The
Saturn L-Series was a line of
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
s sold by
General MotorsGeneral Motors Company, often known as simply GM, is a United States based automaker with headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. GM was the world's 18th largest corporate entity and third largest automaker as ranked by 2008 revenues on the Fortune Global 500. Ranked by global unit sales for 2008, it...
' Saturn
marqueA marque is a brand name, especially in the automobile industry. For example, Chevrolet and Buick are marques of their maker, General Motors . A company may have many marques: GM has used more than a dozen in the North American market alone.-Differentiation:There are huge economies of scale in...
.
The L-Series mid-size sedans and
station wagonA station wagon is a passenger automobile with a body style similar to a sedan, or saloon, but with the roofline following the full, sometimes extended rear cargo area and sometimes an extra row of sometimes rear-facing seats, ending with a more vertical door than on a hatchback.Also sometimes...
s were introduced in 2000. They were based on the
Opel VectraThe Opel Vectra is a large family car that was produced by Opel, the German arm of General Motors Europe, which is in turn a division of General Motors. In the United Kingdom, it was sold under the Vauxhall marque as the Vauxhall Cavalier and later as the Vauxhall Vectra from 1995 onwards...
B and manufactured at a GM plant in
Wilmington, DelawareWilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
. The L-Series was available with
straight-4The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is a four-cylinder internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a...
and V6
enginesThe internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of the high temperature and pressure gases, which are produced by the combustion, directly applies force to a movable...
with either 5-speed
manualA manual transmission, or manual gearbox is a type of transmission used in motor vehicle applications...
or 4-speed
automatic transmissionAn automatic transmission is an automobile gearbox that can change gear ratios automatically as the vehicle moves, freeing the driver from having to shift gears manually...
s.
Poor sales of the L-Series caused GM to cancel the line for 2005. The first L-series car was built in May 1999, and the last one rolled off the Wilmington line on June 17, 2004, after a short run of 2005 models.
The
Saturn L-Series was a line of
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
s sold by
General MotorsGeneral Motors Company, often known as simply GM, is a United States based automaker with headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. GM was the world's 18th largest corporate entity and third largest automaker as ranked by 2008 revenues on the Fortune Global 500. Ranked by global unit sales for 2008, it...
' Saturn
marqueA marque is a brand name, especially in the automobile industry. For example, Chevrolet and Buick are marques of their maker, General Motors . A company may have many marques: GM has used more than a dozen in the North American market alone.-Differentiation:There are huge economies of scale in...
.
The L-Series mid-size sedans and
station wagonA station wagon is a passenger automobile with a body style similar to a sedan, or saloon, but with the roofline following the full, sometimes extended rear cargo area and sometimes an extra row of sometimes rear-facing seats, ending with a more vertical door than on a hatchback.Also sometimes...
s were introduced in 2000. They were based on the
Opel VectraThe Opel Vectra is a large family car that was produced by Opel, the German arm of General Motors Europe, which is in turn a division of General Motors. In the United Kingdom, it was sold under the Vauxhall marque as the Vauxhall Cavalier and later as the Vauxhall Vectra from 1995 onwards...
B and manufactured at a GM plant in
Wilmington, DelawareWilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
. The L-Series was available with
straight-4The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is a four-cylinder internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a...
and V6
enginesThe internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of the high temperature and pressure gases, which are produced by the combustion, directly applies force to a movable...
with either 5-speed
manualA manual transmission, or manual gearbox is a type of transmission used in motor vehicle applications...
or 4-speed
automatic transmissionAn automatic transmission is an automobile gearbox that can change gear ratios automatically as the vehicle moves, freeing the driver from having to shift gears manually...
s.
Poor sales of the L-Series caused GM to cancel the line for 2005. The first L-series car was built in May 1999, and the last one rolled off the Wilmington line on June 17, 2004, after a short run of 2005 models. About 406,300 L-series cars were built in this period. The plant was then retooled to build the
Pontiac SolsticeThe Pontiac Solstice was a small sports car from the Pontiac division of General Motors. Introduced at the 2004 North American International Auto Show, the Solstice roadster began production in Wilmington, Delaware, starting in mid-2005 for the 2006 model year. The exterior styling of the...
and
Saturn SkyThe Saturn Sky was the first sports car from the Saturn marque of American automaker General Motors. It was released in the first quarter of 2006 as a 2007 model. It uses the Kappa automobile platform shared with the Pontiac Solstice and Opel GT. The Sky concept was shown at the 2005 North...
roadsterA roadster, also known as a spyder or spider, is a two-seat car, traditionally without either a roof, side or rear windows.Most modern day two-seaters have windows and feature retractable roofs...
s.
The replacement for the L-Series, the
Saturn AuraThe Saturn Aura is a mid-size car produced under the Saturn brand of American automaker General Motors. It debuted as a concept car at the North American International Auto Show in January 2005. The production model of the Aura was shown at the 2006 New York Auto Show in April, with production...
