I’m not saying that cars that can potentially kill their passengers are good, definitely not. Saving costs over preserving human life is a bad look, no matter who you are. However, the set of small vehicles that GM fitted with those bad ignition switches were actually pretty good, if you overlook all the, you know, fatal crashes.
How did I come to this conclusion? Simple: These vehicles were some of the last affordable small sedans available not only from General, but from any American brand. Saturns, Chevrolet Cobalts, Pontiacs and others in the staggering number of recalled cars were the types of vehicles that once established young customers as loyal brand ambassadors. But there’s more money in SUVs and light trucks. GM has followed Ford in banishing affordable small vehicles from its lineup and that’s a shame.
I personally owned a 2004 Saturn Ion (yes, I’ve had both a switch ignition vehicle and a cheater diesel.) It was perfect for a poor college student and ran as a tank for eight years before an engine problem. fuel pump was too expensive to fix for what the car was worth. Still, that car was bulletproof all these years. Sure, he was trying to kill me the whole time, but what’s a little mechanical failure between friends?
Were these cars sexy and exciting? No, but at least they were accessible to people with lower incomes and didn’t perpetuate all the problems and World causes full of SUVs. This is not much consolation, however, for the 124 people died from these misfires, or their families. Neither did the $594 million GM had to pay in the lawsuit settlements.
