Go Home GM, You’re Drunk: 2000 Saturn SL Sedan
GM touted the launch of their Saturn brand in 1990 as a “different kind of car company” but the truth was hidden from plain sight for a number of years. The Saturn Corporation was actually launched in 1983 by a former members of GM’s leadership team, but GM bought them out in 1985 and rewrote the history books to spin Saturn as a brand dreamed up by GM to erase the bad taste in consumers mouths from years of crappy Chevy economy cars. Naturally the optimistic yuppies of the 1990s flocked to these Tupperware bodied things like moths to a Tesla car battery fire-speaking of which, did y’all remember that it was at the Saturn dealers where GM sold leased their ill fated GM EV1. Anyway, I remember Saturn loving families where the Mom would drive an sedan, the Dad would drive a “sporty” coupe and the teenage kids would be left driving an old car, usually some 80s Toyota that was oddly still on the road and totally reliable. Find this 2000 Saturn SL Sedan offered for $2,100 in Atlanta, GA via faceleak censorbook. Tip from Jeff.
From the seller:
2000 Saturn Saturn S-Series SL Sedan 4D
$2,100
Listed 22 hours ago in Atlanta, GA
About This Vehicle
Driven 205,791 miles
Automatic transmission
Exterior color: Grey · Interior color: Grey
Fuel type: Gasoline
25.0 MPG city · 36.0 MPG highway · 29.0 MPG combined
Seller’s Description
Runs really good AC works fine and heat works also just did emission today. Really nice car come and test drive.
See a better way to drive plastic? tips@dailyturismo.com
Boy, those are some moist tires.
I’d love to hear more about the history of Saturn — seriously! I didn’t know any of the back story. I owned a first generation Saturn SL1 that I bought with 150,000 miles on it and it was a pretty decent car. Right up until a teenager in a Volvo wagon hit me head on and totaled the Saturn. The Volvo, of course, sustained no damage of any kind.
This was the first time I’d heard the back story about a former GM employee starting the company – although I have to wonder what assets it could possibly have had when GM bought them out.
One of the craziest details about Saturns was the engine casting process – they started by making full size Styrofoam models of the block and burying the models in sand with a funnel-shaped part exposed. Then Saturn had a foundry load molten aluminum into a tank car, transport the aluminum to the factory by train before it could cool off, and pouring the aluminum into the Styrofoam funnels. The foam would burn up, leaving behind an engine block.
Fun bit of trivia, the invention of the lost foam process is credited to the sculptor Armand Vaillancourt who designed the fountain “Quebec libre!” in San Francisco , generally known as the
Vaillancourt Fountain to avoid pissing off Canada.
It has the distinction of appearing in the film Bullitt three years before it was built!
From https://archimodelsinfilm.com/post/158588507314/bullitt/amp
When Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) visits the office where his girlfriend, Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset), works, we see a model of a fountain plaza she is working on. This scene is used to contrast the vast differences between their respective careers.
Trivia: This is an actual model of a sculpture entitled “Quebec libre!” by Canadian sculptor Armand Vaillancourt. The Vaillancourt Fountain was being studied at the time the film was being made. The fountain was built and completed three years later in 1971, not in black as the model shows, but in natural gray concrete. It may be seen today at the Embarcadero Center in downtown San Francisco.
This is pretty hysterical to read as well
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaillancourt_Fountain
Boy, I’m glad Lawrence Halprin didn’t follow through on his promise to slit his own throat, because that sculpture is NOT “among the great works of civic art.” Yikes. I wonder how Vaillancourt feels about his casting process being used to create a bunch of automobile engine blocks. Life is weird.