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Is Saturn back??? With the help of Brilliance?

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That’s a new rumor. Chinese car maker Brilliance would be interested in getting about 30 old Saturn dealers.
Somehow they would sell their cars under the name Saturn.
That would be a much smaller deal for GM than Penske/Renault/Samsung one.

I am all for Saturn staying alive in one way or another. But I’m not sure current Chinese cars are ready for the US market.
(Although what we’ve been getting from Chrysler over the past few years isn’t that much better…)

Above are some pictures of their current models.

This is pretty much what almost killed Brilliance in Europe.
A 0 star rating in a crash test.

Although I have to say, that a revised, newer version of the Brillaince BS6 was re tested later and got a 3 star rating in the same test.

Would you buy a “Chinese Saturn”???
So they are improving. Fast…

Conversation 13 comments

  2. I know the Brilliance cars were actually designed by Pininfarina, so I won't go on about this being a Chinese copy… but still, quite an ordinary effort from the Italians really…

  4. Vince, they have since upped the standards in the ADAC testing and the Brilliance is back down to a 0 star. Three stars really isn't that good to begin with even with the old standards, the Smart was safer and it is half its size.

    I think in about 10 years the Chinese will be building vehicles that are decent. But I certainly won't be buying one anytime soon.

  5. I read yesterday that this was a last resort type thing. I hope it works out for Saturn employees because I would hate to see more people lose their jobs. On the other hand, although I like the appearance of the BS6 sedan and wagon, I probably won't buy any of the Chinese vehicles. Nothing against the Chinese people, I just don't think their automotive designs (engineering, reliability, durability, performance, efficiency) are anywhere near the level they need to be to compete with most of the offerings here in the USA.

  7. People actually lined up to buy Hyundai's when they came out. They cost about 30% less the the almost as unreliable US small cars.

  8. Gotta love the mythology of "unreliable" American cars…anyways…

    Brilliance has beautiful designs. But why can't the Chinese build crashworthy cars? don't they not wanna die in a collision domestically? I certainly hope the Indians are doing a better job.

  9. I take offense to the allusion to Chrysler. Most Chrysler products now are 5-STARS in every direction.

  10. Saturn is better off dead than being ended up with a car company that does nothing else but makes counterfeit Bimmers with awful quality and lack of safety.

    It's either a GM owned Saturn with rebadged Opels …. or Penske owned Saturn with rebadged Renault-Samsungs (which are in fact rebadged Nissans) or …. nothing.

  11. The world would be better off if Brilliance would just go away. If they were a startup, i could understand the crash test hiccups. But they are a fully running company that cuts corners and steals designs because they are, well, typically Chinese. I'll buy a $100 DVD player that's built in China. But automotive engineering is not the place for this type of cultural disconnect.

  12. A line of cars from the ONLY country in the world thats taken NUMEROUS active steps to reduce world overpopulation. Think about that for a moment!

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