When GM created the Saturn division in the late ‘80s, the main rationale put forth was that it should address the growing flood of Japanese cars being sold in the United States. We all know the story: things started off in stellar fashion, then a plateau was reached by the late ‘90s, soon followed by a steepening slide towards irrelevance and, ultimately, oblivion. It all took place in 20 years. And here we are, 15 years after Saturn’s demise, exploring a decaying fragment of this once-shining planetoid that landed, unexpectedly, on the other side of the Pacific.
It makes some sense that this SC-2 has made it to this little corner of Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo itself. After all, it was Saturn’s job to fight Honda, Toyota and Nissan in the US, so why not try to gain a foothold in those carmakers’ own backyard by enticing the Japanese public to sample a new kind of American car?
I guess it was a good thing that GM gave it the old college try, but really the Japanese did not seem impressed with Saturn’s S-Series. Several things worked against it, including a difficult economic outlook in Japan at the time, Saturn’s complete lack of image, the S-Series being pitted against extremely good JDM and competent European rivals… In a phrase, it really was the wrong car, in the wrong place and at the wrong time.
Personally, I would also add that Saturns look weird. That might just be a personal thing, but if you’re not used to seeing these (and I most definitely am not), the styling does take a while to get used to.
That’s not to say that the Saturn had no ace up its sleeve. The dent-proof thermoplastic body panels certainly had potential. The 1.9 litre 4-cyl. was no fireball, but nothing to be ashamed of, either. It was on the noisy side, but decently reliable and up to date. Cleverly, GM added an optional third door to the SC-2 in 1998, so the car even had a quirky and unique feature to boast about.
I’m really not sure about the interior, though I’ve seen a lot worse in late ‘80s / early ‘90s GM products. The plastics don’t seem as flimsy here and the design is decidedly not like a miniature Buick. But going to the trouble of putting the steering wheel on the right was a wasted effort: back in the ‘90s, the great majority of imports had LHD. It was a way for Japanese folks to show off that they were driving something different. Some marques went RHD (e.g. Volvo, Citroën and some Volkswagens), but by and large, that was not the preferred option.
It’s also debatable why the third door was added, given how minimal the rear seats were in the SC-2. That’s not specific to the Japanese market models, of course…
All three of the S-Series models were imported in Japan: the four-door sedan, the wagon (I found one in Tokyo five years ago, in a similar state to this SC-2) and the coupe. However, they were not treated equally by the Japanese taxman: the sedan and wagon fit the rigorous “mid-sized” tax band, but the coupe, being just a smidge over 170cm in width, was classed and taxed in the same bracket as a Cadillac. It still only had a 1.9 litre engine, but that did not matter. Over the line was over the line.
This would have made the SC-2 even more of a niche product, no matter how competitively-priced it was. And GM did try to sell these for a song, and via a number of novel channels: you could order these by way of Yamada, the traditional GM importer, but also through some Toyota Netz stores and Isuzu dealerships. GM went in all guns ablaze in 1996, dreaming of scoring 300-500 monthly sales per dealership. Oh boy, was the awakening going to be a rude one.
It was a tough crowd for the Saturn SC-2 to shine through. The JDM rivals were really a lot more numerous than the ones included in this table: Toyota and Nissan had several more coupés to propose, usually cheaper too. To be fair, the Saturn is not the only import in this table that struggled to make an impact: the Fiat, the Opel and the Rover were also noted for their selective appeal. When you’re priced at the same level as a Celica or an Integra, you better have the retro chops of a New Beetle or the iconic brilliance of an Alfa 145 to get noticed. The Saturn did not have that.
The whole Saturn range flopped, and it flopped hard. I don’t have numbers for 1999, but apparently about 1400 cars were sold in 1998 and just over a thousand in 2000. In total, GM managed to find 4324 takers in Japan for the Saturn range between late 1996 and mid-2001, when they threw in the towel. I’m pretty sure GM sold many more Buick Century wagons (sorry, “Regals”) in the first half of the ‘90s than they ever did Saturns.
This naturally makes this SC-2 a genuine rarity – an endangered one, too, as it’s obviously not been on the road for a long time. Full credit to Jim Klein, who actually found this rough gem / zirconia when we were visiting the Railway Museum nearby. It’s not a junkyard find exactly, but it’s in that ball park.
It was impossible for GM to win. They spent the ‘80s and ‘90s wondering what it would take to break into the Japanese market. They thought they figured it out, but what sort-of worked in the US turned into a cruel joke on the other side of the ocean, with the likes of Honda, Nissan and Toyota running rings around Saturn.
