General Motors's Saturn division announced that it will hit record US sales of up to 300,000 vehicles this year, and will grow sales another 10 percent next year with the launch of the new Ion small car, Reuters reported Sept. 17. "If all goes well in the fourth quarter this year, we would bump as high as 300,000 this year," Jill Lajdziak, Saturn vice president of sales, service and marketing, told Reuters in Austin, Texas, where Saturn showed the Ion to reporters. "We'll land somewhere between 285,000 and 300,000 this year." Reuters said GM's Saturn brand, launched in 1990 with a small car to compete with import car makers, had record sales of 286,000 in 1993. The Ion small sedan, the replacement for the S-Series, which arrives in US dealerships in October, is expected to sell 150,000 units next year, Lajdziak told Reuters. A coupe version launches early in 2003.