I just read this:
 
http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/1001/gm-to-sell-satu\
rn-brand-to-penske-dealership-chain/;_ylc=X3oDMTE3cmhncjFqBF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEc2VjA2\
ZwLXRvZGF5BHNsawNzYXR1cm4tc29sZA--
GM to Sell Saturn Brand to Penske Dealership Chain
GM strickes tentative deal to sell Saturn brand to Penske Automotive Group
dealer chain
 
By Dan Strumpf and Tom Krisher, AP Auto Writers
 
NEW YORK (AP) -- General Motors Corp. has a tentative deal to sell its Saturn
brand to former race car driver and dealership group owner Roger Penske, both
companies said Friday.

 
Penske has signed a memorandum of understanding that would give his dealership
chain, Penske Automotive Group, Saturn's 350 dealerships, the companies said.
Penske said that he expects to offer all the dealers new franchise agreements
and will retain all 13,000 Saturn employees for the immediate term.

 
"I would expect that the model that we're putting together, the distribution
model, will be profitable day one," Penske said in an interview with The
Associated Press. "We'll have less costs. We'll not be in the manufacturing
side."

 
Neither Penske nor GM would say how much Penske is paying for the brand. Penske
said he expects the deal to close in the third quarter.

 
Penske Automotive Group also distributes Daimler AG's Smart subcompacts in the
U.S., but Smart has its own dealership network and Saturn dealers will continue
to exclusively distribute Saturn vehicles, Penske said.

 
Initially, GM will continue to produce on a contract basis the Saturn Aura sedan
as well as the Vue and Outlook SUVs, the companies said. But Penske said he is
in talks with manufacturers around the world about building Saturn cars in the
future.

 
"We will be selling as many GM cars -- a many GM-produced cars -- under the
Saturn brand as possible," Penske told reporters in a conference call Friday.

 
GM had announced plans earlier this year to sell the Saturn brand. The car maker
launched Saturn in 1990 with the tagline "a different kind of car company." GM's
hope was that Saturn would attract younger buyers with smaller, hipper cars to
better compete with Japanese imports. It built a new plant in Spring Hill,
Tenn., devoted to Saturn production.

 
The factory had more flexible work rules than traditional GM plants for the
employees who built the cars.

 
Despite a cult-like following that drew thousands to annual reunions in Spring
Hill, the brand never made money for GM. The factory stopped making Saturns in
2007 and currently builds only the Chevrolet Traverse.

 
As GM focused more on high-profit pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles,
Saturn began to languish in the late 1990s. Then in 2006, car buyers began to
find Saturn's new models more appealing. But after a good year in 2007, sales
dropped 22 percent last year as the U.S. car market withered.

 
Today, Saturn production is scattered at plants across the U.S. The Aura is
built at GM's factory at Kansas City, Kansas. The Outlook is built in Lansing,
Mich., while the Vue is built in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico.

 
The Saturn Sky roadster is built in Wilmington, Del., but that plant is
scheduled to close in July and the model will be discontinued. The Saturn Astra
was imported from GM's plant in Antwerp, Belgium, and was discontinued last
year.

 
Penske Automotive will take over the separate Saturn parts factory in Spring
Hill, which will continue to make Saturn components.

 
Penske Automotive owns the second-largest U.S. automobile retail chain by sales
and consistently scores high in customer satisfaction surveys. the company also
has race teams in the IndyCar, NASCAR and Grand-Am series. Penske received wide
acclaim for heading Detroit's successful effort to host the 2006 Super Bowl.

 
Carl F. Galeana, who owns two Saturn dealerships north of Detroit, said Friday
he was thrilled that Penske would be the Saturn buyer.

 
"Roger Penske is an icon in the business world," Galeana said. "I've worked with
him personally. Nobody works harder than Roger Penske."

 
Galeana said the fact that Penske is interested in Saturn means the brand has
value.

 
"It allows Saturn to get back to its original roots, which is to be an
independent car company," he said.

 
GM, which filed for bankruptcy court protection on Monday, has said it plans to
shed its Saturn, Hummer, Pontiac and Saab brands. Earlier this week, GM said it
found a buyer for Hummer in China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery
Co.

 
However, any such deal would require Chinese Commerce Ministry approval, and
reports in state-run newspapers Friday said Sichuan Tengzhong had not yet
obtained such an approval.

 
Tom Krisher reported from Detroit.




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