silvrsvt Posted June 12, 2018 Share Posted June 12, 2018 (edited) Saturn was ballyhooed as GM's ground-up attempt to beat the Japanese at their own game. It lost money every year of its existence but one, from what I've read. The cars sold reasonably well at first, and the superior dealer service did impress customers. But GM left the car wither on the vine, because the other divisions - especially Chevrolet - needed money for new products. IIRC-Saturn had an extremely long gestation period-it was started in 1982, but didn't have its first products till 1990. I remember watching Autoweek about them and the various Ford products of that era on PBS as a teenager. Edited June 12, 2018 by silvrsvt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Assimilator Posted June 12, 2018 Share Posted June 12, 2018 (edited) New MKC prototypes are running around and I got a much closer look at them. The design is very similar to the Aviator, especially the greenhouse. The belt line or window-sill is more horizontal and straight with larger windows in the back quarter very similar to Aviator. The sheetmetal is less sculpted than the current MKC, more linear without that 'rump' design on the current car and Nautilus. It has the same character line as the Aviator running above the door handles to the back. From the rear quarter view it actually has that 'arched' appearance of the Mercedes GLC. The front end also has that Aviator fascia with a slightly less tear-drop shape to the headlights with complex reflector style LED fixtures. The rear still has a clamshell design, it looks more like the newest Audi Q5 or Q7 designs, wider and more lean, sharper creases and flatter surfacing with less bulbous proportions. The proportions are much less cab-forward and longer, but it's also not a huge departure from the Escape prototypes...architecturally speaking. But I swear it looks longer to the point I'm willing to believe it's stretched longer than Escape by may be an inch or two. All in all, it's quite an amalgamation of recognizable German design cues, it's kinda funny because I immediately thought it was a half dozen other vehicles at first. But it's going to be sharp! Edited June 12, 2018 by Assimilator 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grbeck Posted June 12, 2018 Share Posted June 12, 2018 (edited) IIRC-Saturn had an extremely long gestation period-it was started in 1982, but didn't have its first products till 1990. I remember watching Autoweek about them and the various Ford products of that era on PBS as a teenager. It sticks in my mind that Saturn was announced in either 1983 or 1984. Saturn was Roger Smith's pet project. When he retired, however, the project lost its main proponent. It was too far along to kill, but it kept going largely on momentum. (It didn't help that Smith had basically run the entire company into the ground.) I've since read that, within GM, there was talk of folding the entire Saturn project into Oldsmobile by the late 1980s. Edited June 12, 2018 by grbeck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Assimilator Posted June 12, 2018 Share Posted June 12, 2018 I don't know how this conversation derailed toward Saturn but I JUST watched a pretty good video on the subject. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-dubz Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 (edited) New name seems to be Corsair, at least per autoblog. Mkc name will stick around until it gets a redesign in a few years Edited June 18, 2018 by T-dubz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fgts Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 It sticks in my mind that Saturn was announced in either 1983 or 1984. Saturn was Roger Smith's pet project. When he retired, however, the project lost its main proponent. It was too far along to kill, but it kept going largely on momentum. (It didn't help that Smith had basically run the entire company into the ground.) I've since read that, within GM, there was talk of folding the entire Saturn project into Oldsmobile by the late 1980s. That's what should had happened in 2000 or so instead of killing Olds. 1st Gen Saturns weren't bad cars but just terrible cost overruns that should had been given to the J-cars (Cavalier) . Some of the plastic panel tech did make it to the 90's G-Bodies (Deville, Bonneville,88...) on the front fenders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSchicago Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 Mariner or Milan would be a good name. WAY better than Corsair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 What about Capri? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 Mariner would be good. Not Milan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerLS Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 I like Corsair. I'd like it better with a radial engine, but, hey, you can't have everything... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzymoomoo Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 I like Corsair. I'd like it better with a radial engine, but, hey, you can't have everything... Not exactly practical in a compact crossover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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