Penske Out - GM to end Saturn

JohnK

JohnK

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GM to end Saturn

1. BULLETIN -- GENERAL MOTORS TO END SATURN BRAND.3 minutes ago from BNO Headquarters
2. Penske Automotive Group, Inc. shares plummet 11.78 percent in after hour trading as it terminates talks with General Motors.7 minutes ago from BNO Headquarters
3. Penske Automotive Group says it has terminated discussions with General Motors to acquire Saturn.


http://twitter.com/breakingnews
 
Damn. And here I was considering a Sky...
 
I think they were killing that off anyways, since the Solstice was dead.
 
Yep, all Kappas were to die deal or no deal.

As I said in the American Leyland thread this is disappointing. I was hoping Penske would bring over some snazy Euro stuff under the Saturn name. Still he can negotiate with the dealers without Saturn, and nothing is stopping him from bringing the stuff over under a different name.
 
Yup, already covered on the American Leyland news thread.

Ah well, Roger Penske is no idiot. :D

JohnK said:
Isn?t Saturn built in Franklyn, Tenn, and is a non union shop?
Click to expand...

Nope, American-built Saturns were always made by the UAW. The UAW actually originally implemented a responsible contract and really did the partnership thing with GM, which is why the early Saturns were put together fairly well. However, that soon ended and the UAW went back to their usual practices within a decade.
 
You would think Penske's stock would have rose on this news. If you ask me, anything associated with GM is mud right now.
 
Lots of the big investment firms and banks have lots of money sunk into GM - so when Penske declined to help salvage part of their investments, well....
 
JohnK said:
Isn?t Saturn built in Franklyn, Tenn, and is a non union shop?
Click to expand...

They used to be made in Spring Hill, which is about 20 minutes southish of Franklin, which is, in turn, about 20 minutes southish of downtown Nashville. However they stopped making Saturns there years ago and now build trucks. But I'm just being pedantic.
 
of course they are killing it off, most cars were rebadged opels...
(opel is sold to magna)
 
No Renaults for you!
 
Judging by the crap that Renault shipped us last time they were here, that's not exactly a huge loss.
 
What happened to the dealer network that wanted to buy Saturn?

And the Kappa line production was stopped in May or June. So no more Sky, Solstice, or Opel GT. Although the Pontiac dealer here has several Solstice-es on the lot.
 
:( Sad news, especially considering they just recently getting around to importing some nice cars from Europe. Saturn was one of two GM brands I would actually consider buying from.
 
Good. Just let it die already. If Saturn isn't going to be the kind of car company it set out to be in the 1980s, there's no sense in continuing to drag the brand along through the mud.
 
Reminds me of this pathetic saturn commercial released slightly before their demise. They really sound like they are pleading...

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0zQ87EVEOM[/YOUTUBE]
 
There's a full article about why the deal fell over in Spectre's Favourite Thread. ;)

Basically, the deal was canned by Renault. No official reasons have been given, but two likely reasons have surfaced:

1. Nissan didn't want to risk losing sales to Saturn on essentially the same cars, and
2. Carlos Ghosn himself thought the Saturn/Renault tie-up was a bad idea.

Both of those sound plausible to me.
 
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