Related posts:
Automotive History: Saturn’s Early Years – Corporate Camelot, by Jeff Nelson
COAL: 1997 Saturn SC-2 – Honest and Reliable, by IdiotKing
They (GM) spent the ‘80s and ‘90s wondering what it would take to break into the Japanese market.
I don’t think GM ever spent a moment thinking about what it would take to break into the Japanese market. They had their hands full dealing with the Japanese in the US market and that obviously wasn’t going so well.
My understanding of GM small cars being sold in Japan during this time was that it was in direct response to the US government’s very real concern about the imbalance in the trade (sound familiar?) with Japan, most especially with cars. That resulted in the very significant Voluntary Import Restriction of 1981, which limited Japanese imports to 1.68 million per year. And there was a huge amount of general anxiety and publicity regarding the Japanese invasion of the car business.
Toyota, being the center of the public’s and government’s bulls eye on this issue, was seriously concerned about further government restrictions on their US business, and as a consequence decided to take the initiative to “help” GM in a number of ways. One of them was in the rather poorly conceived (but PR-oriented) effort to help distribute and market GM cars in Japan.Toyota entered into a deal to help facilitate imports of genuine made in the US Chevys and other good GM stuff of the era. Not only did Toyota offer help, advice and facilities for the cars imported under their original US brand, but Toyota went a giant step further by rebranding the Chevrolet Cavalier as the Toyota Cavalier:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/history/toyota-week-postscript-1995-2000-toyota-cavalier-gm-tries-to-invade-the-japanese-market-with-a-little-help/
Undoubtedly Saturns were part of this initiative by Toyota to “give a hand to GM” during this time. The most significant one undoubtedly was in the NUMMI joint venture in Fremont,CA, where Toyota essentially showed GM how to build cars Toyota-style. This was very much not a PR gesture.
I rather doubt GM had any real illusions about how many of these Cavaliers and Saturns they were going to sell in Japan even with Toyota’s help, as the whole thing was of course a PR effort, to make Toyota look like the good guy and make GM US look like it had actual competitive small cars. Toyota spent quite a bit of money in a facility where these GM imports were prepped due to the much higher expectations of Japanese buyers in terms of build quality and such. The Saturn must have been an especially hard sell as Japanese buyers were big on very tight body tolerances, as the Saturn’s plastic body parts made that much more difficult.
The real find would be a genuine Toyota Cavalier.
I was living in Japan at the time of this. There was lots of advertising for both the Cavalier and the Saturn series. Not surprisingly, these cars did not sell well in Japan. The local manufacturers made a better product for less money. The taxes on said cars was also very high. I didn’t see one the entire time I lived in Japan.
I had assumed that GM sold Saturns in Japan just for show (to boast that they’re exporting to Japan), and put virtually no effort into it. But I was surprised to learn that they were actually advertised.
This YouTube video is a collection of 19 Saturn ads, many made specifically for the Japanese market.
I wonder if the showroom “experience” (i.e., unique showrooms, no dual-branding, no-haggle pricing) was similar in Japan as well?
Anyway, the ads here are interesting – a Coupe ad is shown at 5:45
Outside of a junkyard, this is still the most recent one of these that I can recall having seen on a tarmac surface, good to see it getting its day in the (metaphorical) sun here. I wonder what happened to the radio, it looks like it had a visceral reaction to the music the day it stopped working.
It’d be hard for me to choose this car over any of the Japanese competitors in that chart. But then again, I suppose over there it’s the foreign one and as such (usually) has some innate appeal to a small subsection of the overall local market. The Camaro though, which is conveniently photobombing here, seems to have been considerably more popular (along with the Buick you mentioned) over there proving that GMUSA CAN build a car that people in other countries will buy; while Tokyo may not be exactly teeming with either, they also don’t seem overly difficult to find/see, especially the last few years of Camaro production.
I’ll have the red Integra, please & thank you.
My mom had a 1997 Saturn SC1, and what a POS that car was. It was rough and noisy. The engine was very loud and the car started breaking the second the warranty was up. I told her not to buy it and to buy a Honda or Toyota instead, but my blue-blood GM brother made her buy the GM product. There was really nothing good about these cars.
