The reason is that Buick is very popular in China, selling over 300,000 vehicles in 2007.
I loved my Saturn ION. Sadly, I made the decision to trade it in. I now own a Chevy Cruze. It’s all right, but it ain’t no Saturn. And I’ll never buy another GM car ever again. It’s debateable whether I’ll ever buy another American made car again. The auto unions have destroyed the American car industry.
Except the “Hi” ads were for the Plymouth/Dodge Neon. (Story here, YouTube three-for here.) And they didn’t work.
Saturns were good cars, but better options were available. The drivetrain was reliable, but holy crap did they rattle. It was like a Yatzee tournament inside the dashboard.
the “Hi.” campaign was for the Dodge/Plymouth Neon, not Saturn.
oh good lord. I suggest you do just a little bit of reading on what actually drove the industry into the ground.
My first one was a '93, and that one was good looking (the teenage kid next door actually thought it was a cool car) and fun to drive. My next one, a '98, was boring. However, the first one died to save my wife. She was driving it, and a guy ran a red light and hit her right at the driver side front door. She emerged with very minor injuries - not even a hospital stay, though the car was of course totaled. Damn fine construction.
The second one finally died last year after 160K miles. But they never were the kind of cars they were at the beginning.
I thought the Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice was a nice looking car. I thought GM might have continued to sell it, perhaps rebranded as a Chevy, but they didn’t.
Not only is Buick popular in China, it has always done quite well in the US as well, but since they made boring, quiet, cushy cars and cater to a mostly older audience, it just sort of chugged along without a whole lot of fanfare. By the time the bankruptcy came about Buick already had 2 cars, the Enclave and the Lacrosse, that were very well regarded by the automotive press and extremely successful in terms of sales, with more Opel derived products in the pipeline. WIth GM’s brand downsizing Buick nicely fills the middle ground between Chevy and Cadillac and has been one of the most successful brands in the industry.