Posts Tagged ‘lsj’
Saturn Ion
General Motors launched Saturn Ion in 2003 as a replacement for the S Series that had come to an end, but this is not a singulary model, since other designs accopanied this change on the market. According to statistics, Saturn Ion satisfied customers more than any other compact car sold on the American market, and this is the reason why it was sold for such a long time, till 2007 when it was replaced by Saturn Astra. This vehicle relied on the famous General Motors Delta platform and it came with a standard DOHC Ecotec I4 engine that produced 140 horsepower.
The position of the instrument panel was pretty striking in the interior design of Saturn Ion, thus instead of being located behind the steering wheel specific for most other car concepts, it had a frontal position in the center of the dashboard. The coupe and the sedan made the only two variants of Saturn Ion ever produced. The modernity this car brought came from the gearbox that allowed room for five forward gears adjusted to the regular manual gearbox. The fuel consume was positively influenced by such a gearbox structure with the potential to improve acceleration too. Moreover, with Saturn Ion, the planetary gear set no longer caused overheating issues.
An upgraded Saturn Ion variant appeared in 2004 as part of the Red Line designed by General Motors. The model was planned as a sportier car with a more powerful engine of 205 horsepower, a harder suspension and re-valved shock absorbers; the model relied on a 2.0 liter Ecotec engine known as the LSJ. 2004 also saw the launching of a limited Saturn Ion edition with upgrades both in outer and interior design. Even if it were more expensive the cosmetic look was surely different. Only three color options were available: black onyx, chili pepper red and electric blue.
Until 2007, several additional changes were made in terms of Saturn Ion engine power and interior design. Some of the varieties were also discontinued because of various technical issues that made their reliability questionable: this was the case with the Aisin model. It was during this time that Saturn Ion gained a negative reputation because of the bad publicity received from discontented reviewers. General Motors announced an upgrade with the re-launched Saturn Ion in 2008, pictures of the new model even circulated on the Internet, but eventually the manufacturer dropped the concept and turned to a re-badging. It was time for Saturn Astra to emerge.