish. For me to purchase a car with the Astra's size, price and power however, it absolutely will have to at least achieve gas mileage of 25 mpg city and 37 mpg highway on 87 octane gasoline with a non-hybrid engine. I consider these goals to be minimums with any future hybrid Astra achieving even greater fuel mileage. Times have changed and I would like to see Saturn become a leader in designing and manufacturing quality fuel efficient vehicles that sell at a price that is affordable to average Americans. Thanks again for listening and I wish you and Saturn well.

Comment by Phil Toney (nasaman) on May 2, 2008 at 2:56pm: Jill -

I want to commend you for three recent important developments at GM. First, for the inspiration, dedication and hard work I know it took to carry out "the renaissance of Saturn" that GM's Vice Chairman Bob Lutz promised when he started GM's FastLane blog during the North American International Auto Show three years ago, in his first post there.

Second, for your efforts in keeping Saturn a separate Division in GM's recent re-organization ....a reorganization that also leaves Chevrolet as the only other separate division while grouping Pontiac, GMC & Buick together as one "multi-division", and Cadillac, Hummer & Saab as a second "multi-division". This is extremely significant to me, because it means that Saturn is as highly regarded by top GM management as Chevy, the company's "bread & butter" division (10x the size of Saturn in terms of dealerships, and now the only other stand-alone division)!

Finally, kudos for starting this website/blogsite for both Saturn owners & employees! It's just one more excellent marketing & communication tool from the "Lajdziak" toolkit that asserts and continues the innovative, customer-oriented spirit of Saturn! I wouldn't be surprised if headquarters insiders started calling you their "Wonder Woman" any day now! It's already being rumored that you'll have Bob Lutz' job when (if!) he ever retires!

Comment by SC2Sick on May 2, 2008 at 4:15pm: meh to the ion.. bring me back the S series

Comment by RjION on May 2, 2008 at 9:35pm: Not all of us adore the ASTRA ... many of us think it came up short. Way short in power. Way short in being user friendly. A stop gap at best because the ION plant was going to build another automobile. I always thought Bob Lutz made great moves, but the ASTRA move came incomplete.

Comment by Terry Fike on May 3, 2008 at 9:03am: I think the Astra is a major step forward for Saturn.. I was ready to trade my ion on a BMW 128i as I was done with GM... At the last minute I remembered the Astra and being a lifetime GM owner I thought I would at least give it a chance.. The Astra has a BMW feel to it. It drives,handles and brakes with anything out there including BMW.. Not to mention its half the price.. After the test drive I purchased my Astra and couldn't be happier... Yes, I guess I do adore it... Thank you Jill and everyone at Saturn for bringing this great car over here..

Comment by Gord888 on May 3, 2008 at 11:50pm: Who said you had to let the ION name die? Bring it back as a smaller b-car to compete with the up and coming Mazda 2 and Ford Fiesta. Fit it with an even smaller vvt ecotec engine (if it even exists) and you'll be golden.

Comment by RjION on May 4, 2008 at 9:56am: Astra Corsa could be the next ION...who knows. Iy'll most likely show up as the Saturn Corsa

Corsa...a name once used on the Chevrolet Corvair

Comment by Phil on May 4, 2008 at 11:03am: lets see the clasics be resurected from the dead.."and from the ashes comes the s-series"

Comment by Rob on May 5, 2008 at 10:26am: Jill

Its great to finally have a way to communicate with you and the Saturn Team. Thank You!

Being a long term follower of Saturn, I was concerned during those years Saturn was product starved and the only focus was the S-Series. Granted, it provided continual improvement on the carline and when it was replaced, it was a pretty bullet proof car, one that still could be worked on by the do-it-yourselfers for maintenance.

I'm glad to see that there is now a genuine commitment from GM to growing the Saturn brand beyond what the L-Series was supposed to do. I have not only been an owner of Saturn vehicles, I have worked on them as a technician, I've sold them as a salesperson, and worked with customers as a service advisor. So you could say, I'm a bit of a Saturnfan.

I have had few issues with each of the Saturns I have owned. YAY! Of the issues I've had, only 2 have been put me in a situation where I was without my vehicle for more than a day. Both came up within the first three months of ownership, but were corrected once diagnosis was complete.

I know it must be hard at times to hear, bring back such and such back, the critiques of the industry and others of what Saturn should do etc., but from my point of view, the "resurrection" of Saturn has meant nothing other than some great looking, improved vehicles. Not that the S-Series was a bad car or the Ion. In order for a company to grow, regardless of the industry, it must change and continuously improve. I'm happy to see that Saturn is having that chance. Now, the rest of the world needs to know that. I've seen the new Vue commercial. I look forward to seeing the Aura. But one thing I wonder about is will there be one for the Outlook and Astra? One thing I still find as do others stated on the various sites and here is that people don't know Saturn's products. I had someone that works at a dealer ask me what I was driving, referreing to my Ion Red Line. Personally, I think Saturn should flood the advertising market with each of the offerings like Cadillac and Chevy do. People know Saturn exists, they don't know what they offer.

I'm working towards my next Saturn, the Astra XR 3-door. I love the current lines of the car. Love the feel of it, much more solid then the Ion. It will be Saturn #8 for me.

Again, thank you for this outlet for owners and Saturn Team members alike. I look forward to reading more from all.

Comment by carcass on May 5, 2008 at 10:52am: Please don't forget about us power hungry Saturn owners out there. I'm sure you have noticed that a few of your competitors are producing 300+HP performance cars from the factory that are selling very well. We track oriented Saturn owners need cars that will be able to compete. Please boost the power on the Sky Redline and give us the Astra Redline as well.

I plan on competing in the Redline Time Attack event in mid July and apparently my SC2 will be the very first Saturn to ever compete in any of their events. I've been told that all eyes will be on me because of my car of choice. In the future it would be nice to start out with a more powerful platform to build on that would help equalize the playing field. www.redlinetimeattack.com

Thank you for producing this Saturn social network.

Q.