Nothing Left But The Rings

I found myself with a little free time on Saturday afternoon, and decided to eschew fun in favor of responsibility: I took my 2005 Saturn Ion into the shop for its long overdue 60000 mile service. I probably wouldn't have even remembered except I ran out of wiper fluid.

Now my Saturn is clean, topped off, tuned up, and apparently obsolete. GM announced today that they're discontinuing the Saturn line along with Hummers, Saabs and a little later, Pontiac. I has a sad! I've been driving Saturns for a decade, since my Hyundai started belching smoke the week the warranty expired. I liked the Saturn's goofy image, and the way they used to throw picnics for the new owners. Buy a Saturn, get a grilled burger! And I like they way the Saturns are optimized for regular octane gas. Don't use the higher octane, the dealers cautioned, it's bad for the engine.

Plus, you could bounce a baseball off the side door and it would just pop back into place, because it was made of bonded polymers instead of aluminum.

Well the Ion is paid off and running fine, and I'm not going to give it up until it catches fire too. So score this as a victory for independent mechanics.