From: ah190@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Stuart Pearl)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: The Amazing Cut Away Saturn
Date: 25 Dec 1992 05:23:18 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc4.ins.cwru.edu


My wife and I are seriously considering a Saturn as our next car so I
finally made it over to the local franchise.  The place - Glavic
Saturn in Willoughby, Ohio - was definitely different than your
average car dealership.  I thought you might like to hear about my
experience....

The showroom wasn't very large: several sales cubicles and a lone 1991
SL2 sitting in the middle of the floor, partially cut up and
disassembled.  Upon my arrival a sales rep immediately greeted me and
began chatting about this vehicle.  When he saw that I was interested
in the technical aspects of the car, he pursued that thread and did an
excellent job of educating me on everything from metallurgy to
plastics.  His manner was zero pressure - he just enjoyed talking
about the car...  selling didn't seem to be an issue here.

According to the rep, a number of these cars were dismantled as a
quality control check and then distributed to the franchises where
people could come in and see just how they're assembled.  I learned a
lot in that 45 minutes:

DOOR SKINS - the Saturn door skins and fenders are made out of some
sort of plastic/polymer material which is different than the panels on
the GM minivans like the Lumina, etc.  The roof, hood and trunk lids
are made out of metal.  The rep indicated a door skin sitting on the
floor.  He then began jumping on it like the American Tourister
gorilla.  Although it was starting to show scratches, it would bend
all over the place, but not break; the material has quite a memory.

The door skins and fender panels are attached to the metal frame with
large torx screws.  What I liked was that it appeared any home handy
man ( or woman) could probably disassemble the outer body of the car
with no great difficulty.  Not only does that have great potential for
cheaper body work, but it could facilitate door mechanism repair.
Many times over the years I've been victimized by malfunctioning GM
power door locks, faulty door mechanisms and so on.  It was always
necessary to disassemble the door from the INSIDE - remove upholstery
clips (break some, bend some) twist various panels and worm your way
around internal bracing.

But n the Saturn you get into the guts of the door from the OUTSIDE of
the car.  When you unbolt and remove that plastic door skin, you have
immediate and easy access to the entire inner workings of the door - a
really nice piece of engineering.  And of course all this time, I'm
getting a running commentary from the rep.  He really knew his stuff.

GALVANIZED STEEL - I've been really flamed lately about GM rust
problems (see earlier posts), so corrosion protection is of special
interest.  Specifically, I don't see how conventional rustproofing
(the drill it and spray it variety) could help this car.  It would
probably even hurt it.  As mentioned earlier, much of the car is a
plastic material.  The metal frame is galvanized steel.  The rep must
have been reading my mind (or one of my earlier posts here) because he
then pointed out that the welding and bending process does weaken the
galvanizing.  To counteract this he claims that the metal is subjected
to a second galvanizing process to assure total coverage.  Again, I
would see no value in rustproofing this car.

RUST THROUGH WARRANTY - both the body and exhaust system are warranted
against corrosion for 6 years.  He added that the stainless steel
exhaust system costs about $380 to replace.  Sounds a little high, but
then again I guess stainless is.

BACK SEATS - maybe I expect too much, but the rear seats on this '91
SL2 seemed a bit too firm and stuff.  He readily agreed with me on
this point and said that due to public comments, they improved this
situation in 1992 and 1993.  Anyone else have an opinion here?

ALLEGED ENGINE NOISE - "Yes it was true in the early models," he said,
but with different engine mounts and other engine modifications they
greatly reduced the problem.  Judging by recent posts here, it sounds
like he's on the level.

PRICING - by now I'm sure that everyone knows Saturn doesn't dicker.
They claim their prices are not inflated like so many other vehicles.
But then again when you count all the features, the price does seems
reasonable.  The rep handed me a single sheet of paper reminiscent
of a restaurant menu.  It contained an illustration of each model,
base price, and itemized costs of all the options - not a real long
list, but even the base car comes with a lot.  The glossy brochure
reminded me of those put out by the Gateway computer people - kind of
folksy and low key in an informative sort of way.

Now, I've NEVER not negotiated on a car before, so this whole concept
of fixed price goes against my grain - but if this car is as good as
people claim, I may change my way of thinking.

CAR WASHES - the rep says that any time work is performed on a Saturn,
they wash the vehicle at no charge.

There weren't too many cars on the lot - they can't hang on to them.
I was short on time at that point, but the rep said I could come again
any time and take a car out on the interstate.  Anyone else have
"shopping" experiences?  I'd be interested to see them here.

-stu
-- 
                   ---===<<< Stuart Pearl >>>===---
                           Cleveland, Ohio
                      ah190@cleveland.freenet.edu
                         --------------------
Newsgroups: rec.autos