Jalopnik: outlook

Saturn Rental Car Never Gets Oil Change, Engine Carnage Ensues After 30,000 Miles

Ben Wojdyla — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:00:00 EDT

Enterprise Rent-A-Car delivered a Saturn Outlook to the dealership shop after the check-engine light appeared and the engine quit running. The problem? Enterprise records showed zero oil changes after 30,000 miles. Brutal results below.

As you might expect, going 30,000 miles without an oil change is not a recommended break-in procedure, and as a result the engine oil completely broke down turning into a thick greasy sludge. After finding this mess, technicians contacted Enterprise to see if their records showed any oil changes, which they did not, though it's suspected at some point at least one change was done as the factory oil filter has been replaced. Of course, that might have just been the factory oil filter being replaced. Nonetheless, the engine is completely ruined. It also goes to show just how serious a game of Russian Roulette you're playing if you buy a used rental car. (Hat tip to Zack!)
[Impala SS Forums]

Delta Township adds production on increased...

Ray Wert — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:10:00 EDT

Delta Township adds production on increased demand for the Enclave, Outlook and Acadia. Looks like the Tri-Lambda CUV's are actually selling. [Freep]

This Is Our Country, This Is Our Chevy Crossover

Ray Wert — Tue, 29 May 2007 15:15:00 EDT

Chevy's kind of been the odd man out in the game of Lambda-platform musical chairs. With Saturn, Buick and even GMC getting into the crossover game with the newest Car-UV frame it seems like the brand name that's all about bringing value to the people doesn't yet have a seat in GM's people carrier. According to the Detroit News though, that's all about to change. Supposedly they'll be the newest recipient of the not-as-big-as-a-truck platform and it'll be getting the name...Traverse. Oh...boy. The...excitement...is...so...yawn...unbelievable. In case you've forgotten what this new-for-2010 might look like post-platform prostitution, take a gander at the galleries below. – Ray Wert

Finally, a Chevy crossover [Detroit News]

GM's Momentum Maintenance: More On The Lambda Platform "Stop Sale"

Ray Wert — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 13:01:02 EST

I just got off of the phone with a PR staffer from the General, who provided me with a little bit more detail, but by no means the full story, on the General's decision to put a "stop sale" on the GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook. According to Lynda Messina, the PR-anista in charge of manufacturing issues for GM's lambda-platformed crossover triplets, the "stop sale" occurred because "a couple of issues cropped up over the past few days...in a test fleet of vehicles." She also claimed the issues are "not safety-related" and "to our knowledge no one has received a vehicle yet...they are only on dealer lots...but I've no idea when they'll be able to start selling." Messina wasn't able to provide any detail on what the specific issues were, but we're told we'll have more information from the General when they see fit to provide it. One assumes it must have been important enough to require them to "maintain momentum" via a halt to sales. – Ray Wert

Breaking! GM Issues "Stop Sale" To Dealers On Saturn Outlook And GMC Acadia

Ray Wert — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:01:00 EST

Dealers received an immediate stop-action communique over the weekend from the home office at the RenCen of the General's decision to immediately halt sales of the two models in its threesome of Lambda-platform CUV's already on the market, the GMC Acadia and the Saturn Outlook. The communique, which appears to have been so hastily written it misspells "Attention," claims the need to stop sales

"...in order to maintain our momentum and successful launch of these products, we are evaluating potential enhancement and inventory upgrade to the vehicles."

Because nothing says "maintaining momentum" like a complete halt. Full copy of the alert below the jump. – Ray Wert

Attnntion ALL Saturn Retailers and GMC Dealers This is to advise Saturn Retailers and GMC Dealers that we are issuing an immediate stop sale on all Saturn OUTLOOK models and GMC Acadia models in dealer inventory as well as in transit to the dealer. In order to maintain our momentum and successful launch of these prodects, we are evaluating potential enhancement and inventory upgrade to the vehicles. More details will be forthcoming on Monday, December 11, 2006.
Message also communicated in GM Messenger Message # VSD20060627

Thank you for your immediate attention and cooperation in this matter.

