Posted on 09/30/2009 2:06:49 PM PDT by Kartographer
Penske Automotive Group (PAG.N) said on Wednesday it has terminated discussions with General Motors Co GM.UL to acquire the automaker's Saturn brand.
GM said in a separate statement it would wind down the Saturn brand and its dealership network.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I will guess that Government Motors tried to extort more from Penske than Saturn was worth....
hh
That’s too bad. Just when Saturn was getting cool.
Oh, well.
That sucks. I’ve been a loyal Saturn driver since 1999.
Put Costanza on it.
Penske’s a sharp guy.
Eliminating the competitors. . . IMHO
Cool?
They’ve been rebadging Chevy Cobalts and GM minivans.
That’s cool?
Shame but it’s got to go if we are too be a non-auto producing country, soon we can be like just Kenya.
he’s not Penske material...
I guess I’m going to assume, since GM is ran by the unions now, that the sale was contingent on the labor agreement, and the attending lack of any kind of profitability, coming along with the factory. After all, why set up a competitor that automatically has an advantage?
They’ve been rebadging Chevy Cobalts and GM minivans.
That’s cool?
Cool.
What model of Saturn is that?
I don’t care for GM in general, but that is a nice convertible.
What model of Saturn is that?
_____________________________
It’s a Sky. Pontiac made the same version: Solstice.
Truth is... They don’t even compare to the lowly Mazda Miata which outperforms them and costs less.
Does it matter? GM contributes yet another case study to the syllabus for Big Time Business Failure 101. Sheesh.
That’s a rebadged Pontiac Solstice. They going away, too. Say goodbye.
Yeah, but you can pass as a straight man in those cars, not the miata. ; p
“That sucks. I’ve been a loyal Saturn driver since 1999.”
....so has a good friend of mine...swears by them...I guess the Japs will take over the plants.
gosh, what a shame!
suicide by unions.
hmmm.
lolol
I don’t know about gay, but I had a Miata and am in my 30’s. I dumped it when I saw 8/10 Miata drivers were old men. I actually make a couple hundred dollars selling it, so that puts me ahead of GM and Chrysler.
I guess the Miata dudes are making up for the lost time of Fiats and British sports cars being in the shop all the time back in the 1970’s.
Bought a 98’SC2. After 40 some odd thousand miles the under-speced valve body in the auto trans did what penny pinched under speced crap valvebodys do...it warped and died.
Any new company trying to win drivers over, that doesn’t understand that a drive train has got to be bullet-proof, is too stupid to live. Goodby Saturn, can’t say it’s been fun. You built crap.
Obama you just lost another 50,000 jobs, what are you going to do now?
Obama: "I'm going to Copenhagen."
That is a real shame. I had hoped that Penske would have been able to save at least this. Nice going, GM, you’re done.
914 - nice!
I looked at Porsche Boxsters and (at least up here, most likely due to the weather) you can pick up a used one for low $.
Bikes are cool! Good for you!
“I will guess that Government Motors tried to extort more from Penske than Saturn was worth....”
Penske couldn’t find someone to build the cars starting in 2011 and forward.
There will probably be more details forthcoming. It’s not like we have any excess capacity laying around....
hh
“If I were a dollar-rich Chicom automaker, I’d pick up the entire package and start funneling my cars through it.”
That was EXACTLY the Penske plan. They were gonna have autos built by various companies, slap a “Saturn” sticker on ‘em and sell ‘em.
However, no auto makers would commit.
“It’s not like we have any excess capacity laying around....”
Got tons “laying around.” The Big 3 just idled a whole bunch of capacity. That’s part of the issue, the auto world has twice as much capacity as they had sales when the bottom dropped out.
Mitzubishi could have basically cornered the 16-29yr old market by purchasing both brands, scaling down vehicle offerings of the two, then pushing sporty performance. The only newsworthy player in that market is Toyota's Scion now.
Back in Dec 2000, I was hit in the rear of my Suburban by a Saturn while I was stopped for a red light. The result was $298.00 in damage to the Suburbans ear bumper and over $3,000.00 to the front end of the Saturn which was pretty much totally demolished.
The Saturn Astra and Aura were rebadged Opels, not Chevys.
While the Sky was a rebadged Pontiac Solstice.
All these buyers are smart. In time they will steal these plants and connections for a fraction of their value. Union dudes drive hard bargains nowhere.
I have had a little insite into GMs management practices lately. GM deserves to die.
Ironic that Saturn was all about trying to break out of the UAW mold of building cars.
I owned a L300 and now have a Vue. One son has a Vue and a Relay. I was planning on buying a Skye, but now.....
The shame is that the basic Saturn is the L-body which GM has used since the mid ‘90s and ttried to kill off every chance it gets (see Corsica).
I can’t help wondering whether Saturn’s non-unionism had anything to BO’s decision to dump the division. Bob
Other way around. The Sky was in development long before they put the Pontiac badge on it. If the Sky was a rebadge, it came from the Opel GT.
I still own my ‘92 Black Special Edition Miata (with hard top), which I purchased new. It’s still a fun car to drive and I may never get rid of it. Nice to have a spare car, especially one that can go topless on nice days. Most of the people I have seen driving Miatas over th eyears have been middle aged men and women. Not sure why; I would have loved to have one right out of college.
I just heard a news report saying 13,500.
We should start a pool to see which network or news service understates by the largest #.
I have a used Saturn that was made before the government got into the business — 1999. I am really sad to see this. Wish Ford would pick them up.
PS. I love the Saturn; good gas mileage, good handling, good everything. Insurance is less. Maintenance is less.
What to do?
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