GM's Saturn Division Starts Pilot Production

SPRING HILL, Tenn. — The Saturn Corp., the new subsidiary of General Motors, began pilot production Thursday of the subcompact cars announced with great fanfare six years ago as America's answer to the Japanese challenge.

"We just started today. We're trying to make sure that from one end to the other, this process works right," Saturn spokeswoman Jennifer Schettler said from the corporation's state-of-the-art $3-billion factory.

Saturn will build 80 pilot cars before beginning commercial production in June or July, she said. GM is to start a teaser advertising campaign in September, open the first Saturn dealership in October and send cars to showrooms in November.

Saturn is scheduled to build 240,000 coupes, sedans and station wagons priced between $10,000 and $12,000 to compete against Japanese imports.