OT: Saturn no longer a carmaker, and Pluto no longer a planet. Options

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The Penske-Saturn deal has fallen through because Penske couldn't find another manufacturer from whom to source cars after 2011.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/30/news/compa...sion=2009093019

Saturn sold some of GM's best products for the US market over the past 15 years (along with some duds too), including perhaps the best daily driver I've ever owned.

Damn shame that GM pretty much strangled "the Saturn experiment" in its adolescence. Turning it into Opel's US arm was a promising rebound. Oh well.

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I bought a new LS1 in its first model year, 2000. This was the mid-size Saturn. (Anybody remember the ads: "The next Big thing from Saturn"?) Ordered it in Silver with black interior, ABS with TCS, sunroof, most options... but stuck with the 137hp 4cyl in order to get a stick. It used a Saab 5-speed transmission from the GM parts bin.

That car gave me virtually no trouble, got 28-32 mpg, handled New England winters incredibly well, and was fun to drive. Not terribly quick, although I once got it to 105 at around 4am on I-95. I let it go after 7 years with 97K miles.

Never once left me stranded - even after sitting in a snowy parking lot for 2 weeks. And the seats were all-day comfortable with decent bolstering for a sedan.