Open-and-Shut Case for Value

General Motors is losing $2.5 million a day, executive heads are rolling like bowling balls and rumors range from a shuttering of one division to flat-lining the whole and recycling Detroit into the Big Two.

The enigma within all this despair seems to be Saturn.

Dealers for the 2-year-old GM division are moving cars at twice the rate import retailers can sell Toyotas and Hondas. Among the domestics, Saturn has outsold Plymouth and begun breathing on big brother Cadillac during the first nine months of this year.

One survey says having a Saturn sign over a showroom is more desirable than hanging out shingles for Lexus and Infiniti. Another study places the car only a few admiring glances below those luxury twins in customer satisfaction, and above Acura and Mercedes Benz.

Saturn is even reported to be considering the ultimate carrying of coals to Newcastle: Assembling Saturns in Japan.

So while other GM divisions are up to their armpits in clinkers, Saturn has succeeded as a $3-billion gamble to build a tight, light, quality, peppy subcompact in competition with Tercel, Civic, Mirage, Sentra and the rest of Japan’s best.

There is no secret behind the triumph. Saturn, through lean production techniques, a familial management-labor structure and an obsession with quality control, is doing everything corpulent GM has been ignoring all these years.

In addition, the division borrows heavily from the Zen of auto-making--as pioneered by Japan--where management and labor are a team sharing in pain, gain, decision-making and profits.

Saturn builds a bargain, a car with value seemingly higher than price. It is styled by and for Saturn and not as a visual hybrid of bits and pieces from the parts bins of sister divisions.

The cars handle with a self-confidence that only comes from meticulous assembly. They feel taut, durable and their panels and mechanicals promise not to be rattling, flapping and leaking the week the warranty expires.

Walk into a Saturn dealership and the service is Nordstrom without the grand piano. No haggling. No lateral passes from customer consultant to options adviser to assistant new transportation sales manager with smiles--and the screws--tightening at every level.

There have been delivery delays--because Saturn has shut down its assembly line to correct minor niggles. Even a rattling door.

There have been factory recalls--of 1,600 cars containing faulty antifreeze. Not only were the cars recalled, they were replaced by new vehicles. Saturn even crushed the sick ones to prevent outside repair, resale and maybe a corroded reputation.

In another reverse of a bloated GM tradition, the Saturn line is just six cars, all front-wheel drive. There are two four-cylinder sedans--one with an 85-horsepower engine, another producing 124 horsepower. Then two coupes with those same engines but sportier options such as two-tone paint and alloy wheels.

New for 1993 is a brace of station wagons.

The entry-level wagon (SW1) comes with the basic engine--the 85-horsepower, 1.9-liter, inline-four--and a five-speed manual transmission.

Although bare of what most buyers have come to expect as standard equipment--even rear disc brakes, air conditioning and an AM-FM radio with cassette are considered options on the SW1--the base price is only $10,895. That’s pretty frugal for a full, five-passenger wagon with 29 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats.

And the price includes a driver’s-side air bag, standard on all Saturns this model year.

The SW2 isn’t much dressier in standard form. But its $12,195 sticker includes the peppier four-banger with 16 valves, a double-overhead cam and more torque for towing small boats or hauling Little Leaguers.

Typically, most buyers will opt for an automatic with air conditioning, cruise control, power doors and windows, and maybe pass on anti-lock brakes, a $595 extra. Expect to pay around $15,000 for such a package.

From the front grille to C-pillars where the rear window used to be, the wagons are virtually unchanged from last year’s Saturn sedans. That translates to a pleasant, if somewhat generic, styling made more attractive by a cab-forward design and well-flared fenders.

Would that a set of cast alloy wheels were available. But they remain a $350 option on the up-market coupe only. Station wagon owners must be satisfied with quite tacky, very plastic wheel covers. Some may also wonder why a sunroof is offered on sedans and coupes, but is not an option on a vehicle that clearly is family, country, recreation and sunshine-oriented.

As a wagon, the Saturn most certainly is a sedan with a fanny pack. But modifications to the rear design have added no lumpiness, bulging nor any disunity of a retrofit look to the vehicle.

The tailgate is rear-hinged and swings up easily. There’s a knee-high sill for those with 25-inch-high knees, many groceries and lower-back problems. For those groceries, a healthy 56 cubic feet of cargo space with the rear seat backs folded flat.

Saturns have always taken advantage of their small size and lightness--due in large part to ding-resistant polymer body panels--to earn a solid reputation for mild athleticism.

They are not high-speed burners of asphalt. Their acceleration--especially that squeezed from 85-horsepower versions--will place nobody in a neck brace.

But they are nippy motor cars with well-researched and coordinated suspension and power steering systems that keep the car reasonably flat, quite secure and confidently going where the front wheels have been pointed until further ordered. None of which has been lost in the translation from sedan to station wagon.

Unfortunately, Saturn’s noisiness remains. Tires hiss and thrum, and the engine sounds buzzy and on the verge of overwork. Despite continuing insulation efforts, Saturn hasn’t been able to keep the road racket from entering the cabin.

In these regards, the cars continue to lag overseas compacts. And despite an air bag, Saturn insists on clinging to infernal mechanical seat belts that remain an open invitation to forever forgetting the lap strap.

The SW2 is not a luxury car. Look for no wood accents, remote door locks, power seats, CD systems or illuminated visor mirrors. They add expense that negates low cost, a raison d’etre of the car.

And the SW2 is not a candidate for a V-6 engine. That adds weight, cost, a new audience and destruction of fuel economy--currently an admirable 24 to 33 miles per gallon.

What the Saturn buyer does get is an inexpensive, capable, safe, roomy, comfortable, domestic vehicle for persons more interested in transportation than surface street competition.

The 1993 Saturns are noticeably improved from 1991 Saturns. Upgrading is a corporate constant. But so it is with Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Ford, Mazda, Geo and Hyundai.

Which keeps Saturn in a place it has yet to vacate: a domestic compact as good as, but not better than, the imported competition.

1993 Saturn SW2

COST :

* Base, with 5-speed $12,195.

* As tested $15,230. (Includes automatic transmission, driver’s side air bag, adjustable steering, cruise control, air conditioning, power locks and windows.

ENGINE :

* 1.9 liters, 16 valves, double overhead cams, in-line four developing 124 horsepower.

TYPE :

* Five-passenger, front-drive, five-door small wagon.

PERFORMANCE :

* 0-60, as tested, 9.5 seconds.

* Top speed, estimated, 115 m.p.h.

* Fuel consumption, EPA city and highway, 24 and 33 m.p.g.

CURB WEIGHT :

* 2,500 pounds.THE GOOD :

* Huge value for small price.

* Driver’s side air bag is standard.

* Buying car includes membership in Saturn family.* Imported quality in roomy domestic wagon.

THE BAD :

* Engine buzzy and busy.

THE UGLY :

* Plastic wheel covers.