GM has been busy ridding itself of what many call the “Bad GM”-namely, Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn, and Saab, brands that won’t be a part of the “new” GM. Pontiac is being phased out, earlier this week Tengzhong announced plans to purchase Hummer, and today, Penske Auto Group announced that it will buy the Saturn brand and its dealer network from GM. Price was not disclosed, but the deal is expected to close in the third quarter.
Penske gains 350 dealers and other assets attached to Saturn. GM hails the purchase a victory in that the move will preserve 13,000 jobs. When Saturn changes hands, there will still be vehicles to buy: the Aura, Outlook and Vue will be provided on a contract basis from GM. It should be noted that in Penske Auto Group’s press release that this arrangement would only be for “an interim period.”
It is too early to know for sure what cars Saturn will sell in the future, or if Penske will use the existing dealer network to expand the availability of the Smart car (In the US, Penske operates Smart USA). Penske is rumored to be in talks with several manufacturers who are interested in having their cars sold in North America.
Whatever the outcome, it could have been much worse. At one point GM indicated that it would allow the current Saturn vehicles to live out their product life-cycles and then just let the brand quietly die. The dealer network refused to take this news sitting down and vowed to keep Saturn going, somehow. Roger Penske is regarded as a brilliant businessman and is a consummate car guy, so clearly he sees value in the Saturn brand.
The original mission of Saturn was to build cars of equal or better quality of Honda and Toyota, but made by an American company. A part of GM, but meant to operate independently, the first Saturns came years later than promised and lacked the refinement of its Japanese contemporaries. Saturn was better known for good customer service and no-haggle pricing that appealed to many buyers.
Saturn kept the crude and aging S-series far too long, and the brand was hamstrung with a very thin product line.-just a coupe, sedan and wagon, all sharing the same mechanicals and components from 1991 to 2002. During this period, there were three generations of the Honda Civic. Finally, in 2000, the larger but forgettable L-Series debuted, a rebadged Opel. The S-series was the only vehicle Saturn would design on its own.
The follow-up to the S-series, was the Ion, a total disaster of a car. Another low point was the first generation Vue, which actually borrowed a V-6 engine from Honda. The current Sky roadster, Astra compact and Aura sedan are all excellent cars-the sort of car Saturn should have had from the beginning, but didn’t. Left with no marketing budget, these fine cars sit on dealer’s lots.
While GM failed to keep the promise of what Saturn should have been, its fate will now lie in the hands of Roger Penske. Watch this space as we learn how he will rebuild Saturn.