Penske Walks away from Saturn, Saturn to wind down

[hampstor]

BREAKING: Penske walks away from Saturn deal, brand to "wind down"
Yesterday, September 30, 2009, 3:55:00 PM | Sam Abuelsamid

Saturn fans will be saddened to hear that the brand is about to be history. Penske Automotive Group (PAG) and General Motors have been in the final stages of negotiations to transfer the brand, but late this afternoon, both parties issued statements that Penske was walking away from the deal.

The reason cited by Penske for the deal's demise is difficulty in securing a supply of product beyond the end of 2010. GM had agreed to continue supplying the Outlook, Aura and Vue until the end of next year, at which point Penske would get other automakers to produce vehicles to sell through the Saturn dealer network.

It was originally believed that Penske had a deal with Renault, possibly supplying vehicles from its South Korean subsidiary, Renault-Samsung Motors. However, the other automaker's board of directors rejected the deal, leaving Penske out in the cold. In the wake of the news, GM announced that it would wind down Saturn and close all the dealerships. After Saturn dealers close, Saturn owners will be able to get service from other GM dealers. You can read the official statements from both Penske and GMchronicling the demise of Saturn after the jump.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/09/30/p...-future-produ/

[Eleanor]

RIP

Just when it looked like they were turning things around

[freshprince1]

That's too bad, Saturn has some decent cars right now.

[Redlyne_mr2]

Damn that is too bad.

[GOnSHO]

fuckin penske

[A790]

GM should axe one of their legacy brands in the North American market, bring over their European successes and market them as Saturn. They have been doing well, with good press, with cars like the Astra and Aura.

Profitability doesn't come over night when you're trying to reshape your brand image! Idiots!

[BokCh0y]

That is some serious shitty news. I've always been a fan of Saturn and was impressed with the new line of vehicles being pounded out over the past 2-3 years.

RIP Saturn

[D. Dub]

Originally posted by A790
GM should axe one of their legacy brands in the North American market, bring over their European successes and market them as Saturn. They have been doing well, with good press, with cars like the Astra and Aura.

Profitability doesn't come over night when you're trying to reshape your brand image! Idiots!

That is logical -- GM would never do it

[flipstah]

Originally posted by A790
GM should axe one of their legacy brands in the North American market, bring over their European successes and market them as Saturn. They have been doing well, with good press, with cars like the Astra and Aura.

Profitability doesn't come over night when you're trying to reshape your brand image! Idiots!

Amen! You don't cut a tree when it's producing fruit! Saturn is pulling out gems like the Sky, Astra and the Aura, as A790 mentioned.

Unfortunate news aside, does that mean Sky Redline will be clearance sale now?

[sputnik]

Originally posted by flipstah


Amen! You don't cut a tree when it's producing fruit! Saturn is pulling out gems like the Sky, Astra and the Aura, as A790 mentioned.

Unfortunate news aside, does that mean Sky Redline will be clearance sale now?

GM will most likely retain the Sky as some Chevy Solstice and the Aura is basically just a Malibu.

Not exactly groundbreaking losses here.

Unless you think a badge makes a car better.

[FiveFreshFish]

^^^ I wonder if the Saturn polymer side panels will carry over to other GM divisions.

[Cowtown_Raider]

None of the cars in Saturn's most recent lineup had polymer panels. Penske wasn't going to be doing business in Canada anyways so this news had little affect on Saturn customers here.

Now that Magna pretty much has control of Opel, it would be cool for them to market them in Canada using the existing Saturn network. The Astra and new Vue are built in Opel factories in Europe. Wishing thinking tho

[frozenrice]

The Astra will probably live on under the Opel brand since it's an Opel car anyways. The Aura is a Opel Vectra. The Sky can probably live under Opel as well since Opel has a rebadge version called the GT.

[Eleanor]

Originally posted by flipstah
Amen! You don't cut a tree when it's producing fruit!

Although Saturn's offering has greatly improved over the past few years, their sales numbers didn't show it unfortunately.

[Drsuce]

all this bullshit with GM cost me my job back in April, it really is sad to see saturn gone as i had spent the past 6 years working for them! however it does not shock me in the least.

The last REAL car saturn made was in 2002.... Thats when the S-Series was discontinued and the GM shit replaced it (oh ok, the first GM shit came in 2000 with the L-Series and the Vue)

Saturn had a recipie for a real import competitor and turned it all to shit by trying to make saturn into some kind of "cheap luxury" brand... GM cant even make expensive luxury *see cadillac*

I really have to say that working for GM left a horrible bitter taste in my mouth, I am happy to say that i am now working for honda

P.S. if anyone on the forum ever has a problem with their saturn, feel free to PM me... chances are i know the answer to your problem

[Drsuce]

P.S. The whole current Saturn lineup Minus the outlook was all rebadged Opel/Daewoo product. the Outlook was of course a joint GMC/Buick/Saturn product.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by A790
GM should axe one of their legacy brands in the North American market, bring over their European successes and market them as Saturn. They have been doing well, with good press, with cars like the Astra and Aura.

Profitability doesn't come over night when you're trying to reshape your brand image! Idiots!

Saturn is on a turn around but Government Motor need to kill it to get loans, so you cut off limbs to save the rest.

Sky is low volume and killed along with Solstice, makes sense.

Aura, Outlook has duplicates in other brands anyway.

The fact is, even if Penske keep it, he was planning to sell Samsung (which is almost Nissan) cars anyway. But the low $US doesn't allow that to happen, hence deal is over.

[Drsuce]

IMO the sky redline and solstice gxp were way overpriced for what they were....

[GT4rally]

Saturn should have been axed 10 years ago... it was nothing but a redundant re-badge of GM garbage.

The only Saturn worth owning is the Astra, which we all know is an Opel... too little, way too late.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Drsuce
IMO the sky redline and solstice gxp were way overpriced for what they were....

If you can find them, you can get a redline for $35K cash out the door.