Saturn Vue Comes Back to Life as the Chevrolet Captiva Sport for Rental Fleets

Meet General Motor’s newest offering in the world of rental vehicles; the Chevrolet Captiva Sport. Even though GM makes no word of the Saturn brand in the press release, most of you will probably see the Vue hiding behind the Chevy bow-tie on the grille. And that’s about the only difference between the Vue and the 2012MY Captiva Sport, which is also sold under various nameplates in more than 50 markets across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, the Middle East and South America.

Read more »

GM Slashes Prices of Remaining Pontiacs and Saturns by up to 46%

If you ever wanted to buy a Pontiac or a Saturn and you don't mind that both brands will soon pass into the books of history, now's the time as General Motors is offering dealers huge incentives to move a few thousand leftover vehicles from the two discontinued marques, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

According to the paper, the Detroit automaker sent a letter to dealers on December 23 stating that it would pay them around $7,000 for every new Pontiac or Saturn on their lot that is moved to their rental-vehicle or service-vehicle fleets.

With this move, the leftover vehicles will be classified as used (even though they're new, the dealers will technically be the vehicles' first owner) thus allowing dealers to sell them at a huge discount which is said to be as much as 46% off the sticker price.

The daily newspaper said that the offer will expire on January 4 which is the last day of the December car-sales month with GM booking the sales to dealers as fleet deliveries.

Saturn's leftover portfolio includes the Vue compact crossover, Sky Roadster, Aura Sedan, Astra compact hatch and Outlook crossover, while Pontiac's range comprises of the Solstice Roadster and Coupe, G6 Sedan, Coupe and Convertible, and the G8 sports sedan.

However, you'll have to check with your local dealer to see which models are available. And if you do, don't hesitate to leave us a comment here telling us what kind of an offer they made you.

Via: WSJ (Sub. Required)

Pontiac Gallery

___________________________________________________________________

Saturn Gallery

Saturn Vue Plug-in Hybrid to Arrive in 2010

If anything else, we have to hand it to GM for at least trying to create a variety of products that confront the energy problems and the changing U.S. market. Aside from the Chevy Volt that we hear about every two or three days (…), GM is also working on another plug-in hybrid vehicle that has been approved for production and is undergoing early program development stages as we speak. We’re referring to the Saturn Vue (Opel Antara in Europe) PHEV which stands for plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle.

Currently, GM is testing 11 Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles at the GM proving grounds in Michigan and Arizona. GM says that while early test cars used nickel-metal hydride battery technology, now their trying out lithium-ion batteries which are lighter and more powerful. -Continued

The Vue Plug-in Hybrid that’s set to arrive into the market before the end of 2010 will be equipped with a modified version of GM’s familiar Two-mode Hybrid system that uses a battery, a gas engine and a hybrid transmission to move the vehicle.

Via: GM's Fastlane blog