That's A Saturn? 2007 Outlook To Start At $27,990, AWD Pricing In At $29,990

Ray Wert — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:22:30 EDT

Well, number two in the threesome of Lambda-platform CUV's — the General's answer to the Ford Edge / Lincoln MKX — has finally finished getting its makeup ready and is ready for the public. The Saturn Outlook joins its non-identical twin brother, the Acadia, in the ranks of "vehicles with price tags." Yes, we know — sometimes kids need encouragement, so sometimes you have to applaud the little things. In this case, we're applauding a price tag that sets it at a level $2,000 cheaper than its badge-engineered GMC sibling, and more than likely cheaper than Buick's Enclave in the woods. You know, the Outlook was always our favorite. Gallery via the link, full press release after the jump. – Ray Wert

[2007 Saturn Outlook CUV Gallery]

Saturn Announces Prices For All New 2007 Outlook

MSRP for new eight-passenger crossover vehicle starts at $27,990

Detroit — Engineered to provide the ideal balance of style, size and capability, the 2007 Saturn Outlook crossover also features a long list of standard equipment and extremely attractive price.

Saturn announced today the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for the front-wheel drive Outlook XE is $27,990. All-wheel drive XE model starts at $29,990.

Fuel economy numbers for the Outlook were also announced, with front-wheel-drive models rated at 18 mpg city/26 mpg highway by the EPA, and all-wheel-drive models rated at 17 mpg city/24 mpg highway.

"The Outlook crossover combines great design and utility with better fuel economy than any eight-passenger SUV," said Saturn General Manager Jill Lajdziak. "It's part of our continuing strategy of combining great vehicles and outstanding value with Saturn's highly regarded customer care."

Outlook features a body-frame integral design that enables lower step-in heights and generous interior space. Outlook offers three rows of seating, with the third row capable of comfortably seating three adults - and with more usable storage space behind the third-row seat than many of its competitors. Access to the third-row seat is made easier with an articulated, industry-first Smart Slide second-row seat feature.

StabiliTrak is standard on all Outlook models, as are six air bags: two dual-stage frontal air bags for the driver and front passenger, two seat-mounted side-impact air bags in the first row and two head curtain side-impact air bags that cover all three seating rows. Complementing the air bags is GM's rollover sensing system, which can activate the side-impact air bags if sensors determine a rollover is imminent. In the event of a rollover, the air bags stay inflated longer to provide increased occupant containment. Outlook also comes standard with OnStar.

The Outlook XE's 3.6L V-6 VVT produces 270 horsepower (201 kw) and 248 lb.-ft. of torque (336 Nm). The uplevel Outlook XR model, with dual exhaust, provides an estimated 275 horsepower (205 kW) and 251 lb.-ft. of torque (340 Nm). All Outlook models feature a 6-speed automatic transmission.

The uplevel Outlook XR will carry an MSRP of $30,290 for front-wheel drive and $32,290 for all-wheel drive models.

Rounding out the appeal of the Outlook is a wide range of attractive optional equipment, including ultrasonic rear parking assist, power lift gate, remote vehicle start, heated windshield fluid, DVD entertainment system and DVD navigation system.

The Outlook will be built at GM's Lansing/Delta Township (Mich.) assembly facility.

Saturn, a division of General Motors Corp., markets vehicles in the U.S. and Canada through a network of about 500 retailers, with a focus on providing innovative products with solid value and excellent customer service. In 2006, the brand has begun a major revitalization of its portfolio with four new vehicles: the Sky roadster, the Aura midsize sports sedan, the Vue Green Line Hybrid (all available now) and the Outlook large crossover utility (available late 2006). These new vehicles join the current lineup that includes the Ion small car, Vue compact SUV and the Relay crossover van.

# # #

GM Going Cross-Eyed On Marketing Crossovers?

