Japanese Say NO to Saturn

Some things are hard to figure. If you have never driven a Saturn, you should. While the car may not be everything you want in a vehicle, they are solid, comfortable, very drivable cars with great performance at a reasonable price. One would think that if there was one American-made car that the Japanese would like, it would be a Saturn.

Wrong.

That assumption has cost General Motors a lot of money and the company says it is giving up trying to convince Japanese car buyers that the Saturn is the car for them. After three years of promotion, and building 22 dealerships, GM says sales are dismal 4,300 since 1997. That compares to sales of 2.2 million in North America since 1990.

GM says it learned a lot in its three-year effort of trying to sell Saturns to the Japanese. The General is not, however, sharing what it learned. The company said it will convert the Saturn dealerships to Chevrolet dealerships.