Posted on 10/06/2009 10:45:18 PM PDT by Chet 99
Will another bidder for General Motors‘ Saturn brand come out of the woodwork after a deal to sell the division to Penske Automotive fell through?
Not likely, industry observers tell The Detroit Free Press.
General Motors said Wednesday that it planned to close its Saturn brand after Penske abruptly called off an agreement to buy the division. Penske said Wednesday in a statement that it could not proceed with the deal because another manufacturer, which it did not identify, rejected plans to build vehicles that would be distributed under the Saturn brand name.
The Detroit Free Press, however, said the manufacturer that in talks with Penske had been Renault-Nissan.
“The one thing it does say is Nissan had no confidence in the U.S. market,” Sheldon Stone, managing director of Amherst Partners, a Birmingham restructuring firm, told the newspaper. “Anyone who gets involved in this is really betting that the North American market is coming back to some reasonable sales level in the next two years.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com ...
But.. but... but... Obama says the recession is already over and everything is just peachy!
I hope they keep trying. Saturns are great cars. But it doesn’t sound like GM is open to another buyer at this point.
And so some of the best American cars short of Caddy get thrown under the bus. However asking Renault to crank out a Saturn would be like asking McDonald’s to give you filet mignon.
Brand might die to be resurrected in some sunnier future.
“I hope they keep trying. Saturns are great cars. But it doesn’t sound like GM is open to another buyer at this point.”
This looked like a plan to buy the brand name and dealerships. The Saturns to be sold under the brand wouldn’t be original Saturns but cars made by another company under the Saturn brand.
So for all intents and purposes, the original Saturn would be dead either way.
Is Cerveris still in teh car business?
Are any of DeLorean’s people still out there?
I’ll put in a bid for Mars.
I bid one dollar.
We own 3 Saturns and trust that brand name - it’s too bad Penske couldn’t make it work...
Agreed.
I like their little roadster.
I take it the problem GM has with Saturn is Tennessee?
IIRC, the deal killer was that GM was subsidizing Saturn’s product cost with cash from other makes and, without the GM subsidy, Saturns could only be produced and sold at a much higher price point...thereby rendering them impractical and unsalable.
You just bought a bunch of debt.
;-)
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