Saturn coulda’ been something.
I mean it was a clean sheet approach to selling cars; cars that for many felt and looked Japanese.
But, I’m always left with this nagging, unanswered question, and it’s to do with the J and Z bodies.
The J body spawned the Cavalier, and as such, the Cavalier has left a lasting stain on Chevrolet and GM. Even when the J was dead and gone and the far superior Delta Cobalt came about, I had no shortage of people say that the Cobalt was “just a Cavalier”. I’ve not heard the same of the Cruze, thankfully, but despite this, the Cavalier name still has clout in the public sphere, even if infamously.
Which brings up Saturn’s Z body, responsible for the S, SC, and SW cars. Around here, there are few, yet active S’s, SC’s, and SW’s, the 1.9 seems indullable, and the plastics pannels are as resiliant as ever. Great runabouts and cheap transportation for students.
Now, what if instead of stretching the J beyond 1991, GM killed it then, and put the Cavalier name on the Z body? The Saturn brand never got off the ground, and the hypothetical second-gen Z-body Cavalier takes root as being a quantum leap over the first gen Cavalier.
It could be that GM let both the J and the Z bodies languish as long as they did because they didn’t see the need to develop quality compact cars. Although throwing away money on inter-compeating compacts that overlap in the same segment probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do.
Then again, the second-gen Cavalier’s did offer the 3.1, and those engines didn’t seem really bothered by things like 400K kms.
