Right hand drive Saturn

[Buick35]

I wish I had my camera with me. I saw a nice looking white Saturn wagon going down the road in front of me today with nobody in the driver's seat or so I thought until I saw it was a right hand drive. Greg.

Edited May 7, 2018 by Buick35
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[Lebowski]

Didn't they make some RHD vehicles for the US Postal Service? I know I've seen one or two of them around here....

[zipdang]

1 hour ago, Lebowski said:

Didn't they make some RHD vehicles for the US Postal Service? I know I've seen one or two of them around here....

 

Yes they did. Our local delivery person used to have a RHD Saturn wagon.

[hidden_hunter]

We never got them here (I think we got one saturn rebrand)

[cheezestaak2000]

i saw several saturns in the bahamas. can't remember if they were right hand drive, but it would make sense there. they were re badged as chevrolets

 

[8E45E]

8 hours ago, hidden_hunter said:

We never got them here (I think we got one saturn rebrand)

In the end, much of the Saturn line was re-badged Opels.  That was one of my main disagreements over the organized bankruptcy of GM in 2009 where they had to shed Saturn and the dealer network.  I feel the existing Saturn dealer network should have been retained and turned into GM 'Import' dealers, selling Opel, Holden, etc., since they almost were anyway.  That way, the parts department would have already had stock in place, (at least for the Astra line), and very possibly, it would have increased sales for Opel and Holden where GM might not have had to spun off their European operations and closed down their Australian division.  But its too late now.

 

Craig

[hidden_hunter]

10 hours ago, 8E45E said:

In the end, much of the Saturn line was re-badged Opels.  That was one of my main disagreements over the organized bankruptcy of GM in 2009 where they had to shed Saturn and the dealer network.  I feel the existing Saturn dealer network should have been retained and turned into GM 'Import' dealers, selling Opel, Holden, etc., since they almost were anyway.  That way, the parts department would have already had stock in place, (at least for the Astra line), and very possibly, it would have increased sales for Opel and Holden where GM might not have had to spun off their European operations and closed down their Australian division.  But its too late now.

 

Craig

 

Most Australians' seem to have a much dimmer view on GM's closure of Holden compared to Ford's local manufacturing.

 

GM retained the name Commodore for a car that had exactly zero in common with the car it replaced, presumably for marketing reasons and now Holden is one of the worst performing brands in Australia (doesn't help that GM's cars aren't really market/price leaders in any categories here)

[zeke01]

On 5/7/2018 at 6:16 PM, Lebowski said:

Didn't they make some RHD vehicles for the US Postal Service? I know I've seen one or two of them around here....

Yes,Saturn did make right hand drive vehicles available to rural mail carriers for a time. So did Subaru and Jeep. Jeep still offers a right hand drive vehicle to rural carriers. I looked at all of the offerings in 1995 and chose the Subaru. It was the best vehicle I ever used on a mail route. I still see a RHD Saturn once in a while but they couldn't hold a candle to the other offerings at the time.

[Bleach]

On 5/7/2018 at 3:16 PM, Lebowski said:

Didn't they make some RHD vehicles for the US Postal Service? I know I've seen one or two of them around here....

Here you go.

 

[8E45E]

10 hours ago, zeke01 said:

I still see a RHD Saturn once in a while but they couldn't hold a candle to the other offerings at the time.

I can see why, depending on which part of the country you are in.  Especially when Subaru and Jeep both offered four wheel drive; something the Saturn did not have.  (Unless the Vue offered a RHD version.) Four wheel drive is a huge advantage in the snow belt.

 

Craig

[Guest]

I seem to recall that Saturn had actually developed and built the RHD-version wagons for the Japanese market and they didn't sell as well as anticipated.  Someone at Saturn figured that marketing the wagons to the US Postal market was a good way to sell off the excess inventory.  A great idea.

[8E45E]

Kind of ironic as the only Honda plant that produced Accord wagons from 1991 was in Marysville.  The Marysville plant produced RHD Accord wagons for Japan and the UK (called the 'Aerodeck' in England) market.

 

Craig

[cheezestaak2000]

fun fact about the subaru RHD postal wagon. they were all white, and subaru required the dealers to sell them at a fixed price, no lower, no higher.

 

[zeke01]

4 hours ago, cheezestaak2000 said:

fun fact about the subaru RHD postal wagon. they were all white, and subaru required the dealers to sell them at a fixed price, no lower, no higher.

 

Not exactly correct cheeze my man. Mine was as red as a boboon’s butt. Out of three Subarus in our office only one was white and it was an older model. I did have to cough up 16 large before the dealer would even order it. That galled me because the dealer was as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. Edited to say that we didn’t get a choice about the color. Zeke

Edited May 12, 2018 by zeke01
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[cheezestaak2000]

5 hours ago, zeke01 said:

Not exactly correct cheeze my man. Mine was as red as a boboon’s butt. Out of three Subarus in our office only one was white and it was an older model. I did have to cough up 16 large before the dealer would even order it. That galled me because the dealer was as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. Edited to say that we didn’t get a choice about the color. Zeke

it's possible that your zone had different regulations than ours did.i've never seen one in any color but white, and it was the only color available to us. at that time we were the 3rd largest subaru dealer in the country.funny thing happened on one deal. the guy bought it to ship to england. he spent a bundle on putting wood grain, custom wheels, and a few other things after he bought it. when it finally got to the U.K., they wouldn'tt let him get tags for it. seems itfailed inspection because the window glass didn't meet their D.O.T. SPECS.

[8E45E]

According to Autocar magazine, there were 450 RHD Saturns made in 1999 for the USPS.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/research-guides/best-selling-cars-of-all-time-from-each-car-maker/ss-AAxBOnx?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=SK216DHP#image=23

 

Craig