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Saturn was an automobile manufacturer which operated as one of General Motor’s (GM) subsidiaries. The subsidiary was founded in 1985 and was operational until 2010. It was primarily based in Spring Hill, Tennessee, where its original headquarters were built in 1985. During the last few years of its existence, it had an HQ in Detriot, Michigan. The company catered to the American and Canadian markets and boasted unique vehicles. However, despite its efforts, it failed to capture a satisfactory customer base, leading to its dissolution in 2010.

Saturn launched its first car in 1990, the Saturn SL2. Despite hype, Saturn’s early models would be unable to achieve the expectations set by GM. This was due to a number of reasons. First, Saturn accumulated a high number of costs as it endeavoured to do everything out of scratch. This meant that billions of dollars from GM’s other divisions and subsidiaries were lost due to Saturn, leading them to be disgruntled. However, despite these issues, Saturn did manage to accumulate a significant number of sales over the years. By 1995, it had already sold one million vehicles in the US and Canada.

In 2008, GM declared that it wished to focus on their primary car brands and that it was looking to sell its other subsidiaries, including Saturn. It entered into talks with an American, Michigan-based company but the talks bore no fruit. Eventually, GM was forced to close many of its Saturn dealerships. Finally, GM decided to do away with the subsidiary altogether. It was rendered defunct in 2010. The final Saturn vehicles to be produced included the Sky, Aura, Astra and the small SUV Aura. Despite Saturn’s boasts of introducing unique and innovative vehicles, the company was never really able to live up to its claims. In addition to that, high costs, disgruntled investors and GM subsidiaries, and declining sales all contributed to the inevitable failure of Saturn.