"Oh crap!"
Posted on 09/30/2009 3:43:15 PM PDT by Steelfish
GM To Shut Down Saturn After Penske Ends Talks
Production agreement with another manufacturer falls through, killing deal
GM to drop Saturn after Penske ends talks
Sept. 30: General Motors Co. says it plans to shut down its Saturn brand and dealer network after talks with Penake Automotive Group fell apart.
DETROIT - General Motors Co. said Wednesday it would shut down its Saturn division after an agreement to sell it to Penske Automotive Group Inc. fell apart.
The Bloomfield, Michigan dealership headed by auto racing magnate Roger Penske walked away after it was unable to find a manufacturer to supply vehicles to it after a contract with GM runs out in 2011.
A tentative deal for Saturn was announced on June 5. Penske was to get Saturn's 371 dealers and promised to retain the 13,000 Saturn employees. The proposed price was never disclosed.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
No matter. Would not have bought one anyway. Nor any other Government auto, either...
Excellent news for the unions, full pay and bene’s and not having to go to work.
Aw, nuts. I love my 1996 SL1. I put almost 200,000 miles on it.
RIP Saturn...
I’m sure Obama will find a way to benefit the Unions, while screwing senior shareholders.
Does this mean the mild mannered, smooth voiced guy on the Saturn commercials will finally blow his stack?
"If you can understand this....thank the Unions!" /parody
union thugs lose their jobs, that made my day !
:)
So THIS is what was in the Penske file all these years!
Spring Hill and Thompsons Station TN will be purty sad.
Shareholders and bondholders have already been screwed.
LOL. My thoughts too.
I guess that unlike George Costanza, Saturn was not Penske material.
That’s a shame. I was hoping Penske would make something out of Saturn.
And now Saturn will share the fate of Pluto.
My son has a 1998 Saturn, runs perfectly and has never given him a problem. It was a good brand, a shame they ruined it.
Saturn was the best thing to come out of GM.
I’m very surprised.
FWIW Penske never planned to continue manufacturing the GM Saturn vehicles past their life cycle. It was strictly a marketing arrangement to sell GM supplied cars until other arrangements were in place.
I fully expected the Chinese would happily team with Penske figuring his credibility and marketing expertise would give them a top notch entry into the US market.
The stupid unions still don’t get it.
The phony squatter soiling the Whitehouse repaid his soul selling dept to them, they are of no use to him now so he could care less about them.
Their bloated union contracts are one reason that auto plants are closing since there are no concessions, not even thoughts of concessions to save the union workers their jobs.
They were played for fools and fell for “THE ONE”S” total BS lies.
Feel sorry for the workers, but not the union bosses who willl lose NOTHING.
I’ve got a 97 SC1 that just celebrated its 13th birthday.
Runs like new - 140,000 miles.
Got wrecked by an 18 wheeler on I70 in Ohio this spring.
Bought a donor car for 150 bucks and put the body panels on my chassis (easy to do).
400 dollar paint job and it looks like a new car.
In the words of Government Motors, “May the best car win.”
I thought that the Saturn plants were not unionized. Am I wrong?
Yeah, but we’re a “red state” so screwing us is especially fun for ObaMao. How much “worser and worser” do things have to get?
I once worked for a Saturn dealer for awhile and went to a training class at Spring Hill that lasted a week. (That's where I found out that salespeople like to party, party, party...) Had a great time; the training was led by a guy named Jim from a St. Louis dealership who also was a Vietnam vet and had played football at the University of Missouri. Heck of a nice guy.
Part of the training included a visit from the UAW local Kahuna. I can't recall his exact words, but when I axed about the UAW's support of political candidates, he pretty much came out and said "We support Democrats, tough dookey if you don't like it." Or words to that effect.
They stopped building Saturns down their awhile ago, been building the Chevy ?Traverse at that plant which is moving production to Michigan next year. I think the Saturns are made in Maryland or somewhere out East.
Originally saturn was non-union.
(Notwithstanding the first model year of the VUE SUV with the continuously variable tranny, which was an epic fail resulting in the next year's model suddenly having a Honda drivetrain.)
What can you say about a corporation that would let one of the coolest car brands ever, Oldsmobile, go down the tubes?
Rigid, uncreative corporate inertia and infighting have as much to do with the demise of GM as anything else.
Tuttle may now make a bid. Ta, ta.
Big deal. Aura=Malibu, Vue=Equinox, Outlook=Traverse. Saturn was dead weight.
I thought Tuttle died in a helicopter accident on a medical run in Korea. At least that’s what Trapper and Hawkeye told the general.
If that is the case then why has Bredesen been negotiating about what to do with the plant if Saturn is discontinued?
My other opinion on the subject is that Penske was taking a big gamble in thinking about buying the plant. I think Govenment Motors was trying to pull a fast one on him or he was just playing along. My gut feeling is that Penske wants the plant but not the UAW, while Govenment motors wants to sell the plant and the UAW, and maybe the Saturn name. As far as Bredesen goes he's probably just playing along, as not to upset Govenment motors.
There are two obvious differences. The first difference is Obama Motors decided to keep the crappy Buick and jettison the well built Saturn. The other obvious difference is that Saturn workers either never had UAW locals or voted them out.
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?
Oh dear- sorry to hear about this. If it’s a super car keep it until it falls apart. I wouldn’t sell it since it’s value would have depreciated quite a lot since the announcement.
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