Ray Wert — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 14:23:19 EDT

I know I'm just about ready to smack the next person that calls a wagon a "CUV." I know it's the new hotness of marketing terms, but there's got to be a better way to define vehicles that clearly aren't sedans and yet, don't quite have that Jeep Grand Cherokee / Hummer / Explorer thing going for them. Yes — the technical definition of a unibody vehicle rather than an SUV built on a body-on-frame truck platform should suffice for most of the off-road wannabes — but I'm sorry Chrysler Pacifica, Subaru Outback and Dodge Magnum — y'all are wagons. Suck it up, take it as a loss, and move on. But, we do empathize with the General, who according to Automotive News, is having a bit of a problem trying to figure out what to call the new class of non-car, non-truck, non-suv vehicles they've got coming out over the next year. That'd be the threesome of the Saturn Outlook, GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave. The problem is, the General's already used the CUV classification to describe the Caddy SRX. So let's find out what y'all think. – Ray Wert

Crossover Concerns [Automotive News via AutoWeek]

Ad Watch Exclusive: That's An Opel?

Ray Wert — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:13:29 EDT

We've been asking that question since the New York Auto Show, when we got our first look at the Opelization of the Saturn brand. Take, for example, the PreVue (hint, hint) concept based on the Opel Antara, Sky Redline based on the Opel GT and new Aura sedan based on the Opel/Vauxhall Vectra. It would appear Saturn's San Francisco treat of an agency, Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, heard some other folks asking the same question. Whoever they heard, the commercial's the latest part of Saturn's "Like always. Like never before." advertising campaign — a blitz, er, one commerical seeking to reimagine the brand as something that doesn't evoke a vegan burrito. Making and selling the vehicles noted above is one way to start that process.

Look Out, Outlook!: First Saturn Crossover Rolls off the Line

Mike Spinelli — Thu, 25 May 2006 15:30:47 EDT

This GM Kool Aid sure is delicious. No, seriously, the more orthodox among us will consider the first Saturn Outlook crossover rolling off the line to be extremely newsworthy, while distrusting iconoclasts (you know who you are) will cry "press release"! They're both right. Sure it's a totally fed story, but the Outlook was one of the most promising vehicles we saw at the New York show, so it'd just be wrong not to mention its production has started (well, pre-started; huh?), not at the company's Spring Hill, Tenn plant, but at its new Delta Township plant in Lansing. Now, can we get an invite to the next Saturn-e-que? And will it be in Michigan now?

First Saturn Outlook Rolls off the Line [Winding Road]

Dude, What If S-A-T-U-R-N Really Spelled O-P-E-L?

Ray Wert — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 10:55:59 EDT

Well Ogre, it seems like every auto journalist sittin' here in the media holding pen is askin' that question. The conversation seems to go something like this:

Auto Journalist #1: "So, whaddaya think of the new Saturns?"
Auto Journalist #2: "They're really hot, but of course, it's an Opel..."
Auto Journalist #1: "Yeah...I know, it's totally an Opel...so of course it's hot."
Auto Journalist #2: "Yeah, they're totally ditching the whole 'Saturn look' and going with Opel designs. That's so cheating."

Ok, so what does this mean? Well friend, It means mainstream auto writers, a group more prima-donna than the editor of an automotive blog [Thanks Ray...we'll talk later — ed.], is totally telling the Saturn story from an inside-baseball perspective...

...It's obvious many are missing the big picture on it and you see it in the stories written. They are missing reality...these new cars are hot. They're pretty damn hot. Yes, the media is correct. The General is totally plopping the successful and attractive Euro Opel line directly into the Saturn line...replacing the crap that was with the new hotness that is. But so-the-fuck what? What does a consumer care about when they buy a car...the story of Opel design trumping Saturn...or the fact the Sky, Aura and Outlook are pretty smooth looking rides? I guess we'll find out.

By the way...anyone seen Buick?

