The End of an Era: Reinventing Saturn

Saturn Continues to Shed its Polymer Body Panels in Favour of Stylish European Metal

If you keep up to date with automotive news, you'll know that GM has recently been feeling the sting of shifting markets and

The Saturn plant in Tennessee will likely escape General Motors' belt tightening, and produce a variety of GM models. (Photo: General Motors of Canada)

slow sales (their employee discount sales event providing temporary relief). A myriad of economic pressures have forced the world's largest car manufacturer to take a closer look at any ideas that could potentially help it cut costs and increase sales, and therefore profits. From cutting 25,000 jobs, and possibly more, to axing health care benefits for retirees, to closing down plants, GM is considering every possible option.

One victim of tightening the General's belt won't be the Saturn plant in Tennessee, however, but don't expect it to continue its exclusive relationship with Saturn. The Spring Hill plant, which started life producing the SL and now builds the ION compact sedan/coupe combo and VUE compact SUV, is currently one of GM's most expensive plants to run as it creates the polymer body panels that, up until the 2005 model year and the introduction of the Relay minivan, have been Saturn's signature.

With Saturn gradually being weaned off of plastic, however,

The upcoming Sky, features steel body panels, will be made alongside its Pontiac sister, the Solstice in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo: General Motors of Canada)

it only makes that the black sheep of GM's production network be retooled to accept additional GM models. Saturn's Relay minivan is being produced at the Kansas City, Kansas, plant, alongside its three GM mid-van clones. The upcoming Sky, also featuring steel body panels, will be made alongside its Pontiac sister, the Solstice in Wilmington, Delaware. Production of the all-new Aura will take place in Fairfax, Kansas alongside the Chevrolet Malibu. The new VUE, which has been spied testing in Germany, is based on the same architecture as the Chevy Equinox and Pontiac Torrent, and could easily be produced alongside those two at GM's CAMI Automotive Plant in Ingersoll, Ontario.