on 27 march 2003 saturn corporation launched the successor to the s class of cars with the ION class. with two body styles, the sedan and coupe, saturn wanted to re-enter the small car market with a popular configuration of a small car with a big 2.2 liter ecotec engine. they succeeded. i tuned into saturnfans.com and saturn regularly to find updates. i broke into the corporate auto journalist sites like saturnmedia.com to download pictures and more press releases and specifications. i read the usenet postings. i had eight months to prepare and research every detail of the car before it even went into production. on 29 august 2002, in spring hill TN, the s series went away, and the ION was born. initially only the sedan would leave the factory floor, and sometime in march 2003 the coupe would come. even though mom is single, she needs a four door model, to take her daughter-in-law around town when she comes to visit (hint hint). the trunk from the picture seemed very large, and the details fine this was the car i recommended to mom, but she would have to wait an entire summer and a little bit of fall to get to market. it was worth the wait.