Could Penske Still Buy Saturn?

[Charlie]

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[drupal=3414]Could Penske Still Buy Saturn?[/drupal]

Bryan Lavoilette from Michigan Live: Don't be surprised if General Motors' deal with Penske Automotive is back on within the next week or two. Penske backed out of its plans with GM to buy the ringed-planet brand when the automaker which was going to build its cars nixed the deal.

[AEIoUy]

Why must we prolong this. Ugh.

[adventureoflink]

Originally Posted by AEIoUy

Why must we prolong this. Ugh.

Agreed. MAKE UP YOUR DAMN MIND, people!!!

[2NDSOUT]

Saturn died officially for me on 09/30/09 as an entire entity....

While I admire the prospect to still make this happen...just let it go.

The Saturn experiment is done. Let's move on Penske.

[ezimmerman]

Pretty sure Saturn is in full wind down right now from what we have been told at a retailer level. I would not get my hopes up on this.

[Emanuel]

My retailer has made several decisions that look as if they would be pretty difficult to reverse. He let go of many sales people and the rest are on notice that they are gone when the remaining inventory is sold (~ 1 month). He announced that he will close his service dept at the end of the year so the outstanding techs have to be looking for work. He took saturn out of 2 of his three stores and he is in the process of disposing of his properties.

[saturnplace]

A lot of wishful thinking in the article. We are in full wind-down mode. We are working on reducing all stocking policies at our store along with other retailers. Saturn Service parts will soon begin the process of migrating parts to General Motors Service Parts Operations. They have quilt building Saturns. Saturn Retailers are making plans to close or transition to another car line. The automotive industry is in a depression and probably will be for some time. It's just a tough time to be in the car business.

We did our best to make this dream happen, but unfortunately we are done and done. Time to move on.

[Jaseball]

Anyone else feel that, even if you suspend disbelief and Penske could deliver made in the USA vehicles, one econobox model, one midsize and have them priced competitively, while also best in class they would STILL fail in this environment?

I'm just thinking that even if things were pretty damn perfect it still wouldn't work out right now for any sort of 'saving,' of Saturn and we all know in the real world things are far, far from perfect in regards to the auto industry.

I'm actually looking at buying another Saturn, but it'll be a 2006 Vue with low mileage if I can find one for cheap.

[2NDSOUT]

Originally Posted by Jaseball

Anyone else feel that, even if you suspend disbelief and Penske could deliver made in the USA vehicles, one econobox model, one midsize and have them priced competitively, while also best in class they would STILL fail in this environment?

I'm just thinking that even if things were pretty damn perfect it still wouldn't work out right now for any sort of 'saving,' of Saturn and we all know in the real world things are far, far from perfect in regards to the auto industry.

I'm actually looking at buying another Saturn, but it'll be a 2006 Vue with low mileage if I can find one for cheap.

There's plenty of Saturns for sale on ebay motors for cheap. People are dumping them left and right. I saw a 2005 VUE last week on ebaymotors that had 95K miles on it selling for $3500 with no reserve.

[adventureoflink]

Originally Posted by 2NDSOUT

There's plenty of Saturns for sale on ebay motors for cheap. People are dumping them left and right. I saw a 2005 VUE last week on ebaymotors that had 95K miles on it selling for $3500 with no reserve.

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN.. that's 23,750 miles/year. EVEN. High mileage much?

I wouldn't've accepted that Saturn for no less than $3000, simply for the high mileage and no more Saturn. Although, if this is the first gen Vue, there should still be parts for it, given it has a Honda drivetrain, and sadly, Honda and the imports just aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

[MiSaturn]

This would be a great move by Penske to wrangle some government money (in place of his own) and become Saturn's knight in white armor... .

[Citation84]

MiSaturn: I think you mean: A rolling moss gathers no stone..

It's always easier to spend OPM [other people's money]. I hope it's not going to come to the Government floating him a loan. I liked the fact that Penske was using his own money and taking 100% of the risk to try something new.

As it is, I think it's safe to say:Penske is a white knight in shining armor on a dead horse

[MacTech]

I fear that it's too little, too late now, the general public now sees Saturn as a "Dead" brand, and aside from bargain-hunters, it seems nobody's interested in Saturn anymore

At the dealership I work at, we've seen customer traffic drop precipitously in the past three weeks, Saturday, for example, we had a grand total of *ONE* customer (purchased a used Suzuki 4-door sedan), Sunday, *NO* customers at all

we used to get people looking at Saturns and used vehicles as well, then just used vehicles, now nothing

At least the Service department is busy

[rossao1]

My local sautrn retailer chain is looking to get another product to sell new. He has 3 stores in a large metro area. This sounds like a winner of plan if he can land that one big fish. He going to take the 13 month option and build up sales around the used cars sector until he gets other things setup. This is according to an inside source. (I don't think Penske could buy it if he wanted to now.)

Good luck guy. I am praying for all of you.

[saturn 51]

[I] still must belive something positive willl happen

[marcusevan]

I thi nk that saturnplace hit the nail on the head. Its just a bunch of wishful thinking by some. Not going to happen. The retailer that I used to work for for over 15 years cleared out his saturn lot last week in hopes of obtaining another franchise and is selling his remaining saturns at his other gm facility. This gentleman and his son is one of the biggest dealers in the south and is one of the smartest business teams that you will ever meet. They held out to the end believing the penske deal even when other Saturn facilites had already jumped ship. If this gentleman and his son has moved on, you can take it to the bank it is closing time and you can't stay here.

[davidsky]

The dealerships and marketing/financial types associated with Saturn are still good legitimate experienced people plus the brand name might still be worth something. I say Penske should try to deal with Mitsubishi. They make good cars but need a lot of help on the sales/marketing front.
I'd buy an Outlander sold by a Saturn dealer above a Rav4 or CRV for an example. I would not buy one at the Mitsu dealer because almost all Mitsu dealers seem incredibly shady.

[daver]

OK, if everyone on here puts a million dollars in an envelope and sends it to Penske...

Hey, it could work.

[04Pacific]

Certainly anything is possible. At this point the brand is being phased out, however in that frame of time Penske or some other company could very well come back to the table. I would think GM would like to make something off of Saturn rather than just lose it completely. But, then again what do I know.

[marx404]

Doesn't matter to me anymore. Saturn of Florence, SC closed it's doors and gutted the building last week and now there is no Saturn dealer for over 100 miles from us in any direction.

As long as GM stands by all Saturn Owner's Warranties and allows other GM dealers to honor warranties (with no red tape) thats all I care about at this point.