The Tri-Lambdas Hit The Hotel Coral Essex: The 2007 Saturn Outlook

Ray Wert — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 08:00:01 EDT

The first in the trilogy of GM's Lamda platform based vehicles takes the stage, and its the man on the mike we call "Outlook." The Outlooks's a three-row, eight-passenger CUV going into production for the 2007 model year. The other two known Lambda platform vehicles will be the Buick Enclave wagon and a GMC supposedly known as the Booger...err, we mean the Acadia. The Outlook's powered by a 3.6-liter V-6 with variable valve timing. It'll be showing up on the roads with either front-wheel or all-wheel drive with a six-speed auto tranny developed with FoMoCo and having nothing to do with Lamar.

Saturn Outlook Pictures [The Car Connection]

Related:
Spy Photos: 2007 Saturn Outlook [internal]

Saturns to Rise in New York: Obvious Astronomy References Continue to Dog Carmaker

Mike Spinelli — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 13:57:47 EST

Saturn's planning a kind of brand awakening for the New York show — an Opelification, if you will — with production versions of the Aura and Outlook crossover and a Red Line edition Sky roadster. The Sky is the equivalent performance edition to the Pontiac Solstice GXP, powered by the same turbocharged, 260-hp, 2.0-liter direct-injection engine. The Aura is its new, small sport sedan, similar to the Opel Vectra and the Outlook is the first among a spate of new GM crossovers. The company will also roll out a new design concept and show off the Aero-X it unveiled in Geneva.

Saturn Sky Redline, Outlook, and Aura To Debut At New York International Auto Show [MPH]

Related:
More on New York show [internal]

Spy Photos: 2007 Saturn Outlook

Mike Spinelli — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:03:22 EST

If these spy shots on World Car Fans have been correctly ID'd , it appears a rumor Saturn had shelved its Outlook crossover SUV has been debunked. Built on GM's Lambda platform — on which a range of similar vehicles will be based — the Outlook will be an eight-passenger family wagon, likely offered with a choice of V6 and V8 engines. We'll know more when launch time comes later this year.

New Saturn Outlook Spy Photos [World Car Fans]

Related:
Saturn s New Outlook for 2007 [Internal]

Is Saturn Shelving the Outlook Minivan?

Mike Spinelli — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:31:34 EST

We're stuck using a computer assembled by dyslexic tree frogs in 1938, so things are pretty creaky here, today. Posting more than 100 words at a time is like parsing Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" on an abacus. (Whoops, used up a whole bunch already.) Anyway, Saturn seems to have shelved its Outlook minivan, according to Cheers and Gears. Now pass me a madeleine. [Thanks to Carlos for the tip.]

C&G Exclusive: The Outlook Shelved [Cheers and Gears]

Related:
Saturn's New Outlook for 2007 [Internal]

Saturn's New Outlook for 2007

Mike Spinelli — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 08:57:40 EDT

Oh, Saturn how you tease we lubberly schoolboys in our size-nine Pro Keds, flaunting the name of your new midsized crossover SUV in our faces, yet revealing only a fuzzy closeup on its badge. Your callow laughter is a white-hot ember on our souls. OK, maybe not white-hot, maybe more like "soupy." Either way, GM announced its new 2007 model will be called the Outlook, which the company says "features dynamic design and a refined, sophisticated interior. As if such skirted language is enough to get us to hand over our juice box.

The company also confirmed that Saturn s 2007 Aura midsize sedan will go into production during summer 2006. The Aura will be a Saturnized version of the European Opel Vectra.

The Aura sedan will be powered by a 3.5-liter V6 engine with variable valve timing, with an optional DOHC 3.6L V6 VVT producing around 250 horsepower. The 3.6-liter engine will be hooked to a new six-speed autobox.

Along with the Aura and Sky roadster (coming in early 2006) the Outlook is the third of three new, Euro-influenced models joining the Saturn line as part of GM's plan to refocus the brand on, uh, Euro-influenced models.