 Wilmington 'Sky' Plant to host 1,000 Former Saturn Employees
The Saturn Plant in Wilmington, DE (previous home of the former L300 sedan) will be re-opened to over 1,000 Saturn employees to create and produce the low two-seater Saturn Sky Roadster. The Sky will share the newly-created 'Kappa' platform with the Soltice, Pontiac's rendition set for the upcoming year.
As the Pontiac is developed on the line first, starting the summer of 2005, the Sky will follow in late fall.
The Wilmington plant, which has built cars since 1947, underwent a $550 million upgrade in 1996 to produce Saturns, and due to slow sales, closed in 2003.
Saturn hopes to sell 40,000 Sky's in the first two years of production. Both the Solstice and Sky will be in direct competition with the Mazda Miata and Honda s2000 models. Toyota is discontinuing two models, the celica and MR2 spyder which asks, perhaps, 'is there really a market for these types of cars?'.
There IS a market, as one can see in the parking lots of high schools and college campuses across the nation. The Sky, which will be priced around $23,000, will be aimed at the older drivers of this group, but will not be overlooked by eager parents aiming to give their children a sporty and stylish coupe without having overwhelming power at the tap of the accelerator pedal.
It is now possible, with the advent of the Aura, a sporty sedan coming in the 06-07 model year, Saturn's unit sales could increase by 50 percent in the next three years or so.
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-Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | 
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