So Saturn’s going away.

Saturn was supposed to be the little GM division that could. Dreamed up in the early eighties and finally launched in 1990, the Saturn brand was GM’s answer to an ever-increasing threat of small, well-made Japan-o-mobiles. Naturally, GM fucked things up.

The company was touted as being “different” from the start, and that meant different things to different people. The company had its own cars and its own distribution system, outside of GM’s existing structure. I remember Saturn’s “no-haggle” policy from back in the day — apparently you wouldn’t be ambushed by hungry salesmen whilst trolling a Saturn lot.

Somewhere along the way, things got muddled. Their cars were fine, but they didn’t really stand above and beyond other GM cars. They began selling re-branded and slightly tweaked variations of other GM cars, put out their performance-oriented “Red Line” stuff for the boy racers and their earth-lovin’ “Green Line” stuff for the hippies.

Their slogan changed from “A Different Kind of Car Company” (the one I remember most, from the halcyon days) to “Like Always. Like Never Before” in the mid-oughts, to the recent, and super-desperate “We’re Still Here.”

Their logo hasn’t changed much, other than the 2.0 bling it received in the last few years.

It’s always been a pretty simple red and black affair. The letters are all futuristic (the “A” is missing its crossbars, like it’s out of “Total Recall” or something, and the “U” runs into the stem of the “R”).

The mark itself is simple and iconic, but it doesn’t bring to mind speed or sex appeal, two things I’d look for on the hoods of even the dowdiest cars. Maybe it’s the squareness. Red’s a solid color choice though.

Anyway, another one bites the dust. R.I.P.