Date:         Sun, 14 Mar 1999 19:49:20 -0500
Reply-To:     Frank Miller <fmiller01@SPRYNET.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Frank Miller <fmiller01@SPRYNET.COM>
Subject:      Re: I've had it...Ed's finished with me.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

GM rarely buys anything they can make themselves - lots of "not invented
here" prejudice there. I didn't have anything to do directly with the
original Saturns, but I did attend a presentation on the development way
back when they were still just a name without a product. They spent a lot
of time & money doing test drives & surveying people for what constituted
the best of the best features in all the top-selling cars on the market at
the time. Then they tore these cars down, and determined what in the design
of the component gave it that characteristic. I remember the Accord's
transmission being mentioned as being at the top of the list for shifting
feel and smoothness, forgot the others. At any rate, they were then going
to use these design features to produce their own car. Guess it worked,
when it first hit the streets the press said it felt like driving another
slightly boring Japanese car. They really weren't trying to amke it
Japanese, it just came out that most of the cars at the top of the best
features list were Japanese.

How did we get off on this tangent?

Frank Miller


At 02:16 PM 3/13/99 -0500, you wrote:
>> > I remember reading in Car and driver, Saturn uses Nissan Engines in their
>> > cars, So is it still an American car then? Nothing like a 1 foot, clutch
>> > petal throw and the tension on it like a rubber band. Just my opinion of
>> > Japanese cars. No Flames please, But I really don't care, so do it.
>
>hmmm....I seem to recall early Saturns got a bad rap from the auto press
because
>their engines were noisy and harsh.  These were Saturn built engines, not
Nissans.
>I believe they fixed that problem on their own without using Nissan
engines, but I
>could be wrong.  Anyway, noisy engines (sometimes even harsh) should make
owners of
>older VW's feel right at home ;-)
>
>This thread is rather fascinating though....who would have ever thought
you'd have
>to get rid of a VW because of expense.  Ownership of these old vans really
is a
>luxury these days.....
>
>Mark
>