2004 - Pontiac Gto on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 2007 Saturn Sky

The Pontiac Division didn't have long to live when the Solstice first appeared in 2005 as a 2006 model, and Saturn's head was inching toward the chopping block at about the same rate. Still, optimism reigned — at least, it did until the global economy fell apart — and so Saturn Dealers got a rebadged version of the Solstice to sell: the Sky. Available for just the 2007 through 2010 model years, slightly more than 34,000 Skies rolled out of showrooms before the doors were nailed shut. Here's one of those rare cars, found in a Denver-area self-service yard a few weeks ago. I've found a handful of discarded Solstices in car graveyards during the past few years, mostly with crash damage. This Sky endured a medium-hard impact in the right front corner, which sent it to this place. The 177-horsepower, 2.4-liter Ecotec still resides under the battered hood. The Sky Redline version had a turbocharged engine rated at 260 horses; we can assume that such an engine would be yanked and purchased by the first junkyard shopper that realized what it was. The base transmission in the Sky was an Aisin five-speed manual, but this car has the optional five-speed automatic.  The Sky had its own nose and some different badging, but otherwise didn't differ much from the Solstice.  For the South Korean market, the Sky got Daewoo G2X badges and was advertised as the ideal vehicle for high-speed chases through Seoul traffic. The same car went to Europe as the Opel GT. Sadly, GM ran out of money to make right-hand-drive Skies, so we never got to witness Holden or Vauxhall versions. Here's Bob Lutz describing the new Sky. Lutz really hated car names molded into plastic bumper covers, so he takes great care here to describe the genuine glued-on emblems. Related Video:

GM knew about fatal Chevy ignition problem decade before recall

Well, this is not good for General Motors. Following a report last week that GM was recalling 778,000 Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 compacts over concerns that the ignition could switch out of the "run" position without warning, USA Today reports that the Detroit-based behemoth knew about the issue, which affected 2005 to 2007 Cobalts (the Cobalt shown above and in the gallery is from 2010) and 2007 Pontiac G5s, all the way back in 2004.
The information comes from a deposition in a civil lawsuit against GM, obtained by USA Today, which claims that a GM engineer experienced the issue while the then-new model was undergoing testing. The issue was "solved" when a technical service bulletin was issued in 2005, informing dealers to install a snap-on key cover on the cars of customers who complained about the issue. According to the Cobalt's program engineering manager, Gary Altman, the cover was an "improvement, it was not a fix to the issue."
The case where the depositions were made was from 2010, and involved Brooke Melton, a 29-year-old pediatric nurse in Georgia who was killed on her birthday. At the time, police claimed she was going too fast on a wet, rural road, although it later came out through the black box that her car's ignition had come out of the "run" position at least three seconds before the accident (the max amount of time a black box records before a wreck), disabling her airbags, power steering and anti-lock brakes. According to USA Today, police said Melton was "traveling too fast for the roadway conditions," although it's impossible to know if she'd have been in the wreck, which injured the occupants of another vehicle, had her 2005 Chevy not shut off. GM settled the Melton family's case, although the details remain confidential.

STUDY: Ford owns brand loyalty in 2009; Scorned Saturn, Pontiac buyers will look outside of GM

Ford buyers appear to love their cars more than customers of any other automotive brand, returning back to the American automaker when it comes time to purchase their next vehicle. According to a study by Experian Automotive, six of the top 10 vehicles for customer brand loyalty wear badges from the Blue Oval. That includes the Ford Fusion (62.4 percent), Ford Edge (57.9 percent), Ford Five Hundred/Taurus (56 percent), Ford Freestyle (51.9 percent), Ford Escape (49.4 percent) and the Ford Focus (47.57 percent).
Other vehicles making up the top 10 include the Toyota Prius (52 percent), Chevy Impala (51.7 percent), Toyota Camry (47.8 percent) and Toyota Corolla (47.56 percent). This brings up an interesting question: With the closing of automotive brands like Saturn and Pontiac, where are those buyers to turn for their next automotive purchase?
Apparently, not back to General Motors. According to Experian, Pontiac owners are most likely to look to the Ford lineup for their next car or truck and Saturn shoppers will switch to Toyota or Honda - not particularly surprising given that Saturn was meant to compete with import brands. Experian predicts that GM's overall market share will fall from 20 percent to about 17.5 percent, with most of the slack being picked up by Ford, Honda and Toyota.