The Saturn Corporation is a ivision of the General Motors Corporation and a brand of automobiles. It was established on January 7, 1985. as a wholly-owned subsidiary of GM, and it manufactures automobiles in the United States. GM began manufacturing Saturn cars in 1990, largely in response to the success of Japanese & German small-car imports in the United States, such as the Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen.. Saturn is becoming the US brand for Opel vehicles, similar to Vauxhall Motors in the UK.