Back in 2006, when Saturn first introduced the Vue Green Line, it was one of the first American-made, hybrid SUVs. At that time marketers deemed it a good idea to label Saturn’s more sedate eco-friendly models as ‘Green Line” and the sportier, performance oriented models, as ‘Red Line’.

The extended names, Saturn Vue Green Line for example, has proven to be confusing to customers, so for the 2009 model year, GM has decided to drop the ‘Green Line” label and the accompanying badge. Saturn spokesman, Mike Morrissey reported that “as more models are being introduced, it is becoming increasingly difficult to write short sentences mentioning the vehicles in advertisements.

At this time there are no plans for the ‘Red Line’ label, but as more models are added to the line-up, there is a possibility that it too could go.

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Post tags: green line, red line

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General Motors has had to recall close to nine thousand battery packs that were produced by their supplier – Cobasys. All of these battery packs were intended to be used and installed in the mild hybrid versions for the Saturn Vue, Chevrolet Malibu, and Saturn Aura.

According to a report released by GM the batteries had an internal leak – which caused the whole unit to shut down. This is going to seriously hurt GM’s sales. Because of the problem the Saturn Vue hybrid has gone down from 2,683 units from last year to a staggering 326 units this year so far. The Aura has sold only 69 units this year.

Chevrolet stated that they are still planning on starting production on the 2009 Malibu hybrid June 23rd. Likewise Cobasys stated that they have fixed the internal leak and that they will be shipping out more units without the defects.

© Naomi West for Modded Autos, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: aura, chevrolet malibu, malibu, saturn aura, saturn vue, vue

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