Penske to buy Saturn
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Penske to buy Saturn
Short blurb but interesting...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090605/..._saturn_penske
By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher, Ap Auto Writer – 1 hr 13 mins ago
DETROIT – A person briefed on the deal says General Motors Corp. will sell its Saturn brand to former race car driver and dealership chain owner Roger Penske.
GM has scheduled a 9 a.m. EDT conference call with Saturn General Manager Jill Lajdziak. The person briefed on the deal said Penske will be on the call.
Penske has said his company, Penske Automotive Group Inc. of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is interested in the Saturn brand.
The person briefed did not want to be identified because it has yet to be made public.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090605/..._saturn_penske
By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher, Ap Auto Writer – 1 hr 13 mins ago
DETROIT – A person briefed on the deal says General Motors Corp. will sell its Saturn brand to former race car driver and dealership chain owner Roger Penske.
GM has scheduled a 9 a.m. EDT conference call with Saturn General Manager Jill Lajdziak. The person briefed on the deal said Penske will be on the call.
Penske has said his company, Penske Automotive Group Inc. of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is interested in the Saturn brand.
The person briefed did not want to be identified because it has yet to be made public.
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I wonder where he'll get his cars from.... Doesn't Penske own the NA distribution rights for Smart too? I wonder if he'll use the Saturn dealers as a point of sell to expand Smart in additon to whatever else he sales as Saturns.
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Under the terms of the deal, Mr. Penske, a former race car driver whose Penske Automotive Group is one of the largest dealerships in the country, will initially buy Saturn vehicles from G.M. But he is expected to eventually buy cars from other carmakers like Renault, through its Samsung Motors Unit in Korea.
Penske would obtain the rights to the brand as well as certain other Saturn assets. GM would continue production, on a contract basis, of the Saturn Aura, Vue and Outlook.
I doubt he did, but would be interesting if he purchased the plant to continue the Sky as well.
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Well, I must say that I like this deal a heck of a lot more than the "obscure machining company in China" deal they got for Hummer (although now I understand the Chinese gov't may block the sale). Now it will be interesting to see what kinds of product the incorporate.
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What's it say when 16 different entities want to buy something? Tells me that the Saturn brand is more than viable. Yet, GM wasn't allowed to retain for their own potential.
Penske pretty much turns anything he touches to gold. Well, except me. He shook my hand in the pits at the '88 Long Beach Grand Prix.
Penske pretty much turns anything he touches to gold. Well, except me. He shook my hand in the pits at the '88 Long Beach Grand Prix.
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It says that a lot of people are interested in a right-sized turnkey dealership network.
Saturn were unable to turn a profit in 25 years as a GM division. They were always kind of a redheaded stepchild. I don't doubt that there's a good chance Penske can do something with the brand, but one of the reasons is that he won't have to fight other divisions of his own company for the resources to do so. He can control Saturn's destiny in a way that no one could when it was a GM division.
Saturn were unable to turn a profit in 25 years as a GM division. They were always kind of a redheaded stepchild. I don't doubt that there's a good chance Penske can do something with the brand, but one of the reasons is that he won't have to fight other divisions of his own company for the resources to do so. He can control Saturn's destiny in a way that no one could when it was a GM division.
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This answers our question about the Sky. Also, looks like the Astra is gone.
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/05/c...r-saturn-aura/
Confirming a report we posted on earlier today, General Motors has reached a preliminary agreement to handover the Saturn marque to the Penske Automotive Group. In GM's official statement after the jump, the automaker says that the memorandum of understanding would entitle Penske to the brand's 350+ dealerships, the rights to the name and its associated iconography, as well as continued production of the Aura, Vue, and Outlook on a contract basis. As expected, the dormant Astra hatchback and the rakish Sky roadster will apparently not make the transition. No financial terms of the deal have been released.
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How does this relate to Saturn? I don't think Seat/Saturn are comparable. GM will provide cars on a contract basis for current Saturn models. But Saturn doesn't have that ownership tap that allows them the free R&D and new model development that it formerly enjoyed with GM, or that Seat enjoys with VAG.
I have no idea what Penske plans to do when these models are no longer made by GM. Will he put together his own design team? Continue to buy GM cars on contract and restyle them? One thing is for certain, he's not getting Saturn's most vibrant model, the Sky, or the hot new Astra. So, basically he has a big dealer network in his back pocket and bupkus to woo existing carbuyers. I almost foresee this as turning into Isuzu that co-develops platforms with other manufacturers and sells poorly (or not at all, now) or Suzuki who has a mutant collection of GM platforms and their own odd twists that also aren't huge sellers.
I guess I wasn't a Saturn fan to begin with--I guess some of them were okay, but it's not a badge I ever desired to "wear on my sleeve." But this feels like Penske is enjoying GM's sloppy seconds and it's going to get ugly
