Word: saturns
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Listening to Don Flow, 39, who owns nine import, Saturn and GM dealerships, mainly in the Southeast, raises the same question. "The old game," he says, "was let the buyers beware, crush 'em if you can, make as much as you could off everybody. Better to make a kill now than a friend for life. We basically also made our customers turn into s.o.b.s. If a really nice person walked in, they were a lay-down in front of us. The industry had a lot of fun with those techniques...
Just a couple of months before his death, Kennedy went to Cape Canaveral to view the first stage of the giant Saturn rocket. Even as his scientists argued off to the side about how to land men on the moon, the President for a moment stood alone beneath the huge booster casing, rocked back on his heels and stared up. For those seconds, I could see he was beyond the earth, above the quibbling technicians. He was riding with history. I think he knew it was going to work...
...finally starting to work. The evidence is found in a new generation of products: cars like Chrysler's white-hot LH sedans and Ram pickups, Ford's Taurus, Explorer and Lincoln Mark VIII, GM's Cadillac STS, the new Chevy Camaro and the Honda- and Toyota-killer Saturn...
...their rivals. "Many of us are at the point where we celebrate each other's successes. We were pleased to see Cadillac's Seville come out as an American luxury car that can hold its own against the best of the imports. Many of us were pleased with Saturn. I know Detroit executives were pleased when we brought out the Viper ((high-powered sports car)). It was, goddam, that's great...
...technical center, they have broken a chain of command within the mighty corporation that once rattled as slowly and creakily as castle plumbing. Now these executives act within hours on issues that might previously have taken weeks or months to be resolved -- if ever. Some major topics: Saturn's no-nonsense pay- what's-on-the-sticker pricing; a leasing campaign specially aimed at the California market, a fast exit from profit-draining rental discounts. Even smaller requests get a speedy response. A third shift at a Canadian truck plant? Four engineers needed for a special project? Done...