GM Finds a Buyer for Saturn

[Hannah Bell]

A deal is in the works- GM announcing Friday they're on their way to selling the Saturn brand to former race car driver and auto dealer Roger Penske.

Penske says he plans on offering all 350-Saturn dealerships new franchise agreements.

Penske says Saturn's 13-thousand employees will stay with the company for at least the immediate future.

There's no word on what the deal will cost.

http://www.wlaj.com/news/saturn-15782-sold-.html

[Rhiannon12866]

1. K&R. Thanks for passing on the news...

:-)

[eridani]

2. Hope that works out. I'm happy with my 1999 Saturn n/t

[MrModerate]

3. I bought nothing but Saturns for years until they turned them into crap.

Hard to say whether the brand can recover from the mismanagement of the last 5 years or so.

[sarcasmo]

7. We have owned Saturn vehicles and buy new every couple years since 2002 and I think

it's hard to believe you know what your talking about if you haven't owned one recently. The car we drive now is built in Lansing and of high quality, but then again you know Saturn is crap so you must be right.

[nichomachus]

12. If they're high quality -- why do you turn them in every couple of years?

You would think that you would do like Honda owners and keep them for years and years.

[jmowreader]

15. Some people just do that...

It's not his fault Honda drivers hate to go car shopping.

[sarcasmo]

18. My wife likes new, the V6 Outlook we have that is built in Lansing will get 300,000 miles.

If we didn't like the other two Vue's we drove we wouldn't have bought the Outlook.

[MrModerate]

19. I've owned three. The last time I was in the market in the US was . . .

2006. The entire line had deteriorated in quality, become indistinguishable from similarly priced American cars (except for being plainer and with fewer options), and were no longer purpose-built but instead agglomerations of a chassis here, a drive train there, all with a Saturn badge slapped on it. They even eliminated the damage-resistant side panels (a real selling point for one who parks cars in parking lots) and not kept up with airbag technology and steering control technology available on similarly priced models.

The final straw was looking at their crossover/SUV (can't remember the name) and discovering it was effectively identical to two other GM models I'd already rejected because of their low quality and dumb-as-dirt design choices.

Saturns used to be special. Then GM turned them into cheap shit at average prices. Recovering from that (especially since the deal on the table has GM continuing to manufacture them for at least several years) is going to be very difficult.

[sandyj999]

4. Good News!

We've been driving Saturns since 1992 and they have been great cars.

[Catshrink]

10. My nephew has 285k on his 1990.

I had one until about 4 years ago. I had to make a decision on whether to replace the AC or the car. I thought the Ion was cheap, didn't want an SUV, and couldn't afford the sedan above the Ion. I went with a used Civic.

I did like the Saturn I had and liked not having a car payment but the Civic has never steered me wrong either.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Cool!

[LynneSin]

6. I hope that Penske considers using the Wilmington GM Plant to build Saturns again

the L-series of Saturns were made in Wilmington and we would love to see that plant re-opened and making automobiles again.

[cslinger59]

8. This is good on multiple fronts.

1-Roger Penske doesn't fail at what he does. This likely bodes well for Saturn

2-A lot of folks will keep their jobs

3-Saturn has some really nice offerings right now and hopefully will continue to bring in/refine the European stuff

[LeftHander]

9. GM finds a buyer for Satan.

LOL that is what I thought it said....

[nichomachus]

11. I wonder if they were allowed to negotiate on the price n/t

[femrap]

13. Maybe they can go back to

manufacturing those Electric Cars featured in the film, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" That would be cool.

[Romulox]

14. "Penske says he's in talks with manufacturers around the world about building the cars."

If Saturn becomes another importer/rebrander, who cares? I can buy a Nissan at the Nissan dealership.

[DainBramaged]

16. Penske will never be loyal to GM, follow the money, buy on the cheap

[autorank]

17. Lucky Saturn

Penske is an outstanding business person. He earned his own money from day one and he's got the
heft to attract buyers not otherwise interested. Keeping the dealerships, the employees...very smart,
very classy.

The question of unions will be interesting. Tennessee made an exception in their "right to work" laws that may still be there.

k*r