A Farewell to Saturn

So, one of the first posts I made on this blog, when I was just starting it up almost two years ago now, was titled "A Farewell to Saturn", about saying goodbye to our car after we'd replaced it with a hybrid.

It seems from yesterday's news that the entire country will now be forced to follow suit, with the announcement that General Motors is phasing out Saturns over the next year or so. Also soon to be gone are the PT Cruiser, which I have fond memories of as one of the best rental cars we've ever had, from a trip a few years ago. Pontiacs and Hummers are also said to be on the chopping block, but I have no sentimental investment in the one and despise the other, so that news doesn't really strike home (I'm more interested in Pontiac the resistance-leader than in the cars sort-of named after him).

What is beginning to sink in is that this depression is not just going to be a big one, and a long one, and a hard one, but that it'll change us. Some things will go away, for good. So that when we finally do bounce back, it'll be a different country, in a different world. A sobering thought.

Of course, if Detroit had just made better cars . . . but it's no good wishing for 'what if's.

--JDR