, arrived in August 2006 for the 2007 model year. The Aura is built on the
Epsilon platformEpsilon is General Motors' new mid-size front-wheel drive automobile platform. The architecture debuted in the 2002 Opel Vectra and 2003 Saab 9-3. Since this platform falls squarely in the center of the worldwide automobile market, GM plans to produce a great many Epsilon vehicles with over a dozen...
, also shared by the
Pontiac G6The Pontiac G6 is a mid-size car produced under the Pontiac brand of American automaker General Motors. It was introduced in the fall of 2004 to replace the Grand Am...
and the Opel Vectra C.
Name changes
The L-Series cars were originally designated the LS (for sedan) and LW (for wagon). However, this caused great confusion and anger from both Toyota and
FordThe Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake...
, who both sold LS-series cars (the
Lexus LSThe Lexus LS is a full-size luxury sedan that serves as the flagship model of Lexus, the luxury division of Toyota. Four generations of the sedan have been produced, all equipped with V8 engines and rear-wheel drive. Since 2006, all-wheel drive, hybrid, and long wheelbase variants have also been...
and the
Lincoln LSThe Lincoln LS is a mid-size, rear wheel drive sedan from Lincoln. For its production run from 1999 until 2006, it was based on the Ford DEW98 platform, which was shared with the Jaguar S-Type and Ford Thunderbird...
). The vehicles were then renamed L-Series for 2001. (Some have also suggested that the name changes were a result of customer complaints over
Saturn's "SL"The S-Series was part of a family of compact cars from the Saturn automobile company. This was the first series of Saturn vehicles. The automobile platform, the Z-body, was developed entirely in-house at Saturn and shared very little with the rest of the General Motors model line...
and "LS" series cars, which were both on sale at the same time.)
Model history
- 2000: The L-Series consisted of 5 models: The four-cylinder LS and LS1/LW1, and V6 LS2/LW2. The base LS sedan, which did not have a wagon counterpart, came equipped with a 5-speed manual transmission (sourced from Saab
Saab Automobile AB, better known as Saab, is a Swedish car manufacturer currently owned by General Motors, pending sale to the Koenigsegg Group. It is the exclusive automobile royal warrant holder as appointed by H.M., the King of Sweden...
, another GM subsidiary) manual windows and locks, air conditioning, and an AM/FM stereo. The LS1/LW1 added power windows, mirrors and locks with keyless entry, and other comfort features. The LS2/LW2 featured additional standard amenities including fog lights, as well as the more powerful V6 engine and 4-speed automatic transmission; the latter being optional on the 4-cylinder models. Anti-lock brakes with traction control was an option on all models.
- 2001: The L-Series received new model designations: the LS became L100, LS1 became L200, LS2 became L300, LW1 became LW200, and LW2 became LW300. All models received a larger fuel tank and shoulder belts for the center rear seat position. Head curtain side airbags became available later in the model year.
- 2002: Anti-lock brakes with traction control were standard this year, along with curtain side airbags. A new six-spoke chrome alloy wheel became available, as was automatic air conditioning and rear DVD entertainment later in the model year.
- 2003: Sedans were facelifted, front and rear; wagons received the new front along with new taillights. Silver dash trim replaced wood trim, and there was new cloth upholstery and a new available alloy wheel design (borrowed from Saab). The L100 sedan was canceled, and anti-lock brakes with traction control were made optional again.
- 2004: Anti-lock brakes and traction control were standard again, the automatic air conditioning was discontinued (leaving all models with the manual air conditioning), and the manual transmission was dropped, leaving all models with a four-speed automatic. The "L200" and "LW200" names were discontinued. Both L-Series sedan and wagon models were officially renamed "L300," adopting a trim level structure like that of Saturn's Ion compact. The previous L200/LW200 were now the L300.1, powered by the 2.2L Ecotec and having no available options. The L300.2 was powered by the 3.0L V6 and had the same range of options as before. The L300.3 had the chrome alloy wheels and a standard power driver's seat, and was unique in offering the "Premium Choice Package." This offered the choice between OnStar, rear DVD entertainment, or (on sedans) a power sunroof at no extra charge.
- 2005: Wagons were discontinued this year since the Saturn Relay
The Saturn Relay was the first and only minivan from the Saturn brand of American automaker General Motors. It was introduced for the 2005 model year, and was built alongside its sisters, the Buick Terraza, the Chevrolet Uplander, and the Pontiac Montana SV6 in Doraville, Georgia...
minivan replaced it, and the lineup was trimmed to one model, the L300.2 sedan. The only option was a power moonroof, as all other options were dropped to reduce production complexity. The last L300 rolled off the Wilmington AssemblyWilmington Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Wilmington, Delaware. The factory opened in 1947, closing its assembly line in 2009. Its final product was the GM Kappa platform sports cars...
line on June 17, 2004.