Saturn canned all of the polycarbonate body materials ~last year because first the recycled stock, then the virgin, rose in price. I thought switching to steel was about the stupidest thing in the world, it added about 500 pounds to the VUE, and not designing the SKY with it in mind probably added at least 300-400 to that.
One of Saturns big selling points was the PC body panels, indestructable from my experience (We’re on our 5th Saturn). I would have figured the CAFE hit would have been too much too.
Of course, “All conundrums related to GM can be resolved by accepting as fact that GMs core business strategy is to lose as much money and market share in as little time as possible” (Axenolith’s first axiom of GM) and this just reinforces that...
Apparently nobody at GM remembers what Alfred Sloan said was the company’s business: “GM is in the business of making money, not cars.”