You are correct, I was too specific, I should have said 'who trust the car industry.'
I agree that there is sometimes great variability of response to customer concerns. It often seems to depend on current corporate profitability and on product margin.
I agree, especially regarding the few additional failures occuring after expiry of the extended waranty, but the bean counters and lawyers are in charge of company policy and we know they tend to be mean and short sighted in these matters. They probably saw no immediate gain in providing warranty coverage to mainly second (or third) owners who were not good prospects to purchase new models soon. I am sure that most of these people would have been happy to receive a partial warranty in the form of highly discounted new or rebuilt exchange head assembies which they could instal themselves and would not result in Saturn paying the dealers a large amount for warranty installation.
Most corporations talk customer loyalty and repeat business but few actually invest the effort to develop it. I can only assume that the GM market research has shown that 'you can't please all the people all the time' and am sure that there is a point of diminishing returns. Toyota is a growing company that is developing market share while GM is a company with both declining market share and vision. How could Saturn discontinue the excelent fuel efficient S series (particularly the SW1 model) in favor of larger SUVs and niche market sports cars instead of developing an even more fuel efficient turbo diesel? They did this at a time when 'peak oil' and rising world oil demand and prices were quite obvious. Toyota has manufactured the similar Corrola model for many many years and IIRC it continues to sell well with much customer loyalty and repeat purchasers. I would have purchased a new replacement for my SW1 several years ago but they had discontinued the SOHC engine and Saturn (or GM) no longer manufacture any mini SW model that fits my needs or interest.