Is it too late for me to buy Edsel from Ford? Same probability of success, I'd imagine.

I'd love to be his lawyer for the sole purpose of being able to say that I'm working on "The Penske File."

@Kaellorian:
You're not Penske material!

Does Saturn still practice the No-Haggling buyer experience?

It's my guess that in two years all Saturns will be made in China.

@Kaellorian:

Why so negative? What is it about Saturn that you think makes the brand inherently unsuccessful?

Saturn's Demise Delayed for 2 Years By Detroit Businessman

There, fixed it. Who else doubts he'll be able to pull this off long term?

@Hank Scorpio: "Well, we'll just see about that. Ta-ta, Tut-tle."

@Quake 'n' Shake: Considering the major American manufactures were huge, and couldn't make it...perhaps the small guy has a shot.

@GMFish: they would hardly be profitable then or they'd have to be made extremely cheap and I doubt they'll meet any standards.

There's a reason many Japanese cars are made here in America The importing fees and shipping costs are very high.

Which is why a German car is expensive or pretty much most European cars.

They'll maybe be made in Mexico but not China.

Anybody remember Penske Auto Centers?

[goliath.ecnext.com]

@Skankingmike: @Skankingmike: "They'll maybe be made in Mexico but not China."

Good point.

Meh, IMO, saturn died 6 years ago when they stopped making their "own" cars and became just another homogenized, redundant GM branch. Maybe we'll actually see the death of Zombie-saturn, and the rebirth of good american cars?

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath either.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: Simply put, GM is getting rid of it due to poor performance. With Saturn's savior getting rid of the only good looking car in the line-up, I'd imagine that very little will change in terms of sales.

This could give Saturn a very interesting possition in the market...

Not manufacturing any cars on their own they could rebadge the best cars from outside North American markets and import them. They don't have any of the development and manufacturing headaches... they just buy in bulk and import them.

So every time you see a really fantastic car you wish was available in US-Canada, but isn't, send an email to Saturn and ask them to bring it in.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: Well I can't speak for him, but I don't like the guy because he distributes that Mercedes abomination that is the Smart Car.

On a related matter, I can't help but wonder how far an Expedition could punt one of those in the event of a head-on collision.

@AlteredBeast: Agreed. Apparently GM took its eye off the ball and the entire company was focused on the financing aspect of the business. Maybe with a renewed focus he can make it work.

Wow. He wants to save the brand, but ditch the only interesting car in the lineup? He'll hemorrhage dealers left and right. Plus in the future is he keeping the RD team, etc? Have access to all the test facilities? I'd trust Saturn in the future if it was a smaller auto maker buying it, but some random guy in detroit..

@GreatWhiteNorth: They could even give boutique car makers access to the car buying public through their dealership structure.

This is getting better the more I think of it.

A new design is reported to take three years. Penske will have two regardless of where he does his manufacturing (maybe Brazil?). I couldn't tell from the reports whether Penske was acquiring the GM Saturn design personnel as well as the marque. If the new Saturn is just a continuation of the old, I wouldn't bet the ranch. If he changes the design and improves build quality, he's got a decent shot. BTW, the Saturn Sky is just a rebadged Pontiac. With Pontiac going down, it probably makes sense to junk the design.

Yay. Maybe this will keep my Saturn Vue from losing what resale value it had left.

Our Vue has been very reliable. It has a Honda powertrain after all (and is one of the main reasons we bought it). The interior is boring as all hell, but the engine hasn't give us one problem after 5 years / 55K miles.

Wow - this just made Saturn go way up in my mind. But only because I have high expectations for the Penske brand. They also own the "Smart Car" brand which I'm sure people have seen popping up here and there the past couple years.

@Kaellorian: I have a family member who reads a lot of the auto industry insider magazines, and really GM's reason for getting rid of Saturn is a little backwards. They are selling them not because of poor performance, but because they are the only brand they can get a buyer for. I guess they are planning to use the money from the sale of Saturn to try to strengthen their other brands. I'm not holding my breath to see it happen though.

