When former General Motors chairman Roger Smith dreamed up Saturn in the 1980s, he envisioned a stand-alone small car company remote from the problems of bureaucratic GM that would sell 500,000 cars a year. But Smith retired in 1990 and his successors didn't see it that way. They took away Saturn's independence and starved it of new models.
After losing billions of dollars, Saturn was struggling along with old designs a few years ago when GM (Charts) decided to give it another chance. It invested $3 billion, borrowed some design themes from its German brand Opel, and sent it out to fight again.
Now that the new Saturns have started reaching dealers, it is time to begin assessing whether GM's billion-dollar bet has paid off. The results to date are encouraging - but mixed.
The first step to redemption is admitting failure, and the most positive sign at Saturn is that GM's management is willing to publicly acknowledge that it screwed up.
"People in our own company have been confused about this brand," confessed Saturn boss Jill Lajdziak (pronounced LAY-jack) at a meeting of the International Motor Press Association in New York last week. "We didn't grow the product portfolio and the product didn't evolve for a decade." Saturn's new advertising slogan -- "Like always. Like never before" -- also contains a hint of contrition.
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