General Motors created the Saturn brand to compete with smaller, more efficient Japanese imports that were quickly capturing market share from the ailing automaker’s other brands. From the start, the company had clear aims to earn loyalty through commitment to customers. Saturn was different from other American brands in that its dealers offered no-haggle pricing and friendly customer service. The first production Saturn came off the company’s Spring Hill, Tenn., assembly line in 1990. Saturn built plastic-bodied small cars throughout the 1990s, then added a midsize car and a compact SUV earlier this decade. When GM was forced into bankruptcy in 2009, it shuttered Saturn after a failed attempt to sell it to the Penske Automotive Group.
