Topic: (USA) Dealers part of proposal to buy Saturn

[Thinking Out Loud]

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/618898

Hope the Canadians have some bucks to throw in....would be a great way to get Skoda back into Canada!!!!

Not sure how the US Saturn dealers are gonna effectively work around importing and testing - based on the resistance GM and Ford (and Fiat et al) have expressed at 'North Americanizing' European cars, it must be pretty expensive.....

Where's Bricklin when you need him?

[tpl]

The importing and testing would be a problem.  First find a manufacturer that does NOT sell in NA  AND is prepared to manufacture NA spec vehicles for a few dealers... 440.   Maybe a revitalized SAAB?  Magna maybe.

For this to work it would have to have a reasonable range of cars, maybe 3 and a CUV/Wagon at least. 

[Thinking Out Loud]

I hear Fiat might be looking for options......

skoDA!   skoDA!   skoDA!   skoDA! 

Renault, even......

[Cortina]

I'm not sure really that Volkswagen really want to bring over Skoda. It is having trouble with the vw brand in NA. I just can't see them buying a stake in a GM product like Saturn. Tis a nice thought tho. 

[tpl]

Problem:    These cars have to be manufactured to meet NA standards.   SAAB yes. Skoda probably yes as they are VW platforms. Renault and Fiat have not sold cars here for a long time and their cars probably would need re-engineering to meet the standards... talking crashes here not emissions.    This takes some time to do and is expensive.  Unless the USA has changed its rules it could be done onshore in the USA for the USA market, but Cdn rules state that this sort of thing must be done by the ORIGINAL manufacturer which might pose a problem.

I hate being a wet blanket on these things as I'd like to see more Eu cars sold here, but I don't see Canada changing its rules for a few Saturn dealers.   They might change them to allow some Chrysler badged Fiats come in but I doubt that as well.

[articsteve]

The new Saturn would offer vehicles from global manufacturers that would be sold in most cases under the Saturn brand, the statement said.



 

[tpl]

The manufacturing problem for mfrs  that don't already sell here is even more severe for, say, the Chinese... one of their cars just failed the eu crash tests again.

[Thinking Out Loud]

Problem:    These cars have to be manufactured to meet NA standards.   SAAB yes. Skoda probably yes as they are VW platforms. Renault and Fiat have not sold cars here for a long time and their cars probably would need re-engineering to meet the standards... talking crashes here not emissions.    This takes some time to do and is expensive.  Unless the USA has changed its rules it could be done onshore in the USA for the USA market, but Cdn rules state that this sort of thing must be done by the ORIGINAL manufacturer which might pose a problem.

 

You're KILLING me here.....

[carcrazy]

If this idea gets to become reality, I see some sort of Chinese or Indian cars with a slightly redesigned Saturn badge on them. I doubt any Euro or Japanese brand would get involved in this scheme.