Saturn to put Toyota, Honda, Chevy in their dealerships

http://www.cnn.com/2007/AUTOS/05/25/gm_vs_camry/index.html

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – If you want to test drive a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, starting next month you’ll be able to do it at a Saturn dealership. General Motors is asking Saturn dealers to have one or more of the competing models in the showroom so customers can look at it, sit in it and drive it.

GM is apparently very confident that the Aura compares well to it’s rivals.

I wonder how many dealers will plunk down $50k of their own money to have a Camry & Accord on hand just because GM asks them to…

^^ none of them ?

the schmitts were PISSED when audi forced them to have that a4 avant as a “roadside service” vehical. Tim Schmitt smiled when i offered to steal it and burn it for the insurance $

so dealershits will pay $50,000 for 2 vehicals, for customers to beat on, and then have to sell them at a loss at the end of the year because no customer is going to want to compare an 07 camery to an 08 saturn, or an 09 saturn ect ect

I’m wondering how many dealers do it, then remove a spark plug wire or swaybar endlink from the competition’s car.

I have heard that Aura is one incredible vehicle.
D

Meh, the comparable Japaneses cars will still have double the resale value in 5 years when they are paid off,

Saturns don’t hold value for shit

not as much a loss as the other test mules.

i would be very weary of the comparison still. Like Jay said, they could just mess with the car a little to make it perform less or handle like crap.

it is a good idea tho, if the aura can stand it’s ground.

I got a good look at an Aura the other day and was pretty impressed. Haven’t driven one though because a slow 4 door family sedan isn’t in my future any time soon.

I drove an Aura a few months ago. It was 28k for hte fully loaded one I drove and I really liked the options for the $.

That said I would take 28k and buy a wonderfully preowned import car every day of the week before i ate American made depreciation pie.

they can’t be that slow. it has what 260hp? + a sweet 6speed ATX. BTW that is the same 6speed that Ford and GM worked togeather to devlope. see also ford 500, fusion, edge, for that transmission. car and driver said that the ford tuning on the transmission was better than the GM tuning, but when i read they were testing pre production so that may have changed.

they should make the dealers put 50k on a new aura, and then have the dealers buy a Camry and Accord

that would realy show the difference, lol

not that im saying the GM would be crap by that point … even thought it will be … but im not saying it …

Thought I heard the opposite - where the A6 tuning in the Acadia was much better (after the upgrade) than the one in the Edge.

Though I’d bet that the competitions’ cars would be the low-level models, rather than being messed with.

I couldnt see how this would be a good idea on saturns part… The accord has been on top for many years, and the camry i believe got rated higher this year, but theyre both top two… Satun never really had anything that could compare in features and reliability, why would they out of nowhere do it?

And no way id buy two cars to just sit there and get abused if i had a dealership…

This is comical, I like seeing american car companies putting themselves out of business due to their own stupidity…

Good stuff…

But, lets see how this works itself out…

for all of you nay sayers on the saturn. i am in the market for a 4 door and recently drove all three of the above and the saturn was the nicest all round. i have owned 2 accords in the past so i am not anti-jap. the accord and camry were nice but next to the aura they were quite boring. still haven’t bought yet i want to check out the v-6 sonata.