I guess we will be bailing out Penske in 2 yrs time then.

Basically there are too many cars being made by several orders of magnitude. You just have to look at the huge car parks of just manufactured cars to know this.

@Hank Scorpio: You are aware...

Realistically, how many people actually bought the Sky? It's an interesting car, but is it worth keeping?

@H3ion:

Junking the design has nothing to do with Pontiac living or dying. Even if they'd kept both companies, it would still have been going away. It never made a profit (even being more expensive than its competition) either in Pontiac or Saturn form, because it was too expensive to manufacture. Supposedly it used so much hydroforming that it cost too much to make. This is an issue with the Kappa platform, not either of the specific cars based on it.

Looking at General Motors in terms of brands and models causes nothing but confusion. Think about them in terms of platforms and a lot of things become a lot clearer (like why Buick has such a reputation for quality while Pontiac doesn't).

@Kaellorian: But perhaps they are selling poorly because they have been a GM also-ran brand for quite a while. Once they start getting some unique product in the pipes (from other (presumably) European automakers), then I would expect their sales to increase. This is all assuming proper management, which is something Penske is known for.

@GreatWhiteNorth:
"rebadge the best cars from outside North American markets and import them."

Hey - You could work in the car biz. That's what they are planning on doing. Right now,the working plan is to import Renaults built in South Korea to sell alongside the Saturns that they keep. Penske already is responsible for distributing the Smart in the U.S. He's a car guy and very sharp. If there is anybody that can pull this off, it's him

BTW- The Saturn that exists today is not the hug-a-bear cute concept that was born in the early 90's. GM corporate politics ensured that "a different kind of car company" could never survive inside of GM. No way to know how they will manage it under Penske, but here's hoping that they broom all traces of their GM heritage.

@mechmike:

I've always had great experiences with Penske in the past, and they've always given me what I considered a good value for my money, or atleast better then what I could get elsewhere. I hope he is able to save this brand as its the one I hoped to get for a new car (when I'm in the market that is).

Ditch the Sky, that car is the brand's Halo Car.

This what they should do:

Keep the Sky, it makes the brand look attractive
Ditch the Outlook and Vue and create a crossover/wagon like the impreza
Keep the Aura, and build from its popularity

The problem with Saturn through the years has been that the brand had no reason to exist after 2001. Make saturn the brand that embraces customer service, quality and vehicles that make sense for consumers to buy.

Also keep the headquarters as far away from Detroit as possible, that place is a just a cesspool of ideas.

@GMFish: Is saturn union or non-union? If union, they will be made in china or mexico. If they are non-union, there is no reason to move them.

@K-Bo: They're also selling it because it has the least intertwined dealer network, and is the most "independent" of GM's brands, so it is much easier, both legally and from a marketing perspective, to sell them to someone else. It would be much more difficult to sell a GM brand that's been producing cars for 50 or more years, hence the death of Pontiac and Oldsmobile.

@Kaellorian: Penske is the man, and Saturn has a pretty good vehicle lineup that has not been well marketed. They will do fine. This has me much more interested in purchasing a new Saturn, although it won't be for several years yet.

@PSUSkier:

Ya god forbid somebody distribute a small fuel efficient car amongst the over-compensating, over-consuming American behemoths that currently drove (punny!) GM, and Chrysler into the ground today.

@Geekybiker: That's what I'm wondering. Will he create new cars? Or will he simply import/rebadge other cars? The rebadging is good from a short term financial perspective, but when you can't control the quality of your product in any meaningful way, you're reputation is at the mercy of others, who may have different priorities.

@Geekybiker:

Penske isn't "some random guy in Detroit" - Penske Auto Group is the second largest dealer network in terms of revenue in the US, and he's already the exclusive distributor for the SMART minicar.

