Yes, but why create an entirely new company to sell that car? Saturn required not just a new car, but a new factory, new franchise, new marketing campaign, new everything. The original Saturn sedan could have been a great replacement for the Cavalier, or it could have been a new Isuzu or Suzuki or Pontiac. It didn't require the enormous and ongoing investment of a new brand to market.
Lets look at this in the historical perspective:
Back in the mid-1980's, GM was in the middle of an identity crisis. Not only were they losing significant ground to Ford and Chrysler based on their lack of fuel-efficient, and otherwise "reliable" cars and trucks, they had the Japanese automakers to worry about as well. After nearly two decades of being asleep at the wheel, at the very least, company leadership decided to at least drive with the eyelids half-open by starting the Saturn brand. It was a
direct response to the threat of Honda, GM looking at new ways to lure in buyers who were younger, more concerned about fuel economy and dependability, and not looking to get haggled at a regular dealer. By the time the first cars showed up in the early '90s, it was a success.
The "death" of Saturn depends on your point of view. GM either gave it too much attention, or never enough to begin with. I'd argue that they should have let them do what they want, but fund it properly. There was more than 10 years of the original S-series, and then an onslaught of cost-cutting models that were shared across the board... All of which were at best "okay" at first, but lost ground significantly afterward without being updated. Ever. For anything.
A lot of people peg the death of Saturn on the L-series, but I'd say it was the Ion. Considering how successful the S-series was, and how many I still see on the road, to drop the ball
that bad was something by which would not be recovered. Throw in bad marketing, the loss of the "good natured" dealers, and an increasingly mediocre product lineup, and you're going to lose sales... Lose profitability... And eventually a brand. I've spoken a lot about how much I liked the Saturn brand, about how much I liked having them as some sort of Honda/Acura competitor... But when you've got the leadership at GM trying to get Saturn to re-fill the shoes of Oldsmobile (which was a Lexus competitor), the Saturn leadership trying to go after Volkswagen, and no one in America giving a damn. Yeah. Its going to break.
