Saturn Motor Division is the first from-scratch company entity of General Motors in almost 60 years. Development of the company and the automobiles that were originally designed to steal back the customers GM lost to the Japanese imports in America of Honda and Toyota, took eight years.

The first car rolled out of the Tennessee assembly plant in July of 1990 wasn't an overwhelming savior against the growing Japanese imports; it did make a dent in GM’s sales, and boosted the auto giants’ success. Later on, the division had several quality, performance, and design problems which resulted in a heavy decline in sales.