Take A Chance To Get Saturn Sky

After months of incessant hype, the 2007 Saturn SKY is now entering dealer showrooms. This two seat roadster marks an important turning point for the Saturn brand lengthy identified with building nondescript, but dependable autos. With an MSRP of $23,690, the SKY is particular to sell for a number of 1000 dollars more than the dealer's sticker price as necessity is expected to far exceed capability. Let's examine the Saturn brand and the car behind the hype to see if the SKY was worth the wait.

Because Saturn's first cars became available in 1990, the brand has attracted a loyal following of owners who liked the company's simplicity and consumer friendly trader network. Indeed, Saturn's "no haggle" pricing revolutionized the relationship between trader and customer altering the typical adversarial business transaction into a partnership benefiting buyer and vendor alike.

Originally, Saturn was established as a separate business, but wholly belonged to Common Motors. The idea behind Saturn was that the business would build import fighting little cars to compete against the likes of Toyota and Honda. The S-Series, produced with "ding proof" polymer side panels was an immediate hit and Saturn relied exclusively on this line of compact coupes, sedans, and wagons for nearly a decade before a second, larger model was introduced.

The dream of keeping Saturn separate from GM ultimately died and likewise the brand was brought into the GM fold to be managed much like Chevrolet, Buick, etc. are today. Indeed, the Spring Hill, Tennessee factory, which was exclusively made to develop Saturn automobiles remains in company, but numerous of the division's cars are now being constructed elsewhere such as the SKY.

So, the SKY has caught your attention, has it? Who could blame you? Photos of the SKY have been circulating heavily on-line for months and it's certainly an appealing automobile. Depending on GM's new Kappa platform, the SKY shares some components using the earlier released Pontiac Solstice, a surplus two seat roadster. The SKY, all the same, has its personal appear with a extremely pronounced fender peak and sleek body style. Here are some of the attributes of the SKY:

- Front engine, rear drive, two seat roadster

- 50/50 front/rear weight distribution

- Manually operated cloth covered top folds down into the trunk

- Front pivoting hood

- two.4L I4 engine producing 177 h.p. paired having a five speed manual or five speed automatic transmission

- 18 inch wheels; four wheel disc brakes with ABS

- Energy galore: air conditioning, locks, windows, doors, AM/FM/CD, etc.

The SKY was priced and meant to compete against two other roadsters, the Honda S2000 and Mazda's Miata. Even though the SKY is technically a sister car towards the Solstice, it seems that it's much better worthy of compete against the Japanese brands as the Saturn roadster comes fully equipped and incorporates a sleeker physical body design. Taking nothing faraway from the Pontiac, the SKY is certainly the more competitive of these two.

For Saturn, the SKY improves the brand's image immeasurably. A lot in the way that the Corvette is genuinely a "halo" car for Chevrolet the SKY will in all probability be the same for Saturn. Production will be limited to just 10-12,000 vehicles annually and purchasing a SKY will most likely imply buyers paying well over sticker cost for their automobile. Indeed, some incidents are indicating trader mark ups as high as $5000 within the face of stiff requirement.

Beyond the SKY, Saturn will likewise be introducing a second new automobile this year, the Aura. Swapping the L-Series, the Aura midsize sedan borrows heavily from GM's European division, Opel, and comprises the bold design of SKY in its front end.

Yes, the days of being known as a builder of compact plastic cars in Tennessee is more than; a new Saturn is rising and if all of the hoopla related to the SKY is any indication, Saturn's future is certainly extremely promising.