The 3rd door wasn’t relocated, so the wide C-pillar on the left side is sub-optimal for RHD
I’ve had six of these. Five manuals and one automatic (which I bought and tightened up to give to my 17 year old niece), and three coupes, one wagon, and two sedans (one of which became hers). If I could find another with a standard gearbox, at least three doors, and not a zillion miles on it, I’d snap it up in a heartbeat.
Same here…had two 5-speed sedans, would buy another S-series (especially a wagon) in a heartbeat. They were good cars that were easy to work on and super fuel efficient.
Sometimes, one might wonder how GM survived to this very day while e.g. AMC went under…guess that if they just had taken the Opel Calibra with the 2.0 16V and offered it in Japan, the company might have saved a lot of money instead of creating Saturn which sold Opels in the US later just before tanking.
I had a SC1 briefly that I bought for my son to take his driver’s test in. We passed it on to him and he still drives it. I will say that the plastic panels make it look younger than it is to people who don’t care for or don’t know about cars. He had some grandparents concerned that he owned a “fancy sports car”. One peek in the interior or drive would dispel that thought. It is a pleasant enough car and perfect for him I cannot imagine someone paying more for it than an Integra.
Yet another example in the ‘It’s no wonder GM died’ evidence stack.
While wanting to sell cars in Japan is understandable, I am left with the impression that GM didn’t do their homework (I should be surprised?). The coupe measuring over 1700mm wide is one case in point – you can’t tell me GM was unaware of the financial ramifications. Then there’s the general excellence of the Japanese competition. Then there are the other prestigious (and some that maybe weren’t) imports trying for a share.
GM’s entry, be it Saturn or anything else, had to be better than the competition; Saturn comes across as more of a ‘me too’ effort. The TatraTable bears this out. Against that competition, at those prices, in that environment, it really didn’t stand a chance.
BTW, I thought GM’s importer was Yanase.
My sisters friend had one of these in red. She really liked it, it seemed to hold up well. Her and the husband sort a were hard on cars too. My sister rode in it once/twice; did not like it because it so low to the ground. Anyway, come “2006ish”, someone rear ended it. Got replaced with a “Dodge Caliber”.
This looks to be in pretty good shape especially the interior .
I remember a group of Motocycle friends bought a Saturn wagon and didn’t like it much .
I’d think just because it’s different and certainly the only one to show up at the usual places, some one there would want it .
-Nate
GM ruins everything, especially good ideas. Saturn did start off strong. It was truly a separate entity, operating independently. Living in metro detroit at the time, everyone was talking about “the Saturn project” and neighbors were being shipped off to Kentucky for this big secret thing.
Saturn was a revelation – but, GM wrecked it.
The Saturn SL/SC series was not a bad car. They are more common on the roads than the Ions and Astras that replaced them. What did Saturn in was not build quality or refinement, they are plenty of auto makers out there that made worse cars like VW, Hyundai, Stellantis, some like Tesla even thrive despite their reputation for sub-par build quality.
What did Saturn in was poor management by GM. They had the same problem as Scion, they didn’t adapt to consumer demand for fancier crossovers, instead they tried throwing badges on other cars that had no relation to their core brand, hoping something would stick.
I always enjoy your pieces Tatra- great Spinal Tap nod there- but ‘propose’ does not mean the same in English as it does in French. And why anyone would choose this over an Integra is mystifying. Incidentally did Opel ever import the famously aerodynamic (and not dissimilar) Calibra to Japan, the automotive equivalent of the slick looking steam trains of the thirties where modern lines hid traditional technology?
The only tangible difference between the English and French usage of the verb “to propose” is that in English it can also mean asking s/o’s hand in marriage. Don’t think that’s how I intended to use it, judging by the context.
T87: That’s not the only difference! “Propose” can mean “suggest” in both languages, but in French it can also mean “offer (for purchase)”, e.g. at a restaurant (“on propose un nouveau cocktail”), and it absolutely doesn’t have that meaning in English. The right English verb is “offer” in that context. Likewise for a vehicle offered for sale.
“Toyota proposed a coupé” means “Toyota suggested that they should start making a coupé”, not “Toyota offered a coupé”.
“Ferrari proposed a front-engined model” means “Ferrari suggested that they should start making a front-engined model”, not “Ferrari offered a front-engined model”.
This faux ami confused me on my first visit to France — why was the waiter being so pushy in proposing that I order a particular drink? And then I realized it just meant that the restaurant offered this drink.
This clears up a longstanding mystery for me. A solitary example of this model exists in Sri Lanka and is RHD. Always wondered how on earth that came about, but never looked it up in depth. Clearly it was a JDM import.