plastic body panels go bye-bye?

[SabreKhan]

What's up with Saturn getting rid of the plastic body panels for upcoming models? I like the dent-resistance. It's part of why I bought the car in the first place. Sheet metal does no better in a crash, plus it's heavier. We should start a petition to keep the plastic.

[Cyndi]

I haven't heard about it yet ... hummm wouldnt make any sense to me thats why a lot of people like saturns

[Lucas1]

the ion, saturns newest car is all plastic. there is a van coming out in '05 called the relay. it will not have any plastic panels. the only reason i see for this is that the van will be released under 4 different GM divisions: Chevy, Buick, Pontiac, and Saturn. Its basically a dressed up chevy venture/pontiac montana. had saturn been the ones to design it, it probably would be plastic. however, they are bieng forcefed the same old GM crap thats been around forever, same old pushrod V6 thats about 20 years outdated, the same old stuff that Saturn was created to get away from........................

[matt919]

Saturns panels may be dent resistant, but that is it. I have a friend with a saturn, and has the polymer dent-resistent panels. So when he got hit, instead of just getting a scrape/dent, he got a watermelon size hole in his door.

[SabreKhan]

Well, how is a hole different from a huge dent (a hit that would make a hole in the plastic is a pretty hard hit)? They're both ugly and could lead to further damage (rust, etc.) and both need to be repaired.