As far as the Sky, it's a cool car, but sales volume is next to nothing. Besides, given that GM is also about to kill Pontiac, the only other brand that has a twin to the Sky (the Solstice), I'm guessing that there probably won't be a Sky to sell even if Penske wanted to sell it.

ah HA! Time for Mr. Penske to start workin' on the new EV2. And not crush them this time.

@pecan 3.14159265: Exactly. It was one of those cars that was really interesting and you're glad it was made, but you'd never actually buy one.

@Skankingmike: German cars are expensive because you're buying a brand name - most US market BMW's are built in America, and most VW's are built in Mexico. Mercedes and Audi, to my knowledge, are built in Europe, and thusly are expensive, but as premium brands they're expensive anyways...

@lpranal: Agreed. The Saturn S-series cars were great and had a decent base of fans and they killed them and replaced them with crap.

I read not too long ago that the typical Saturn S-series buyer has drifted over to the Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla - the main cars that appeal to that demographic. GM had no good alternative for that buyer demographic.

@docrice: Only the X-series vehicles are assembled in America. At one time the Z4 was as well although I think production is moving back to the USA with the expansion of the Spartanburg plant. All engines are built in Germany IIRC.

@pecan 3.14159265: It's an awesome drive....but the RX-8 from Mazda is better

@GMFish: Close. Penske has said that he wants to import cars from Renault Korea (Samsung Motors). What's interesting though is most of Saturn's current vehicles are offshoots of Opel, which was just [quasi] sold to Magna. Saturn could have the potential to grow into a real threat if it can offer a mix of quality Euro/Asian autos.

@BacteriaEP: I think the Smart car has done pretty poorly because it is not particularly fuel efficient, especially considering it's size. It's current EPA rating is 33/41 where most, considerably more practical 4 seater minis are more like 28-30 / 34-37. Plus, for a while they were trendy and commanding relatively huge price premiums. Yes, they make since in an urban only environment, but most of the US is not setup for that, and they perform very poorly on the highway and are subject to wind buffeting. The real cherry on top, though, is the complete POS manu-matic, single plate dry clutch gearbox, which give you all the fun of driving an automatic with all of the discomfort of teaching your kid to drive a manual. I have no idea why the couldn't just sell a stick shift version over here...

@nataku83: edit = "they make SENSE" not since, sorry

@Bs Baldwin: I'd keep the Vue and make a wagon version of the Aura personally. The L series wagon was a nice car, a bit dated looking but still nicer than the Malibu MAXX.

I would totally have gotten a Aura wagon over the Aura I did. More room for computers. As it is my Aura trunk is huge, I can easily fit 5 old style iMacs (IE CRT models) in the trunk without flipping forward the seats.

@AlteredBeast: He's not that small ... but I do think he has a decent chance.

@nataku83: Speaking of Saturn and fuel efficiency - I used to own a 2002 Saturn SL2. At the time, I commuted 110 miles every day for work, and that little sedan averaged ~38 MPG. One week, I even managed to get 42 MPG -- I must've had a tail wind each way on a cool day.

Saturns are EASILY as fuel efficient as Smarts and some hybrids. They're just not as prestigious/pretentious. And, admittedly, they're not very good looking.

Does anyone else HATE the current Saturn ads where they have the "employees" tell some touching human story about dedication, reliability, and assurance that Saturn/GM is gonna be there for you. I HATE those ads, GM/Saturn needs to drop the bs, this is a company that will let people die rather then fix a product because it's cheaper for them. This is a company where the CEO fatten themselves at the expense of it's workers. Ihope Penske can make it work but GM/Saturn should stop wasting taxpayer money on these BS ads.

@BacteriaEP: Like the Prius/Volt/Fusion hybrid etc.? We're already doing that (even better in most cases -- the current gen Prius tops 50 mpg where the Smart fortwo gives you a whopping 40mpg for a smaller/crappier/uglier than Kim Jon Il car (all MPGs highway).